Hundreds and thousands of Irish deaths are blamed on 17th century Cromwellian conquest, but historians often level only a few thousand directly on the man himself, who left early after a short initial campaign with a series of famous violent sieges, and left generals in charge in the actions that seem to have caused the greater number of death. How much of that indirect death can be blamed on Cromwell himself, through direction, complicity or inaction? Were there any particular individuals in his commanding officers who went beyond the norms of warfare in this period to cause to cause uncalled for suffering?
Cromwell is commonly perceived as being directly responsible for the suffering and death of hundreds and thousands of people, as if the man himself was the chief architect of all the horrors that befell seventeenth century Ireland. The reorganisation of land and transplantations which followed the 1641 Rebellion and War of the Three Kingdoms typically bear his name - the so-called “Cromwellian” Land Settlement - further reflecting this point of view. Of course Cromwell played a role in these events, but the popular perception is totally at odds with more recent scholarship on the subject.
Firstly I’ll provide a bit of context on Cromwell’s conduct during the English Civil War. Then I will consider the ‘Cromwellian massacres’ in Ireland, as well as the situation following his departure and the extent to which these incidents went “beyond the norms of warfare in this period to cause uncalled for suffering”. Naturally this will require a little bit of definition on these norms. Finally I will deal more briefly with the so-called ‘Cromwellian’ land settlement. As always if anything is unclear or you need some clarification or further elaboration then feel free to ask.
I have to say I might have gone a bit overboard with this answer lol, so strap yourself in….
Note: This was actually a question I found when looking through old unanswered questions. /u/Saoi_ posted the original question about a month ago but didn’t get back to me when I requested he repost it. I already had the answer written (surprisingly I didn’t write this all in 20 minutes), so I got a friend of mine to repost instead.