Henry Ireton (1611-1651)

Henry Ireton (1611-1651), Lord-Deputy of Ireland, cast oval silver medal, 1650, by Thomas Simon, bust of Ireton left, QVID TIBI RETRIBVAM, rev., soldier climbing a rock and setting fire to the roof of a cottage, a battle in the distance, IVSTITIA NECESSITAS Q IVBET, 29mm x 27.5mm (MI 387/6; Eim - ; Platt II, pp. 173-77). Extremely fine and extremely rare.

Henry Ireton, MP for Appleby, 1645; Commissary General, 1645 (promoted on the day of the Battle of Naseby); Lord-Deputy of Ireland, 1650. He was born at Attenborough, near Nottingham, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, before moving to the Middle Temple in 1629. He fought at Marston Moor, the second Battle of Newbury, Naseby and the Siege of Bristol. In 1646 he married Cromwell's daughter Bridget (1624-1662). Ireton accompanied Cromwell to Ireland in 1649, was present at the Storming of Drogheda and Wexford, and assumed command in 1650, on Cromwell's return to England. In the summer of 1651 he resumed the Siege of Limerick but was to die there of a fever on the 26th November. He was buried at Westminster Abbey but at the Restoration, as a regicide, his body was exhumed and hanged at Tyburn. An unpublished uniface portrait medal of Ireton was sold by Morton & Eden, 14 June, 2007 (lot 590).

Provenance: Baldwin Auction, 3 May, 2011 (lot 11).