Siege of Waterford

Siege of Waterford 1649–1650
Part of the Irish Confederate Wars
Henry Ireton, the English Parliamentarian commander who took Waterford in 1650
Date November–December 1649 and June–August 1650 Location Waterford, south-eastern Ireland Result English Parliamentarians take Waterford after protracted siege
Belligerents
Irish Confederate Catholics and some English Royalists	English Parliamentarians New Model Army
Commanders and leaders
Richard Farrell Thomas Preston	Oliver Cromwell, Michael Jones, Henry Ireton
Strength
3000 soldiers and civilian population	6000–7000 men,
Casualties and losses
c.2000 soldiers die in Waterford, 500 killed in assaults on Carrick-on-Suir unknown no. of civilians	c.3000, mostly of disease

The city of Waterford in south eastern Ireland was besieged from 1649–50 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The town was held by Irish Confederate Catholic and English Royalist troops under general Thomas Preston. It was besieged by English Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell, Michael Jones and Henry Ireton.

Waterford was a majority Catholic city and like most other towns in Ireland's south-east had supported the Confederate Catholic cause since the Catholic Irish Rebellion of 1641. Late in 1641, Protestant refugees, displaced by the insurgents, began to arrive in the town, creating much tension among the Catholic townspeople. The city's mayor wanted to protect the refugees, but the recorder and several of the Aldermen on the city council wanted to strip them of their property and let in the rebels, who arrived outside the walls in early 1642. At first, the Mayor's faction was successful in refusing to admit rebel forces, but by March 1642, the faction in the municipal government sympathetic to the rebellion had prevailed. The Protestants in Waterford were expelled, in most cases put on ships to England, sometimes after having their property looted by the city mob and Irish Confederate troops were let into Waterford. In 1645 Confederate troops under Thomas Preston also besieged and took nearby Duncannon from its English garrison, thus removing the threat to shipping coming to and from Waterford.

Waterford's political community was noted for its intransigent Catholic politics. In 1646, a synod of Roman Catholic Bishops, based in Waterford, excommunicated any Catholic who supported a treaty between the Confederates and English Royalists, which did not allow for the free practice of the Catholic religion. The Confederates finally agreed a treaty with Charles I of England in 1648, in order to join forces with the Royalists against their common enemy, the English Parliament, which was both anti-Catholic and hostile to the King. The Parliamentarians landed a major expeditionary force in Ireland at Dublin, under Oliver Cromwell in August 1649.

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