On September 10, Cromwell issued his first official summons to Sir Arthur Aston:

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Military History magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Having brought the army belonging to the Parliament of England before this place, to reduce it to obedience, to the end the effusion of blood may be prevented, I thought it fit to summon you to deliver the same into my hands to their use. If this be refused you will have no cause to blame me.

Aston refused to surrender, and Cromwell’s cannons opened fire. The walls of the city began to crumble. Aston quickly realized that he was in danger. The Parliamentary fleet blockaded the harbor. Ormonde could send no more reinforcements, his arms and provisions were running short. Worst of all, like all of Ireland, Drogheda was not united. Some of those inside the walls preferred the English Parliamentary force.

Knowing that there could be no quarter if he refused to surrender, Aston decided to fight on, writing Ormonde that his soldiers, at least, were unanimous in their resolution to perish rather than to deliver up the place.

The defenders fought bravely, at first turning back the attackers, but eventually the Parliamentarians crashed through the walls and seized St. Mary’s Church. Aston and some defenders fled to Mill Mount. Possessed by bloodlust, the Parliamentarians rushed up the hill, and all defenders, including Aston, were killed by order of Cromwell. The Parliamentarians swept through the streets with orders to kill anyone in arms. Against orders, civilians also were killed in the rush. Priests and friars were treated as combatants by Cromwell’s Puritans and executed. Even more horrible was the fate of the defenders of St. Peter’s Church in the northern part of the town; the church was burned down around them. By nightfall, only small pockets of resistance on the walls remained. When they managed to kill some Parliamentarians, Cromwell ordered the captured officers to be knocked on the head and every 10th soldier executed. Nearly 4,000 Confederates died at Drogheda.

Drogheda’s being divided by the river caused some confusion and may have led to the massacre. When forces on one side of the river surrendered, it is alleged that Cromwell, still meeting resistance on the other side, ordered the annihilation of the entire population. I do not think that thirty of the whole number escaped with their lives, Cromwell later wrote. The survivors were sent to the sugar plantations at Barbados.

After the massacre, Cromwell sought to explain his actions in a letter to William Lenthall, speaker of the Parliament:

…I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgement of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbued their hands in so much innocent blood, and it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are satisfactory grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remourse and regret….

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, later said in Cromwell’s defense: The practice of refusing quarter to a garrison which stands an assault is not a useless effusion of blood.

Ormonde tried to make excuses for not aiding Drogheda. He said that many of his officers and troops were on the verge of mutiny or were showing a lack of courage, so it was not wise to get close to the enemy. Ormonde later wrote to King Charles II: It is not to be imagined the terror these successes and the power of the rebels have struck into the people. They are so stupefied, that it is with great difficulty I can persuade them to act anything like men toward their own.

When Owen Roe O’Neill heard of the massacre, he swore an oath that he would retake the town even if he had to storm Hell.

Cromwell set out for the south a fortnight after Drogheda. Winter was fast approaching and no time could be lost if the southern part of the island was to be subdued. He had to follow up before the scattered Irish forces recovered from the initial panic and joined in a stronger union.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to