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 Oliver Cromwell in popular culture Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. The posthumous execution of Cromwell, on the anniversary of the regicide in 1661, struck the imagination of the Italian writer, and State Secretary of Este court in Modena, Girolamo Graziani who involved himself since then in his "Il Cromuele" (1671), a tragedy that deals with the theme of the dark cruel tyrant, (Oliver Cromwell) and the violated regality (Charles I of England's martyrdom). The plot is full