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. A contemporary Parliamentarian newspaper asserted that it was the Royalist Prince Rupert who had given Cromwell the nickname after Rupert's defeat at Marston Moor in July 1644: Munday we had intelligence that Lieutenant-Gen. Cromwell alias Ironside (for that title was given him by P. Rupert after his defeate neere York) was about Redding (sic) with 2500 horse marching towards Sir William Waller."
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