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Charles Fleetwood
Portrait by Robert Walker
Commander-in-Chief & Committee of Safety
In office
June 1659 – December 1659
Lord Deputy of Ireland
In office
September 1652 – July 1657
English Council of State
In office
February 1651 – July 1652
Member of Parliament
for Marlborough
In office
May 1646 – January 1655 (reseated May 1659)
Personal details
Born
c. 1618
Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, England
Died4 October 1692(1692-10-04) (aged 74)
Stoke Newington, London, England
Resting placeBunhill Fields
Spouse(s)(1) Frances Smith (1641–1651)
(2) Bridget Cromwell (1652–1662)
(3) Mary Coke (1663–1684)
Children(1) Frances (1642–1711); Smith (1644–1708)
(2) Cromwell (1653–1688); Ann (1654–1660); Mary (1656–1722)
Alma materEmmanuel College, Cambridge
OccupationSoldier and politician
Military service
RankMajor General
Battles/wars

Charles Fleetwood, c. 1618 to 4 October 1692, was an English lawyer from Northamptonshire, who served with the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A close associate of Oliver Cromwell, to whom he was related by marriage, Fleetwood held a number of senior political and administrative posts under the Commonwealth, including Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652 to 1655.

After Cromwell's death in September 1658, Fleetwood initially supported his son Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector, before forcing him from power in April 1659. Together with John Lambert, he dominated government for a little over a year before being outmaneuvered by George Monck.

Following the Stuart Restoration, Fleetwood was excluded from the Act of Indemnity of 1660, but escaped prosecution since he had not been involved in the Execution of Charles I in January 1649. Instead, he was barred from public office, and lived quietly in Stoke Newington, where he died on 4 October 1692.

Early life

Charles Fleetwood was the third son of Sir Miles Fleetwood of Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, and of Anne, daughter of Nicholas Luke of Woodend, Bedfordshire. He may have been educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge,[1] before being admitted into Gray's Inn on 30 November 1638.[2]

English Civil War

At the beginning of the First English Civil War in August 1642, like many other young lawyers who afterwards distinguished themselves in the field, he joined Essex’s life-guard, was wounded at the first battle of Newbury (1643), obtained a regiment in 1644 and fought at Naseby. He had already been appointed receiver of the court of wards, and in 1646 became member of parliament for Marlborough. In the dispute between the army and parliament he played a chief part, and was said to have been the principal author of the plot to seize King Charles at Holmby, but he did not participate in the king’s trial. In 1649 he was appointed a governor of the Isle of Wight, and in 1650, as lieutenant-general of the horse, took part in Cromwell’s campaign in Scotland and assisted in the victory of Dunbar. The next year he was elected a member of the Council of State, and being recalled from Scotland was entrusted with the command of the forces in England, and played a principal part in gaining the final triumph at Worcester (3 September 1651).[3]

Ireland

Fleetwood's second wife Bridget Cromwell, widow of Henry Ireton and daughter of Oliver Cromwell

In 1652 he married Cromwell’s daughter, Bridget, widow of Henry Ireton, and became commander-in-chief of the Parliamentarian forces in Ireland, to which title that of Lord Deputy of Ireland was added. The first year of his tenure saw the mopping up of the last Catholic Irish guerrilla resistance to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.[3] Fleetwood negotiated with the remaining guerrilla bands to either surrender or to leave the country for service in the army of a country not at war with the Commonwealth of England. The last organised Irish force surrendered in 1653.

