History of Routledge surname 15th to 18th centuries who had served in English armies before the 5th day of June 1649, was assembled for adjudication of their claims for unpaid arrears. Included were a Lieutenant Edward Rutledge and a Thomas Rutlidge. Parliamentary forces prevailed in 1651, and Oliver Cromwell assumed government of the Commonwealth of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland under the title of Lord Protector until his death in 1658. His son, Richard Cromwell (1658-1659) succeeded his father's position for less than a year and willingly stepped down in 1659. AD 1652. Some soldiers who had served the Commonwealth in Ireland were promised land in lieu of
Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms England. Charles and his minister Thomas Wentworth were unable to persuade the English Parliament, which itself was unhappy with Charles's civil and religious policies, to pay for an army to put down the Scots. As a result, they had proposed raising an army from Irish Catholics, in return for abolishing discriminatory laws against them. This prospect alarmed Charles' enemies in England and Scotland and the Covenanters threatened to invade Ireland. In response a group of Irish conspirators launched the Irish Rebellion of 1641, which quickly degenerated into a series of massacres of English and Scottish Protestant settlers in Ireland. This