IItETON, HENRY, the eldest eon of German Ireton, of Attenton, in Nottinghamshire, was born in 1610. He was entered at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1626, and having taken the degree of bachelor of arts, became a student of the Middle Temple. His legal studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the civil war; he entered the par liamentary army, and soon became very proficient in the military art.
It has oven been asserted that Oliver Cromwell learned its rudiments from him. In 1646 be married Bridget, Cromwell's eldest daughter, by which connection and his own merit be gained a commission, first of captain of horse, and almost immediately afterwards that of colonel. He distinguished himself in the battle of Naseby, was taken prisoner by the royalists, but made his escape. Ireton was perhaps more than any other man the cause of King Charles's death ; by intercepting a letter, he is said to have discovered that it was the king's intention to destroy him and Cromwell, and from that time be rejected any accommodation : he attended most of the sittings of the regicide court, and signed the warrant for Charles's execution. On the establishment of the Commonwealth he was appointed to go to Ireland, next in command to Cromwell. He was made presideut of Munster, and afterwards lord-deputy of Ireland. The greater part of
the country submitted to him from fear of his cruelty, without striking a blow. While in the height of his successes he was seized, before Limerick, with the plague, of which he died on the 15th of November 1651. His body was landed at Bristol, and lay in state at Somerset House. On an atchievement over the gate of Somerset House was the motto, " Dulco et decorum eat pro patria mori," which was readily translated, "It is good for his country that he is dead." He was buried in Henry VIL's chapel in Westminster Abbey ; but the corpse was exhumed after the Restoration, gibbeted, and burnt at Ty burn. He left one son, Henry, and four daughters. Ireton was revered by the republicans as a soldier, a statesman, and a saint. He was called the scribe,' from his skill in drawing up declarations, petitions, and ordinances. His antagonists allowed him to be an able, but assert that he was a designing statesman. He refused a grant of 2000/. a year, which was offered to him out of the confiscated estate of the Duke of Buckingham ; and after his death the parliament, out of gratitude for his services, settled it upon his widow and children.