Charles Fleetwood Charles Fleetwood ( c . 1618 – 4 October 1692 ) was an English Parliamentary soldier and politician , Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652 – 55 , where he enforced the Cromwellian Settlement . At the Restoration he was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital , and was finally incapacitated from holding any office of trust . His public career then closed . Early life . Charles Fleetwood was the third son of Sir Miles Fleetwood of Aldwinkle , Northamptonshire , and of Anne , daughter of Nicholas Luke of Woodend , Bedfordshire . He may have been educated at Emmanuel College , Cambridge , before being admitted into Gray ' s Inn on 30 November 1638 . English Civil War . At the beginning of the English Civil War , like many other young lawyers who afterwards distinguished themselves in the field , he joined Essex ’ s life - guard , was wounded at the first battle of Newbury , 1643 obtained a regiment in 1644 and fought at Naseby . He had already been appointed receiver of the court of wards , and in 1646 became member of parliament for Marlborough . In the dispute between the army and parliament he played a chief part , and was said to have been the principal author of the plot to seize King Charles at Holmby , but he did not participate in the king ’ s trial . In 1649 he was appointed a governor of the Isle of Wight , and in 1650 , as lieutenant - general of the horse , took part in Cromwell ’ s campaign in Scotland and assisted in the victory of Dunbar . The next year he was elected a member of the Council of State , and being recalled from Scotland was entrusted with the command of the forces in England , and played a principal part in gaining the final triumph at Worcester ( 3 September 1651 ) . Ireland . In 1652 he married Cromwell ’ s daughter , Bridget , widow of Henry Ireton , and became commander - in - chief of the Parliamentarian forces in Ireland , to which title that of Lord Deputy of Ireland was added . The first year of his tenure saw the mopping up of the last Catholic Irish guerrilla resistance to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland . Fleetwood negotiated with the remaining guerrilla bands ( known as " [ tories ] " ) to either surrender or to leave the country for service in the army of a country not at war with the Commonwealth of England . The last organised Irish force surrendered in 1653 . The chief feature of his civilian administration , which lasted from September 1652 till September 1655 , was the implementation of the Act of Settlement 1652 , which decreed the settlement of the New Model Army ' s soldiers on the confiscated estates of Catholic landowners and the transplantation of the original owners . Fleetwood carried out these policies ruthlessly . ( For details of this period see The Cromwellian Plantation ) . He showed also great severity in the prosecution of the Roman Catholic priests , and favoured the Anabaptist s and the extreme Puritan sects to the disadvantage of the moderate Presbyterians , exciting great and general discontent , a petition being finally sent in for his recall . Career under the Protectorate . Fleetwood was a strong and unswerving follower of Cromwell ' s policy . He supported Cromwell ' s assumption of the position of Lord Protector and his dismissal of the parliaments . In December 1654 he became a member of the council , and after his return to England in 1655 was appointed one of the administrative major - generals . He approved of the Humble Petition and Advice , only objecting to the conferring of the title of " king " on Cromwell ; became a member of the new House of Lords ; and supported ardently Cromwell ' s foreign policy in Europe , based on religious divisions , and his defence of the Protestants persecuted abroad . He was therefore , on Cromwell ’ s death , naturally regarded as a likely successor , and it is said that Cromwell had in fact so nominated him . He , however , gave his support to Richard Cromwell ' s assumption of office , but allowed subsequently , if he did not instigate , petitions from the army demanding its independence , and finally ( with the aid of the other officers in the Wallingford House party ) compelled Richard by force to dissolve the Third Protectorate Parliament . His project of re - establishing Richard in close dependence upon the army met with failure , and he was obliged to recall the Rump Parliament on 6 May 1659 . He was appointed immediately a member of the Committee of Safety and of the Council of State , and one of the seven commissioners for the army , while on 9 June 1659 he was nominated commander - in - chief . In reality , however , his power was undermined and was attacked by parliament , which in October declared his commission void . The next day he assisted John Lambert in his expulsion of the Rump Parliament and was reappointed commander - in - chief . Collapse of the Protectorate and Restoration of the Monarchy . Several Parliamentarian Generals led by George Monck had decided that the only way to stabilise the country was to restore the monarchy . Monck accordingly led his troops , which had been garrisoned in Scotland , to march on London . On George Monck ' s approach from the North , Fleetwood stayed in London and maintained order . While hesitating with which party to ally his forces , and while on the point of making terms with King Charles II , Monck ' s army restored the Rump Parliament on 24 December , whereupon Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before parliament to answer for his conduct . The reversal of Pride ' s Purge with the re - admittance of the members of Long Parliament to the Rump , the Convention Parliament and the start of the Restoration therefore all took place without his influence . He was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital , and was finally incapacitated from holding any office of trust . His public career then closed , though he survived till 4 October 1692 . He was buried in Bunhill Fields . Legacy . Fleetwood acquired by his marriage in 1664 to Mary , daughter of Sir John Coke and widow of Sir Edward Hartopp , an estate in Stoke Newington , then a village north of London ; Fleetwood House , next to Abney House on Church Street was named after him . It served as a meeting place for Dissenters , and from 1824 housed the Newington Academy for Girls an innovative Quaker school .