Ireton

“ His fine shape, too, caught the attention of one who assumed to be above all folly. It is sometimes fatal to one's peace to look out of a window; no one knows what sights may rivet or displease. Mistress Ireton was sitting at her window unconscious that any one with the hated and malignant name of 'Villiers' was before her. After some unholy admiration, she sent to speak to the mummer. The duke scarcely knew whether to trust himself in the power of the bloodthirsty Ireton's bride or not—yet his courage—his love of sport—prevailed. ”

“ Ireton was born in 1610, and commanded the left wing of the Parliamentarians at Naseby. He married a daughter of Oliver Cromwell, whom he succeeded as Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, where he died in 1651. ”

“ Sir Jaspar now, looking with an air of authority towards Ireton, said, "It would have been your good star, not your evil genius, by which you would have been guided, Mr. Ireton, had you been attracted to this old gentleman as to an example, rather than as a butt for your wit. He has very good parts, if he knew how to make use of them; though he has a simplicity of manners, that induces common observers to conclude him to be nearly an ideot. And, indeed, an absent man seems always in a state of childhood ”

“ It was easy for Preston to answer that he fought in a good cause and that Ireton was risking men’s lives in a bad one, while his head and those of his friends were as ‘unsettled on their shoulders as any in the town.’ The mayor and aldermen answered in the same strain; and Ireton died a fortnight after the date of their letter. Ludlow was in Dublin at the moment, and the Commissioners made him commander-in-chief until the pleasure of Parliament should be further known. ”

“ Starvation had not done its work as Ireton had expected, but no horses were found in Limerick at its surrender, and they had probably been eaten. The besiegers commanded the estuary, and were in no want of provisions, but the waste among the men must have been considerable, less by actual fighting than by hardship and sickness. Reinforcements had, however, been poured into Ireland during the summer, and Ireton makes no complaint of insufficient numbers. An Act passed in April authorised the impressment of 10,000 men, and was not suffered to remain a dead letter. ”

“ The regiment of Ireton having been chosen by lot to accompany Cromwell in his Irish campaign, Ireton was appointed major-general; and on the recall of his chief to take the command in Scotland, he remained with the title and powers of lord-deputy to complete Cromwell’s work of reduction and replantation. This he proceeded to do with his usual energy, and as much by the severity of his methods of punishment as by his military skill was rapidly bringing his task to a close, when he died on the 26th of November 1651 of fever after the capture of Limerick. ”

“ With his rooted antipathy to the government of a single person, and his bold and decisive character; at the same time possessing a mind fitted for the most daring resolves, and capacious of enterprizes requiring boldness, and skill in their accomplishment, there can be no wonder that he was amongst the foremost in bringing about the death of the king. This perfectly agrees with the character given of him by Neal, in his history of the Puritans, where he remarks, “Lieutenant-General Ireton was bred to the law, and was a person of great integrity ”

“ Already a party in the parliament was anxious that the army should interpose to stop the treaty of Newport, but Ludlow found Ireton strongly opposed to premature action. He thought it best ‘to permit the king and the parliament to make an agreement and to wait till they had made a full discovery of their intentions, whereby the people, becoming sensible of their danger, would willingly join to oppose them’ (Ludlow, Memoirs, p. 102) . ”

“ This wretch was named Fennell; and, for his treason in selling the passes of the Shannon at Killaloe, their commander-in-chief Cromwell had promised him and his descendants many a fair acre in Tipperary. By this pass Ireton and his myrmidons crossed the river into Clare; and with them passed Walter Herbert. Still his heart was full of hope of saving all he held dear in the leaguered city. Spring passed away, and summer again came; and still the assailing host made no progress toward the capture of the town which Ireton and his father-in-law regarded as the key of all the Munster territories. ”

“ During December 1648 the council of the army was again busy considering a scheme for the settlement of the kingdom, which resulted in the ‘Agreement of the People’ presented to the House of Commons on 20 Jan. 1649 (Old Parl. Hist. xviii. 516) . The first sketch of the ‘Agreement’ was not Ireton's, but by the time it left the council of war it had been revised and amended till it substantially represented his views. While a section in the council held that the magistrate had no right to interfere with any man's religion, Ireton claimed for him a certain power of restraint and punishment. ”

