ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews aspects of Henry Ireton's career in the context of his kinship link to Cromwell and how his private world may have shaped his public life. It argues that Ireton's marriage to Bridget Cromwell was part of what shaped his approach to Charles I and the politics of settlement that ended in regicide. This chapter also surveys Ireton's relationship with his fellow army officer, the millenarian Thomas Harrison, and how their personal relationship and relationships with Cromwell shaped the politics of settlement. This personal element is considered as part of what shaped their response to the politics of settlement and, given their centrality to the New Model's approach to Charles and their personal bond with Cromwell, it thereby shaped the decision to enact regicide. The marriages of Ireton and Harrison, as a reflection of their thinking in 1646, help explain why these two men, who were in Cromwell's closest counsels, strengthened by the personal bond they, but particularly Ireton, had with Cromwell, became such advocates of regicide and would have been part of what persuaded the more ‘reluctant regicide’ Cromwell to accept both the necessity of regicide but also that it was providential.
