Ironside (cavalry) Ironside (cavalry) The Ironsides were troopers in the Parliamentarian cavalry formed by English political leader Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century, during the English Civil War. The name came from "Old Ironsides", one of Cromwell's nicknames. Cromwell first mustered a troop of cavalry (then referred to as "horse") at Huntingdon in Huntingdonshire, on 29 August 1642, early in the Civil War. John Desborough was quartermaster. The troop was late in being organised, and arrived too late to participate in the Battle of Edgehill, the first pitched battle of the war. Cromwell however did witness the defeat of the Parliamentarian horse
Oliver Cromwell in popular culture as a vampire. A minor but important character in Robert Wilton's "Traitor's Field", this novel starts with the aftermath of the Battle of Preston in 1648 until Charles II's flight into exile on the continent; it was published by Corvus, an imprint of Atlantic Books, on May 1, 2013 (UK). In the Japanese light novel series "Zero no Tsukaima", a noble of Albion (a country reminiscent of Great Britain) named Oliver Cromwell leads the nobles in a rebellion against the royal family in a bloody civil war reminiscent of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell in popular culture Oliver Cromwell