Arthur Aston ( army officer ) Sir Arthur Aston ( 1590 – 1649 ) was a lifelong professional soldier , most noted for his support for King Charles I in the English Civil War , and in folklore for the gruesome manner of his death . He was a native of Cheshire and from a prominent Roman Catholic family . Early career in central Europe . Arthur Aston ' s father was a professional soldier who had served in Russia in the 1610s , and , being a Catholic , had caught the attention and trust of the Polish king Sigismund III . Arthur Aston senior agreed to raise 2 , 000 British mercenaries for the Polish crown for the Turkish war of 1621 . Though most of these mercenaries bound for Poland were turned back by Protestant Denmark in the Denmark Straits , Captain Arthur Aston Junior successfully landed about 300 Britons and Irishmen of his father ' s levies in Poland in 1621 . These troops later formed a guard for the King of Poland . Arthur Aston Senior died in 1624 . Aston advanced to the rank of Major by 1627 , and saw considerable service during the Polish - Swedish wars . He was captured by Swedish troops near Danzig in 1627 . After the peace of Altmark of 1629 , Aston left Poland for the service of Sweden and was commissioned by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden to raise an English regiment in 1631 . His unit was shipped from Britain in 1632 , but fought in the secondary theatres of Germany , never attaining the fame of Scots units such as Mackay ' s Regiment . Its strength had fallen so much , mostly due to sickness , that by 1634 Aston was recruiting Germans to fill the ranks . Career in the English Civil War . By 1640 Aston had returned to Britain , and commanded a regiment for King Charles during the Second Bishops ' War . There was uneasiness in many quarters about his religion , and he was forced to resign his command , although he received a knighthood for his services . In 1642 , When the English Civil War broke out , Charles initially refused to employ him on account of his Catholic faith , but Prince Rupert of the Rhine persuaded him to do so . Because of fears that Parliament could use anti - Catholic propaganda to incite opposition to the Royalists , the Earl of Clarendon claimed that Aston was the only officer in the King ' s army who was a Papist , " if he were one " , although at least six other officers of the rank of Colonel or above were also known to be Catholics . Aston was employed as Colonel General of Dragoons , and served in this capacity during the Edgehill campaign . When Charles occupied Oxford and made it his wartime capital , Aston was made commander of an outpost at Reading , where he became unpopular through his authoritarian methods . He was wounded when Reading was besieged ( struck on the head by a falling tile ) and captured by the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Essex . He was released by exchange of prisoners and became Sergeant - Major General of Horse to Prince Rupert . He fought at the Storming of Bristol and the First Battle of Newbury . He became Governor of Oxford in late 1643 and again made himself unpopular , until he lost a leg as a result of a fall from a horse in September 1644 and was relieved as Governor . He received a large pension from the King , but did not hold any appointments during the rest of the First English Civil War . In 1648 , he joined the Earl of Ormonde , who had recently been made Commander - in - Chief of the Irish Confederates and other Royalist forces in Ireland . Aston was made governor of the vital port of Drogheda . In 1649 , Oliver Cromwell ' s forces attacked the town in the Siege of Drogheda , one of the most vicious episodes of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . When the town was stormed , the garrison and many civilians were massacred by the victorious Parliamentarian soldiers . Aston agreed to surrender after a parley on the bridge but Cromwell ' s officers were ordered to put the entire town to the sword . It is widely believed that the Parliamentarian soldiers killed Aston by dashing his brains out with his own wooden leg , which they believed to conceal gold coins .