Arthur Aston (army officer)
Sir Arthur Aston | |
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Born | 1590 |
Died | 1649 (aged 58–59) |
Battles/wars |
Sir Arthur Aston (1590 – 1649) was a soldier, most noted for his support for
Early career in central Europe
Aston was the son of another Sir Arthur Aston, of
Aston's father was a professional soldier who had served in Russia in the 1610s, and, being a Catholic, had caught the attention and trust of the Polish king
After the
Career in the English Civil War
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By 1640, Aston had returned to Britain, and he commanded a regiment for King Charles during the
In 1642, when the First English Civil War broke out, Charles initially refused to employ him on account of his Catholic faith, but Prince Rupert of the Rhine persuaded him to do so. To counter anti-Catholic propaganda, Edward Hyde claimed that Aston was the only officer in the King's army who was a Papist, "if he were one", although at least six other officers of the rank of Colonel or above were also known to be Catholics.[4] Aston was employed as Colonel General of Dragoons, and served in this capacity during the Edgehill campaign.
When Charles made Oxford his wartime capital, Aston was made commander of an outpost at Reading, where he became unpopular through his authoritarian methods. He was wounded when Reading was besieged (struck on the head by a falling tile), and was captured by the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Essex. He was released by prisoner exchange and became Sergeant-Major General of Horse to Prince Rupert. He fought at the Storming of Bristol and the First Battle of Newbury.
Aston became governor of Oxford in late 1643 and again made himself unpopular, until he lost a leg as a result of a fall from a horse at Horspath in September 1644 and was relieved as governor. He received a large pension from the King, but did not hold any appointments during the rest of the First English Civil War.
In 1648, Aston joined the
He was made governor of the vital port of Drogheda. Drogheda was a Protestant town in The Pale and had previously supported Parliament through two sieges by Irish Confederates.
In 1649, Oliver Cromwell laid siege to Drogheda. The siege ended on 11 September, when Cromwell's forces stormed the town. Cromwell's troops were ordered to show no quarter to any man bearing arms;[5] in Cromwell's words, in the heat of the action, "I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town...", and many of the defenders were killed by the victorious Parliamentarian soldiers. Aston and other English Royalists retreated to the defensible Millmount Fort. They eventually agreed to surrender after a parley on the bridge, but were massacred after they laid down their arms. It is widely believed that the Parliamentarian soldiers killed Aston by bashing his brains out with his own wooden leg, which they believed concealed gold coins.[6]
Aston was said to have had a daughter, Elizabeth Thomson alias Aston, and to have been made a Doctor of Physics in 1644.[7]
References
- British Civil Wars, Commonwealth & Protectorate: Sir Arthur Aston 1590-1649
- Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Sources
Reilly, Tom (1999). Cromwell, An Honourable Enemy (London: Phoenix Press);
Barrès-Baker, Malcolm (2004). The Siege of Reading: The Failure of the Earl of Essex's 1643 Spring Offensive (Ottawa, EbooksLib);
Notes
- ^ Biographia Britannica, v.1, p. 242
- ^ Richard Brzezinski, British mercenaries in the Baltic (1), Military Illustrated, Past & Present, No.4 (London, 1987).
- ^ Richard Brzezinski, The Army of Gustavus Adolphus (1): Infantry, (London: Osprey, 1991).
- ISBN 0-900075-34-1.
- ^ Reilly 1999, p. 71.
- ^ Gardiner, Samuel Rawson (1894). History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649–1660: 1649–1651. London: Longmans, Green, & co. p. 133.
- ^ Biographia Britannica, 243
Further reading
- Memoir by Gr. Steinman-Steinman, in Gentleman's Magazinen. s. i. 144, 234
- Kippis's Biog. Brit.
- Notes and Queries, viii. 126, 302, 480, 629
- Clarendon's Hist, of the Rebellion
- Coates's Hist, of Reading, 24 seq.
- Addit. MS. 18980 ff. 22, 43
- Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 77
- Life of Anthony a Wood, ed. Bliss, p. xx
- Dodd's Church History iii. 57
- Calendars of State Papers
- Cromwell's Letters and Speeches (1850), ii. 205
- Faulkner's Fulham, 306.]