He became a gentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1626, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1629, and entered the Middle Temple the same year.

[2] On the night before the Battle of Naseby, in June 1645, Ireton succeeded in surprising the Royalist army and captured many prisoners.

[2] Ireton was at the siege of Bristol in September 1645, and took part in the subsequent campaign that succeeded in overthrowing the royal cause.

At the Putney Debates, he opposed extremism, disliked the views of the Republicans and the Levellers, which he considered impractical and dangerous to the foundations of society, and wished to retain a constitutional monarchy of King, Lords, and Commons.

The other was an escalating guerrilla war in the countryside as Irish fighters called tories attacked his supply lines.

Ireton appealed to the English Parliament to publish lenient surrender terms for Irish Catholics, to end their resistance, but this was refused.

His first action after the refusal was to mount a counter-guerrilla expedition into the Wicklow Mountains early in June 1650, to secure his lines of supply for the Siege of Waterford in south-east Ireland.

Ireton systematically constructed trenches to bring his siege guns within range of the walls and stationed a parliamentary fleet off the city to prevent it being supplied.

Early in 1651, Ireton ordered that areas harbouring the guerrillas should be systematically stripped of food – a scorched-earth policy that caused a famine in Ireland by the end of the year.

At the same time, parliamentarian forces conducted the Siege of Galway, and Ireton rode to inspect the command of Charles Coote, who was blockading that city.

The physical strain of his command took hold on Ireton and he fell ill.[citation needed] After the capture of Limerick, Ireton had dignitaries of Limerick hanged for their defence of the city, including Alderman Thomas Stritch, Bishop Turlough O'Brien, and an English Royalist officer, Colonel Fennell.

He also wanted the Irish commander, Hugh Dubh O'Neill hanged, but Edmund Ludlow cancelled the order after Ireton's death.

"[8] Meanwhile, the memoirs of English Cavalier officer Philip Warwick allege that, in his delirious state, Ireton's last words were, "Blood!

On 30 January 1661, following the Restoration of the English monarchy of 1660, Charles II had Ireton's corpse exhumed from Westminster and mutilated in a posthumous execution, along with those of Cromwell and John Bradshaw, in retribution for signing his father's death warrant.

This version of Ireton is ready to denounce the King and plunge England into civil war before Cromwell becomes convinced that this is a necessary step.