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
Shropshire in the English Civil War in Staffordshire. On 15 October 1651 Captain John Benbow, uncle to the renowned admiral, was shot on the Shrewsbury Castle's green. Sir Thomas Harries, in an abortive royalist uprising, fails to capture Shrewsbury Castle in a surprise attack. Shropshire in the English Civil War This is a timeline for the English Civil War in Shropshire. Politically, the English county of Shropshire was predominantly Royalist at the start of the civil war. Of the county's twelve Members at the Long Parliament called in 1640, eight would fight on the Royalist side and four for Parliament. Control of the area was important