Henry Ireton Biography and Timeline

New Model Army Cavalry Command

Ireton receives senior cavalry command in the New Model Army as Parliament reorganises its field forces.

Role range: 1642-1649

Mobilization

Leads a cavalry at the Battle of Naseby against the Royalists

Role range: 1642-1649 – 1625-1649

Battle of Naseby

Fights at the Battle of Naseby for Parliament against Charles I

Role range: 1642-1649 – 1625-1649

Wounding at Naseby

Ireton is wounded in the thigh and face and is briefly captured during the fighting at Naseby.

Role range: 1642-1649

Battle of Naseby

Ireton leads Parliamentarian cavalry on the left and is captured during the early fighting at Naseby.

Role range: 1642-1651

Storming of Bristol

Ireton returns to active service after Naseby and takes part in the New Model Army's successful assault on Bristol.

Role range: 1642-1649

Peace

Receives Charles Is peace offer to the Independents & communicates it to Cromwell

Role range: 1642-1649

Army Grievances

Ireton helps turn the soldiers' complaints over pay, indemnity and disbandment into a coordinated Army political programme.

Role range: 1642-1649

Solemn Engagement

Ireton supports the Army's Solemn Engagement, binding the soldiers together against disbandment before their grievances are settled.

Role range: 1642-1649

Army Council

Ireton helps shape the Army's political position as the Army Council issues a declaration explaining why the soldiers will not submit to disbandment on Parliament's terms

Role range: 1642-1649

Grandees

Ireton helps shape the Grandees' moderate constitutional programme, drafting the Heads of the Proposals to secure limited monarchy, parliamentary reform and protection for the Army

Role range: 1642-1649

Heads of the Proposals

Ireton presents a draft settlement to the General Council of the Army, seeking a constitutional agreement after the First Civil War that would limit monarchy while avoiding the harsher Newcastle Propositions

Role range: 1642-1649

Army Council

Ireton's Heads of the Proposals are advanced as the Army leadership's constitutional settlement, aiming to restore Charles I under limited monarchy while protecting Parliament and the Army

Role range: 1642-1649

Putney Debates

Ireton argues against immediate manhood suffrage and defends property-based political rights.

Role range: 1642-1651

Putney Debates

Ireton explains that The Case of the Army had been referred to a committee, creating the immediate reason for inviting the New Agents to state their principles at Putney

Role range: 1642-1649

Putney Debates

Ireton supports committee examination of The Case of the Army, because the Grandees want the New Agents' demands tested before the Army accepts any radical settlement

Role range: 1642-1649

Agitators

Ireton opposes the Agitators' demand for a broad male franchise, warning that giving political power to men without property could endanger civil order and property rights

Role range: 1642-1649

Agreement of the People

Ireton opposes the Agreement of the People's broad franchise, warning that political power without a fixed interest in the kingdom could threaten property and civil order

Role range: 1642-1649

Grandees

Ireton becomes the leading spokesman for the Grandees at Putney, opposing universal or near-universal male suffrage and arguing that political power should rest with those who have a fixed interest in the kingdom

Role range: 1642-1649

Heads of the Proposals

Ireton defends the Heads of the Proposals during the Army debates at Putney, presenting them as a lawful and balanced alternative to the Leveller Agreement of the People

Role range: 1642-1649

Levellers

Ireton opposes the Leveller demand for a broad franchise, warning that political power without a fixed interest in the kingdom could threaten property and civil order

Role range: 1642-1649

Putney Debates

Ireton opposes the Leveller demand for a broad male franchise, arguing that political power should rest with those who have a fixed interest in the kingdom

Role range: 1642-1649

Putney Debates

Ireton replies that voting rights should belong to those with a permanent fixed interest in the kingdom, because otherwise property and civil order might be endangered

Role range: 1642-1649

Putney Debates

Ireton defends the Army's earlier proposals and argues that peace must be settled through a lawful authority rather than by the Army alone

Role range: 1642-1649

Putney Debates

Ireton supports modifying the Agreement rather than adopting the Leveller draft unchanged, producing a limited result short of the radicals' full programme

Role range: 1642-1649

Putney Debates

Ireton's moderate constitutional line prevails over the Leveller demand for the Agreement to become the Army's official settlement programme

Role range: 1642-1649

Army Remonstrance

Ireton helps shape the Army Remonstrance demanding justice against Charles I after the renewed fighting of the Second Civil War.

Role range: 1642-1649

Long Parliament

Divisions emerge culminating in Prides Purge when, under the orders of Oliver Cromwell's son-in-law Henry Ireton, Colonel Pride physically bars about half of the members of Parliament from taking their seats

Role range: 1642-1649

Prides Purge

Divisions emerge culminating in Prides Purge when, under the orders of Oliver Cromwell's son-in-law Henry Ireton, Colonel Pride physically bars about half of the members of Parliament from taking their seats

Role range: 1642-1649

Treaty of Newport

Asks Pride to exclude from Parliament those who had voted for the Newport Treaty

Role range: 1642-1649

Execution

One of the signatories of Charles Is death warrant

Death Warrant of Charles I

Ireton signs the death warrant authorising the execution of Charles I after the King's conviction by the High Court.

Role range: 1642-1649

Death of Henry Ireton

Death of Henry Ireton, dies of the plague

Posthumous Attainder

Ireton is attainted after death as one of the leading figures of the regicide regime.

Role range: 1611-1651

Posthumous Execution

Ireton's body is posthumously hanged at Tyburn for his role in the Commonwealth regime.

Role range: 1611-1651