“ At first the English soldiers were nearly exempt, but suffered equally afterwards; as a punishment, Ireton thought, for trusting in the carnal arm and not giving God the glory. The bishops and the clerical politicians generally do not show to advantage in their disputes with Ormonde, and the narrative of a poor friar is much better worth reading. Having visited in disguise Kilkenny, Ross, and many other places he came to Waterford, where many were dying of the plague. ”

“ At last Ireton’s preparations were complete, and seventeen heavy shot were discharged with great effect against one spot in the wall, whereupon a drum was sent out and negotiations began in earnest. Two hundred ‘redcoats’ were admitted by Fennell into the gate-tower, and on October 27 the articles of capitulation were signed. According to one account, Fennell even threatened O’Neill with a pistol, when that brave soldier rode out alone and delivered [Pg 273] his sword to Ireton himself, who treated him honourably. ”

“ Ireton sentenced many men of eminence to death during the short triumph of Cromwell. Among the most noble of the cavaliers who died at Limerick was Geoffrey Barron of Clonmel, a young Irish lawyer who acted as civil secretary to the Confederates. With exquisite cruelty he was sentenced to be executed upon the morning which had previously been fixed for his wedding. He asked, as a favour, that he should be permitted to wear his bridegroom attire on the scaffold, and Ireton granted the boon.
He made a brave show amid the crop-eared Roundheads. [Pg 48]
Photo—Lawrence, Dublin. ”

“ On the death of Ireton (26 Nov. 1651) , the commissioners of the parliament issued a circular letter ordering the army to give obedience to Ludlow, but on 9 July 1652 parliament voted Fleetwood commander-inchief (Commons' Journals, vii. 152) . Fleetwood did not land till October 1652, so that Ludlow held the chief command for nearly a year. Galway, the only important place in the possession of the Irish at Ireton's death, surrendered in April 1652, and the rest of the war consisted of skirmishes and capitulations. ”

“ After the return of the secluded members to the House, and the triumph of the city and the Presbyterian party, Ireton and Tichbourne were committed to the Tower, charged with aiming at the overthrow of the liberties of the city, and other grave misdemeanours. There are in the British Museum two satirical tracts relating to their imprisonment: 1. “The Apology of Robert Tichborn and John Ireton. Being a serious Vindication of themselves and the Good old Cause, from the imputations cast upon them and it by the triumphing city and nation in this their day of desertion. ”

“ In spite of the ill success of his overtures, he was urged to persist in them by many leading independents. Ireton wrote from Ireland expressing to Cromwell the fear that he had not been sufficiently forbearing and long suffering with the Scots. St. John reminded him that while the Irish were a people of atheists and papists, to be ruled with a rod of iron, the Scots were many of them truly children of God. ”

“ Ireton was held in great esteem by his party and his comrades, and it was said of him that [236] he grafted the soldier on the lawyer, and the statesman on the saint. Cromwell was much affected at his death, and caused the body to be brought over, and deposited with great pomp in Westminster Abbey, in Henry VII.’s Chapel. ”

“ Cromwell, Ireton and Hudson all in ye same boate.
In 1650, Cromwell was named Commander-in-Chief in Ireland; Ireton, his son-in-law, his deputy; and Hewson or Huson (here misprinted Hudson) governor of Dublin. In the plate they are sailing away from the sun of loyalty towards the night of treason. The portrait of Cromwell at the stern is not to be mistaken. Next to him is Hewson distinguished from Ireton by his older features. ”

“ Soldiers and citizens were allowed to go free, and time was given to remove personal property, but without any guarantee for lands or houses; and Ireton evidently contemplated a partial colonisation. The garrison of 2000 had been reduced to about 1200, who marched out after giving up their arms, and the city contained about 4000 other men capable of bearing arms, though about 5000 persons had perished ‘by the sword without and the famine and plague within.’ He was inclined to spare those who had not shown themselves irreconcilable; but there would still be plenty of room for settlers. ”

