Why Did Cromwell Go Into Ireland with His Army in 1649, and How Did He Conduct His Military Campaign There?

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Why did Cromwell go into Ireland with his army in 1649, and how did he conduct his military campaign there? The most pressing motivation for Cromwell's Irish campaign was the threat of a royalist invasion. The monarchy still enjoyed great support in Ireland, and Cromwell agreed to lead an expedition into Ireland to preemptively crush all support for Charles Stuart, who remained alive in exile. Cromwell also had other motivations. He hated the Irish with a passion, largely because the vast majority of Irish people were Catholics, and he wanted to exact revenge on the Irish for a massacre of English Protestants that had occurred in Ireland 1641. Over the course of the campaign, Cromwell's eagerness to beat the Irish into submission became apparent. The two great confrontations of the Irish War were the siege of Drogheda in September 1649 and the siege of Wexford in October of the same year. Both battles ended in a frenzy of brutality, as Cromwell's army slaughtered Irish civilians and soldiers alike. At Wexford, over 2,000 people were killed inside the city after nine days of bloody resistance to the English siege. A thousand were killed in similar fashion at Drogheda after eight days of resistance. At Drogheda, Cromwell himself joined in the assault. He ordered his men to kill all priests, monks, and nuns on sight. What role did the military play in Cromwell's rise to power? How did the army affect Cromwell's rule over England and his tenure as Lord Protector? Until the English Civil War broke out in the summer of 1642, Oliver Cromwell was a minor figure in English politics. He received a command post early on in the war, however, and soon proved to be an exceptionally able commander. After a series of important victories, Cromwell ascended to the rank of Vice-General, and by the time of King Charles I's imprisonment and execution in early 1649, Cromwell
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