Background
Ireton was the eldest son of German Ireton of Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, and was baptised in St Mary's Church on 3 November 1611.
Ireton was the eldest son of German Ireton of Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, and was baptised in St Mary's Church on 3 November 1611.
He became a gentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxford in 1626, graduated BA in 1629 and entered the Middle Temple the same year, he left his estate at the outbreak of the Civil War and as a captain of cavalry fought at Edgehill in 1642.
He became a close associate of Oliver Cromwell, served under the Earl of Manchester and was commissary general of cavalry at the battle of Naseby in June 1645, where he was wounded.
On the night before the battle of Naseby, he succeeded in surprising the Royalist army and captured many prisoners, and next day, on the suggestion of Cromwell, he was made commissary-general and appointed to the command of the left wing, Cromwell himself commanding the right.
He was present at the siege of Bristol in the September following, and took an active part in the subsequent victorious campaign which resulted in the overthrow of the royal cause.
However, like Cromwell, Ireton came to believe that both the king and Parliament were untrustworthy, arranged for Pride's Purge and signed the warrant for Charles I's execution.
In 1649 Cromwell took Ireton with him to Ireland as his second in command, and on his return to England in 1650 he left Ireton to complete the conquest.
He endeavoured to prevent the breach between the army and the parliament, but when the division became inevitable took the side of the former.
He persevered in supporting the negotiations with the king till his action aroused great suspicion and unpopularity.
He became at length convinced of the hopelessness of dealing with Charles, and after the king's flight to the Isle of Wight treated his further proposals with coldness and urged the parliamentto establish an administration without him.
Ireton served under Fairfax in the second civil war in the campaigns in Kent and Essex, and was responsible for the executions of Lucas and Lisle at Colchester.
A strong, determined, and capable man, Ireton might have been a possible successor to Cromwell had he not died at the age of 40.
On 30 January 1661, following the Restoration of the English monarchy of 1660, Charles II had Ireton's corpse exhumed from Westminster and mutilated in a posthumous execution, along with those of Cromwell and John Bradshaw, in retribution for signing his father's death warrant. The date was symbolic, being the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I.
The town of Ireton, Iowa was named after Henry Ireton.
Ireton Road in Colchester was named after Henry Ireton. Ireton Road adjoins Honywood Road, named after Sir Thomas Honywood who led the Essex forces at the Siege of Colchester under the command of Thomas Fairfax. Ireton Road in Market Harborough was named after Henry Ireton. Ireton Way is now a very straight part of the A142 between Ely and Chatteris, built by him when he was commanding East Anglian forces as a causeway across the flooded Fens around the Ouse river to rush troops and supplies over when resisting Royalist attack from Lincolnshire and the Midlands. His portrait continues to hang in the dining hall of Trinity College, Oxford.
Ireton was initially a moderate. At the Putney Debates he opposed extremism, disliked the views of the Republicans and the Levellers, which he considered impractical and dangerous to the foundations of society, and wished to retain the constitution of King, Lords and Commons. He argued for these in the negotiations of the army with Parliament, and in the conferences with the king, being the person chiefly entrusted with the drawing up of the army proposals, including the manifesto called "The Heads of the Proposals" which proposed a constitutional monarchy. He tried to prevent the breach between the army and parliament, but when it happened, he supported the negotiations with the king till his actions made him unpopular.
Ireton was a member of Appleby.