“ However generally power may cause timidity, arrogance, in every generous mind, awakens spirit; Juliet, therefore, raising her head, and, clearing her countenance, with a modest, but firm step, moved silently towards the door.
Astonished and offended, "Permit me, Madam," cried Mrs. Ireton; "permit me, Miss Ellis,—if it is not taking too great a liberty with a person of your vast consequence,—permit me to enquire who told you to go?"
Juliet turned back her head, and quietly answered, "A person, Madam, who has not the honour to be known to you,—myself!" ”

“ Edmund Ludlow, lieutenant-general of the horse, mentions that, in reply to Ireton, Baron answered ‘that it was not just to exclude him from mercy, because he had been engaged in the same cause’ as the parliamentarians ‘pretended to fight for, the liberty and religion of his country.’ Baron was executed at Limerick, and met his fate with great intrepidity. ”

“ The diocese of Emly had long been overrun by the parliamentarians, and O'Brien wrote from Galway on 29 March (ib. i. 367) that the Irish cause was lost east of the Shannon, and that the enemy commanded the sea. He went to Limerick before the memorable siege, which began 2 June 1651, exhorted the people to resist, and helped to prevent them from accepting the comparatively favourable terms at first offered by Ireton. He devoted himself to the sufferers from a malignant fever which raged among the besieged, and was found in the hospital when Ireton's soldiers entered on 29 Oct. ”

“ In the civil government of Ireland and in the execution of his military duties Ireton's industry was indefatigable. Chief-justice Cooke describes him ‘as seldom thinking it time to eat till he had done the work of the day at nine or ten at night,’ and then willing to sit up ‘as long as any man had business with him.’ ‘He was so diligent in the public service,’ says Ludlow, ‘and so careless of everything that belonged to himself, that he never regarded what clothes or food he used, what hour he went to rest, or what horse he mounted’ (ib. p. 143) . ”

“ Twenty-four persons were excepted from mercy, some on account of their influence in prolonging the resistance, others as ‘original incendiaries of the rebellion, or prime engagers therein’ (ib. p. 267) . Seven of the excepted were immediately hanged, and others reserved for future trial by civil or military courts. Ireton's severity, however, was not indiscriminate. His ‘noble care’ of Hugh O'Neill, the governor of Limerick, is praised by the author of the ‘Aphorismical Discovery’ (iii. 21) . ”

“ He relieved Cromwell at Clonmell, and assisted both him and his father-in-law Ireton in their expedition; but because he could not moderate the fury of one, and mitigate the cruelty of the other, he incurred the displeasure of both; and Ireton was heard to say, that neither he nor Cromwell could be safe while Broghill had any command. ”

“ Having done considerable damage, notwithstanding the resistance of some of the Irish youth, who went by the name of the Dublin Stout, he left his son-in-law, Ireton, to look after Ireland, thinking, perhaps, he would be acceptable from the semi-nationality of his name, while he himself returned to England. He took up his abode in London, at a place called the Cockpit, where he was visited by several persons of consequence; and the new lord of the Cockpit enjoyed the Gallic privilege of having a good crow upon his own dunghill. ”

“ They were highly irritating, too, to Sir John Ireton, who had believed himself at one time able to tame and tutor the tricksy young politician.
The late Lord Ipswich had been a "sport" in the Barthop family; a black sheep, but clever, and a well known collector. Accidental circumstances had greatly enriched him, and as he detested his brother and successor, he had left his pictures to the nation and all of his fortune which he could dispose of—which happened to be the bulk—to his natural son, George Goring. ”

“ He averred that he had not been guilty of any base or dishonourable act, having only discharged his duty as a soldier, and appealed to the justice of the lord-deputy, Ireton. On 1 Nov., after reconsideration, the vote for the death of O'Neill was revoked, and it was determined to send him as a prisoner to be dealt with by the authorities of the parliament at London. This course, it would appear, was adopted mainly in consequence of O'Neill's rights as a subject of the king of Spain (having been born in Flanders) and his numerous influential connections. ”