Sir Hardress Waller | |
|---|---|
 Mont Orgueil, where Waller died in 1666 | |
| Member of the Protectorate Parliament for County Clare, County Limerick and County Kerry | |
| In office 1654–1659 | |
| Governor of Limerick | |
| In office 1651–1653 | |
| Member of the Irish Parliament for County Limerick | |
| In office March 1639 – January 1649 (did not sit after 1640, formally dissolved by the death of Charles I) | |
| Member of the Irish Parliament for Askeaton | |
| In office July 1634 – April 1635 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1604 Chartham, Kent, England |
| Died | 30 July 1666 (aged 61) Mont Orgueil, Jersey |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Dowdall (1629–1658) |
| Relations | William Waller |
| Children | Walter (1632?-1658/1659?); James (1636–1702); Bridget (1639-1721); Anne (1641–1709); Mary; Elizabeth (1637–1708) |
| Parent(s) | George and Mary Waller |
| Occupation | Radical politician and soldier |
| Military service | |
| Years of service | 1625–1652 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Battles/wars | |
Sir Hardress Waller (c. 1604 – 1666) was born in Kent and settled in Ireland during the 1630s. A first cousin of Parliamentarian general William Waller, he fought for Parliament in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, becoming a leading member of the radical element within the New Model Army. In 1649, he signed the death warrant for the Execution of Charles I, and after the Stuart Restoration in 1660 was condemned to death as a regicide.
A prominent member of Protestant society in Munster during the 1630s, Waller fought against the Catholic Confederacy following the 1641 Irish Rebellion. When the First English Civil War began in August 1642, Charles I wanted to use his Irish troops to help win the war in England, and in September 1643 agreed a truce or "Cessation" with the Confederacy. Waller opposed this and defected to the Parliamentarians; in April 1645, he was appointed a colonel in the New Model Army and fought throughout the final campaigns of 1645 and 1646.
An admirer of Oliver Cromwell, Waller became a political and religious radical; he took part in the 1647 Putney Debates, supported Pride's Purge in December 1648 and was a judge at the Trial of Charles I in January 1649. During the Protectorate, he held considerable political power in Ireland and was arrested in February 1660 after staging a coup in an attempt to prevent the Restoration of Charles II. At his trial for regicide in October 1660, Waller pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. He died in 1666 at Mont Orgueil on the island of Jersey.
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