Edmund Ludlow (c. 1617–1692) was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his Memoirs, which were published posthumously in a rewritten form and which have become a major source for historians of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

He was present at the second battle of Newbury in October 1644, at the siege of Basing House in November, and took part in an expedition to relieve Taunton in December.

[1] After Oliver Cromwell returned from Ireland in June 1650, he appointed Ludlow as lieutenant-general of horse and second-in-command to Henry Ireton in Parliament's campaign there.

After Ireton's death on 26 November 1651, Ludlow held the chief command, and had practically completed the conquest of the island when he resigned his authority to Fleetwood in October 1652.

[2] Most of his campaigning in Ireland was against Irish guerrillas or "tories" and much of his operations consisted of hunting small bands and destroying foodstuff and crops.

Ludlow is remembered for what he said of the Burren in County Clare during counter-guerilla operations there in 1651–52; "It is a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him.

According to his Memoirs he believed that Cromwell "had not appeared that he ever approved on any persons farther than he might make them subservient to his own ambitious designs; ...and that the generality of the people that had engaged with us having acted upon no higher principles than those of civil liberty, and that they might be governed by their own consent, it could not be just to treat them in another manner upon any pretenses whatsoever.

"[5] After Oliver Cromwell's death, Ludlow was returned for Hindon, Wiltshire, in Richard's Parliament of 1659, but opposed the continuance of the Protectorate.

He sat in the restored Rump Parliament, and was a member of its Council of State and of the Committee of Safety after its second expulsion, and a commissioner for the nomination of officers in the army.

[1] The Wallingford House party, a strong faction in the army, "who had thus possessed themselves of the supreme power, were every day pressed from all parts, and especially from the city of London, to restore the Long Parliament, as the only means to satisfy the people, and to establish an equal and just government amongst us in the way of a Commonwealth...they were compelled at last to admit the debate of the restitution of the Long Parliament amongst other propositions that were under their consideration.

In July 1659, Edmond Ludlow was appointed commander-in-chief by the restored Rump Parliament of all forces in Ireland; and made Lieutenant-General of the Horse.

"She acquainted the colonel with their propositions; but he having resolved to play another part, discovered the whole intrigue to Henry Vane the Younger, who having communicated it to Sir.

Although Ludlow had the support of Henry Vane the Younger and some other generals, these efforts proved abortive since each side had much to lose in any compromise.

Consequently, most of the generals of the Wallingford House party and the key members of the Long Parliament who were in favour of the Good Old Cause (of a republican commonwealth) would lose their lives upon the restoration of King Charles II.

[1] Monck led each party faction (republican, military, and restoration) to believe that he had declared for Parliament but kept his plans to himself until he had accomplished his purpose on what exactly that meant to him.

[11] Accordingly, on the proclamation of the king ordering the regicides to come in, Ludlow emerged from his concealment, and on 20 June surrendered to the Speaker; but finding that his life was not assured, he succeeded in escaping to Dieppe, France, travelled to Geneva and Lausanne, and thence to Vevey, Switzerland.

He was however remembered only as a regicide, and an address from the House of Commons was presented to William III by Sir Edward Seymour requesting the king to issue a proclamation for his arrest.

As a result, the Memoirs have been used until very recently as a major source for historians of the seventeenth century, with only the rediscovery of Ludlow's original manuscript prompting a reassessment.