Siege of Drogheda

Siege of Drogheda (1649)
Part of the Eleven Years' War
A plan of Drogheda in 1649
Date 3–11 September 1649 Location Drogheda located on the eastern coast of Ireland, 56 km (35 mi) north of Dublin 53°43′N 6°21′W / 53.71°N 6.35°W / 53.71; -6.35 Result Parliamentarians take the town and execute the garrison.
Belligerents
Irish Catholic Confederation English Royalists	Parliamentarian
Commanders and leaders
Arthur Aston	Oliver Cromwell
Strength
~3,100	12,000
Casualties and losses
~2800 soldiers killed, 200 captured	150 killed
unknown number of civilians killed, estimates ~700–800

Irish Catholic Confederation

The Siege of Drogheda took place on 3–11 September 1649 at the outset of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The coastal town of Drogheda was held by the Irish Catholic Confederation and English Royalists under the command of Arthur Aston when it was besieged by Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell. After Aston rejected an offer to surrender, the town was stormed and much of the garrison was executed and an unknown but "significant number" of civilians were killed by the Parliamentarian troops. The outcome of the siege and the extent to which civilians were targeted is a significant topic of debate among historians.

Since 1642, most of Ireland had been under the control of the Irish Catholic Confederation who had taken much of the country in the aftermath of the 1641 Irish rebellion. In 1648, the Irish Confederates allied themselves with the English Royalists to oppose the English Parliamentarians. With his New Model Army, Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland in August 1649 to re-conquer the country on behalf of the English Parliament.

Just before Cromwell's landing, Dublin had been secured for the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Rathmines. After their defeat there the Royalists, under James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, retreated in disarray. Some of their Protestant regiments defected to the Parliamentarians and Ormonde had to rally the remaining "dispersed forces" so as to put together a new field army.

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