Ironside (cavalry) - Within The Eastern Association

Within The Eastern Association

It is evident that Cromwell's answer to his own question lay in religious conviction. Early in 1643, he was given a commission as Colonel and expanded his troop into a full regiment in the newly formed Army of the Eastern Association, under the command of Lord Grey of Warke and then the Earl of Manchester. By 11 September that year, he referred to them in a letter to his cousin Oliver St. John as a "lovely company". A champion of the "godly", Cromwell became notorious for appointing men of comparatively humble origins but stoutly-held Puritan beliefs as officers, who would then attract men of similar background and leanings to the regiment. He wrote to the Earl of Manchester, who disagreed with this policy,

I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else. I honour a gentleman that is so indeed.

On 28 July 1643, the regiment took part in the Battle of Gainsborough, where Royalist cavalry were defeated. One of the troop captains, James Berry, is stated to have killed the Royalist commander, Sir Charles Cavendish, a relation of the Marquess of Newcastle (Commander-in-Chief of the Royalist forces in the North).

The regiment's troops in 1643 were:

• Colonel Oliver Cromwell's
• Major Edward Whalley's
• Captain John Desborough's
• Captain Valentine Walton (Junior)'s
• Captain Oliver Cromwell (Junior)'s
• Captain James Berry's
• Captain Robert Swallow's, known as the "Maiden Troop" and drawn from Norwich.
• Captain Ralph Margery's
• Captain Henry Ireton's (Transferred from the Earl Of Essex's regiment)

By April, 1644, after two years of war, Cromwell's unit had grown into a "double" regiment of no less than 14 troops. (A regiment normally had only 6 troops). Cromwell by this time was Lieutenant General of the Horse in the Parliamentarian Army of the Eastern Association, and the regiment would be routinely commanded by its Lieutenant Colonel, Cromwell's cousin Edward Whalley. The regiment played a major part in the victory over the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor, where the discipline of Cromwell's wing of horse was decisive. Where a victorious wing of Royalist cavalry scattered in search of plunder, Cromwell's men rallied after defeating their immediate opponents, and then swept the disordered Royalist armies from the field. Captain Valentine Walton, Cromwell's nephew, died of wounds after a cannon shot smashed his leg during the battle.

It was a different story by the time of the Second Battle of Newbury later that year. The Parliamentarian high command of Sir William Waller, the Earl of Manchester, Sir William Balfour and Cromwell decided to split their large force into two. Cromwell, the Eastern and London Association Cavalry and the Southern Association headed across the river and toward Donnington Castle in the West. The regiment was part of the first attack on the King's western forces under Goring and Astley, but was beaten back and had to be relieved by Cromwell's fellow commander, Sir William Balfour, and his London horse.