Charles Fleetwood

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For the English theatre manager, see Charles Fleetwood (theatre manager).

Charles Fleetwood
Portrait by Robert Walker
Commander-in-Chief & Committee of Safety
In office
June 1659 – December 1659
Lord Deputy of Ireland
In office
September 1652 – July 1657
English Council of State
In office
February 1651 – July 1652
Member of Parliament
for Marlborough
In office
May 1646 – January 1655 (reseated May 1659)
Personal details
Born
Major General
Battles/wars

Charles Fleetwood, c. 1618 to 4 October 1692, was an English lawyer from Northamptonshire, who served with the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A close associate of Oliver Cromwell, to whom he was related by marriage, Fleetwood held a number of senior political and administrative posts under the Commonwealth, including Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652 to 1655.

After Cromwell's death in September 1658, Fleetwood initially supported his son

George Monck
.

Following the

Act of Indemnity of 1660, but escaped prosecution since he had not been involved in the Execution of Charles I in January 1649. Instead, he was barred from public office, and lived quietly in Stoke Newington
, where he died on 4 October 1692.

Early life

Charles Fleetwood was the third son of Sir

Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, and of Anne, daughter of Nicholas Luke of Woodend, Bedfordshire. He may have been educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge,[1] before being admitted into Gray's Inn on 30 November 1638.[2]

English Civil War

At the beginning of the

Council of State, and being recalled from Scotland was entrusted with the command of the forces in England, and played a principal part in gaining the final triumph at Worcester (3 September 1651).[3]

Ireland

Fleetwood's second wife Bridget Cromwell, widow of Henry Ireton and daughter of Oliver Cromwell

In 1652 he married Cromwell’s daughter, Bridget, widow of Henry Ireton, and became commander-in-chief of the Parliamentarian forces in Ireland, to which title that of Lord Deputy of Ireland was added. The first year of his tenure saw the mopping up of the last Catholic Irish guerrilla resistance to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.[3] Fleetwood negotiated with the remaining guerrilla bands to either surrender or to leave the country for service in the army of a country not at war with the Commonwealth of England. The last organised Irish force surrendered in 1653.

The chief feature of his civilian administration, which lasted from September 1652 till September 1655, was the implementation of the

Presbyterians, exciting great and general discontent, a petition being finally sent in for his recall.[3]

Career under the Protectorate

Fleetwood was a strong and unswerving follower of Cromwell's policy. He supported Cromwell's assumption of the position of

Protestants persecuted abroad. He was therefore, on Cromwell's death, naturally regarded as a likely successor, and it is said that Cromwell had in fact so nominated him. He, however, gave his support to Richard Cromwell's assumption of office, but allowed subsequently, if he did not instigate, petitions from the army demanding its independence, and finally (with the aid of the other officers in the Wallingford House party) compelled Richard by force to dissolve the Third Protectorate Parliament.[3]

His project of re-establishing Richard in close dependence upon the army met with failure, and he was obliged to recall the

John Lambert in his expulsion of the Rump Parliament and was reappointed commander-in-chief.[3]

Collapse of the Protectorate and Restoration of the Monarchy

With the suppression of parliament, the Committee of Safety led by Fleetwood and Lambert was nominally left as absolute ruler of the Commonwealth. The regime was practically without public support however. Presbyterians opposed the Committee for its perceived devotion to the Independents cause, republicans had been alienated by the dissolution of parliament and pay for the rank and file of the army was long in arrears.

Several Parliamentarian Generals led by

George Monck's approach from the North, Fleetwood stayed in London and maintained order. While hesitating with which party to ally his forces, and while on the point of making terms with King Charles II, Monck's army restored the Rump Parliament on 24 December, whereupon Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before parliament to answer for his conduct.[3]

The reversal of Pride's Purge with the re-admittance of the members of

Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally incapacitated from holding any office of trust. His public career then closed, though he survived till 4 October 1692.[3] He was buried in Bunhill Fields.[2]

Legacy

Fleetwood acquired by his marriage in 1664 to Mary, daughter of Sir

Quaker school.[5]

Cornelius Varley, a water-colour painter, named his son Cromwell Fleetwood "C.F." Varley (1828–1883), in the belief that the family was descended from both Fleetwood and Cromwell. The Varley family business was near Stoke Newington.

Notes

  1. ^ "Fleetwood, Charles (FLTT635C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ a b c Barnard 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm 1911, p. 493.
  4. ^ LPGT staff 2011.
  5. ^ Daniels 2002 Cites: Mander, David (1997). Look Back, Look Forward: an illustrated history of Stoke Newington. Sutton Publishing and the London Borough of Hackney.

References

Attribution

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about Fleetwood, Charles.
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Deputy of Ireland
1652–1657 		Succeeded by
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