The chief feature of his civilian administration, which lasted from September 1652 till September 1655, was the implementation of the Act of Settlement 1652, which decreed the settlement of the New Model Army's soldiers on the confiscated estates of Catholic landowners and the transplantation of the original owners. Fleetwood carried out these policies ruthlessly. (For details of this period see The Cromwellian Plantation). He showed also great severity in the prosecution of the Roman Catholic priests, and favoured the Anabaptists and the extreme Puritan sects to the disadvantage of the moderate Presbyterians, exciting great and general discontent, a petition being finally sent in for his recall.[3]

Career under the Protectorate

Fleetwood was a strong and unswerving follower of Cromwell's policy. He supported Cromwell's assumption of the position of Lord Protector and his dismissal of the parliaments. In December 1654 he became a member of the council, and after his return to England in 1655 was appointed one of the administrative major-generals. He approved of the Humble Petition and Advice, only objecting to the conferring of the title of "king" on Cromwell; became a member of the new House of Lords; and supported ardently Cromwell's foreign policy in Europe, based on religious divisions, and his defence of the Protestants persecuted abroad. He was therefore, on Cromwell's death, naturally regarded as a likely successor, and it is said that Cromwell had in fact so nominated him. He, however, gave his support to Richard Cromwell's assumption of office, but allowed subsequently, if he did not instigate, petitions from the army demanding its independence, and finally (with the aid of the other officers in the Wallingford House party) compelled Richard by force to dissolve the Third Protectorate Parliament.[3]

His project of re-establishing Richard in close dependence upon the army met with failure, and he was obliged to recall the Rump Parliament on 6 May 1659. He was appointed immediately a member of the Committee of Safety and of the Council of State, and one of the seven commissioners for the army, while on 9 June 1659 he was nominated commander-in-chief. In reality, however, his power was undermined and was attacked by parliament, which in October declared his commission void. The next day he assisted John Lambert in his expulsion of the Rump Parliament and was reappointed commander-in-chief.[3]

Collapse of the Protectorate and Restoration of the Monarchy

With the suppression of parliament, the Committee of Safety led by Fleetwood and Lambert was nominally left as absolute ruler of the Commonwealth. The regime was practically without public support however. Presbyterians opposed the Committee for its perceived devotion to the Independents cause, republicans had been alienated by the dissolution of parliament and pay for the rank and file of the army was long in arrears.

Several Parliamentarian Generals led by George Monck had decided that the only way to stabilise the country was to restore the monarchy. Monck accordingly led his troops, which had been garrisoned in Scotland, to march on London. On George Monck's approach from the North, Fleetwood stayed in London and maintained order. While hesitating with which party to ally his forces, and while on the point of making terms with King Charles II, Monck's army restored the Rump Parliament on 24 December, whereupon Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before parliament to answer for his conduct.[3]

The reversal of Pride's Purge with the re-admittance of the members of Long Parliament to the Rump, the Convention Parliament and the start of the Restoration therefore all took place without his influence. He was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally incapacitated from holding any office of trust. His public career then closed, though he survived till 4 October 1692.[3] He was buried in Bunhill Fields.[2]

Legacy

Fleetwood acquired by his marriage in 1664 to Mary, daughter of Sir John Coke and widow of Sir Edward Hartopp,[2] an estate in Stoke Newington, then a village north of London; Fleetwood House, next to Abney House on Church Street was named after him.[4] It served as a meeting place for Dissenters, and from 1824 housed the Newington Academy for Girls, an innovative Quaker school.[5]

Cornelius Varley, a water-colour painter, named his son Cromwell Fleetwood "C.F." Varley (1828–1883), in the belief that the family was descended from both Fleetwood and Cromwell. The Varley family business was near Stoke Newington.

Notes

  1. ^ "Fleetwood, Charles (FLTT635C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ a b c Barnard 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm 1911, p. 493.
  4. ^ LPGT staff 2011.
  5. ^ Daniels 2002 Cites: Mander, David (1997). Look Back, Look Forward: an illustrated history of Stoke Newington. Sutton Publishing and the London Borough of Hackney.

