A close associate of Oliver Cromwell, to whom he was related by marriage, Fleetwood held a number of senior political and administrative posts under the Commonwealth, including Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652 to 1655.

Following the Stuart Restoration, Fleetwood was excluded from the Act of Indemnity of 1660, but escaped prosecution since he had not been involved in the Execution of Charles I in January 1649.

[2] At the beginning of the First English Civil War in August 1642, 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.

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).

[3] 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.

[3] With the suppression of parliament, the Committee of Safety led by Fleetwood and Lambert was nominally left as absolute ruler of the Commonwealth.

Presbyterians opposed the Committee for its perceived devotion to the Independents cause, republicans had been alienated by the dissolution of parliament and pay for the rank and file of the army was long in arrears.

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.