Ironside (cavalry)

It was after the battle of Marston Moor on 2 July 1644 that Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the commander of the Royalist Army, "first gave the nickname to his enemy of 'Old Ironsides' because his ranks were so impenetrable--the name originated with the man and passed on to his regiment" (Fraser, p. 132).

Cromwell however did witness the defeat of the Parliamentarian horse at the battle and wrote to fellow Parliamentarian leader John Hampden, Your troopers are most of them old decayed servingmen and tapsters; and their [the Royalists'] troopers are gentlemen's sons, younger sons and persons of quality; do you think that the spirits of such base and mean fellows [as ours] will ever be able to encounter gentlemen that have honour and courage and resolution in them?

Early in 1643, he was given a commission as colonel and expanded his troop into a full regiment in the newly formed Army of the Eastern Association, under the command of Lord Grey of Warke and then the Earl of Manchester.

The regiment played a major part in the victory over the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor, where the discipline of Cromwell's wing of horse was decisive.

The regiment was part of the first attack on the King's western forces under Goring and Astley, but was beaten back and had to be relieved by Cromwell's fellow commander, Sir William Balfour, and his London horse.

The Ironsides are featured in Rosemary Sutcliff's 1953 historical fiction novel Simon, and are portrayed as being very professional soldiers with strong puritan religious tendencies.

[2] Lawrence J. Epstein writes that the lyric "heaven is like Ironside's" in Bob Dylan's I Pity the Poor Immigrant refers to the puritanical view of religion shared by the followers of Cromwell.