References

Attribution

External links

6 Annotations

First Reading

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Fleetwood, who, as well as Ireton, was son-in-law to Cromwell, was a very useful instrument to that artful man, who knew how to avail himself of family-connexions. The character of Fleetwood was very different from that of Ireton: he had no great skill as a soldier, and less as a politician; but he had a very powerful influence over the bigotted part of the army. He thought that prayer superseded the use of "carnal weapons" and "that it was sufficient to trust to the hand of Providence, without exerting the arm of flesh." He would fall on his knees and pray, when he heard of a mutiny among the soldiers; and was with the utmost difficulty roused to action, on several emergent occasions. In 1659 he was declared commander in chief of the army. This was done by the intrigues of Lambert, who intended to make the same use of him that Cromwell had done of Fairfax. He died soon after the Revolution.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1769.

Bill  •  Link

Charles, third son of Sir Miles Fleetwood, Knt.; General and Commander-in-Chief to the Protector Richard, whose sister, Bridget, widow of Ireton, he had married as his second wife. After the king's return he lived in obscurity, and died October 4th, 1692.
---Wheatley, 1899.

Bill  •  Link

FLEETWOOD, CHARLES (d. 1692), parliamentarian soldier; admitted at Gray's Inn, 1638; one of Essex's bodyguard, 1642; wounded at first battle of Newbury when captain, 1643; appointed receiver of the court of wards forfeited by his royalist brother, Sir William, 1644; commanded regiment of horse in the new model at Naseby, 1645; M.P., Marlborough, 1646; took leading part in quarrel between army and parliament, 1647, on side of former; joint-governor of Isle of Wight, 1649: lieutenant-general of horse at Dunbar, 1650; member of the third council of state (1651) and commander of the forces in England before Worcester, where he did good service; married as his second wife Cromwell's eldest daughter (Bridget), the widow of Ireton, 1652; named commander-in-chief in Ireland, where in 1654-7 he was also lord-deputy; after the first year came to England and only nominally filled the office; recalled on account of his partiality to the anabaptists; one of the Protector's council, 1654; major-general of the eastern district, 1655; a member of Cromwell's House of Lords, 1656; nominal supporter of Richard Cromwell; headed the army's opposition to the parliament; commander-in-chief, 1659; failed to make terms with General Monck; and at the Restoration was incapacitated for life from holding office.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

Bill  •  Link

At the Restoration he was included in the Act of Indemnity, 29 Aug. 1660 but was forbidden to "accept or exercise any office of trust." He m., 1stly, Frances, da. and h. of Thomas Smith, of Winston, Norfolk; she was bur. at St. Anne's, Black-friars, 24 Nov. 1651. He m., 2ndly, before 1653, Bridget, widow of Henry IRETON, Lord Deputy of Ireland (d. 27 Nov. 1651), 1st da. of Oliver CROMWELL the LORD PROTECTOR, by Elizabeth, da. of Sir James BOURCHIER, of Felstead, Essex; she was bap. at Huntingdon, 5 Aug. 1624, and bur. at St. Anne's, Blackfriars, 1 July 1662. He m., 3rdly, 14. Jan. 1663/4, Mary, widow of Sir Edward HARTOPP, da. of Sir John COKE, of Melbourne, co. Derby, Sec. of State to Charles I, by Mary, da. of(-) POWELL, of Presteign, co. Radnor; she d. 17 Dec. 1684, and was bur. in Bunhill Fields cemetery. He d. 4 Oct. 1692, and was bur. with his third wife. Will dat. 10 Jan. 1689/90, pr. 2 Nov. 1692.
---The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom. G.E. Cokayne, 1910-1916.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The biography of Fleetwood JCasey referred to above has moved to:
http://bcw-project.org/biography/…

At the start of the Diary, Pepys is living through the last of Fleetwood's days as a mover and shaker: "Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before Parliament to answer for his conduct. He was powerless to oppose the Restoration of the monarchy in May 1660. Excluded from Charles II's Act of Indemnity and Oblivion as one of 20 individuals liable to penalties other than the death sentence, Fleetwood was finally barred from holding any public office or position of trust. He lived quietly at Stoke Newington in Middlesex until his death in October 1692."

I don't see any hint of him being a leader who preferred to pray than fight.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1660

1662