Cromwellian conquest of Ireland

Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
Part of the Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Oliver Cromwell
Date15 August 1649 – 27 September 1653
Location
Ireland
Result Commonwealth of England victory
Belligerents

Irish Catholic Confederation

Royalists
Commonwealth of England
Commanders and leaders
Ormonde
Clanricarde
Owen Roe O'Neill
Heber MacMahon
Oliver Cromwell
Michael Jones
Henry Ireton
Charles Fleetwood
Charles Coote
Strength
c. 20,000 to 30,000 ~12,000 New Model Army
~10,000 locally raised
Casualties and losses
c. 15,000 to 20,000 dead or wounded c. 15,000 dead or wounded

The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the Commonwealth of England, led by Oliver Cromwell. It forms part of the 1641 to 1652 Irish Confederate Wars, and wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Modern estimates suggest that during this period, Ireland experienced a demographic loss totalling around 15 to 20% of the pre-1641 population, due to fighting, famine and bubonic plague.

The Irish Rebellion of 1641 brought much of Ireland under the control of the Irish Catholic Confederation, who engaged in a multi-sided war with Irish Royalists, Parliamentarians, Scots Covenanters, and Presbyterian militia. Following the Execution of Charles I in January 1649, and establishment of the Commonwealth of England, the Confederates allied with their former Royalist opponents. 12,000 Commonwealth troops under Cromwell landed in Dublin in August 1649, and by the end of 1650 the Confederacy had been defeated, although sporadic guerrilla warfare continued until 1653.

The Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 barred Catholics from most public offices and confiscated large amounts of their land, which was given to British settlers. These proved a continuing source of grievance, while the conquest itself was brutal, and Cromwell remains a deeply reviled figure in Ireland.[1] How far he was personally responsible for the atrocities is still debated; some historians suggest his actions were within what were then viewed as accepted rules of war, while others disagree.[2]

  1. ^ "Of all these doings in Cromwell's Irish Chapter, each of us may say what he will. Yet to everyone it will at least be intelligible how his name came to be hated in the tenacious heart of Ireland". John Morley, Biography of Oliver Cromwell. Page 298. 1900 and 2001. ISBN 978-1-4212-6707-4.; "Cromwell is still a hate figure in Ireland today because of the brutal effectiveness of his campaigns in Ireland. Of course, his victories in Ireland made him a hero in Protestant England." "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 25 May 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) British National Archives web site. Accessed March 2007; "1649-52: Cromwell's conquest of Ireland". Archived from the original on 11 December 2004. Retrieved 17 January 2006. From a history site dedicated to the English Civil War. "... making Cromwell's name into one of the most hated in Irish history". Accessed March 2007. Site currently offline. WayBack Machine holds archive here
  2. ^ Coyle 1999.

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