> On 06/06/2012 16:32, Brian Austin wrote: > > You have to be a bit careful about blanket acceptance of the stories of > > Cromwell's massacres in Ireland. > > I was at his house in Ely today. Information posted up there mentions at > least two massacres in Ireland (I wasn't counting) but adds that these > were "normal" for the period and there were massacres carried out by > both sides. > There was a lot of it about - and the Irish were by no means blameless, having a fine line is exterminating Protestants, man woman and child. Remember 'like the wild Irish, I'll not think thee dead Till I can play at football with thine head.' Cromwell is blamed for a lot he didn't do, and a lot he had to do if he wasn't to let anarchy rule. I've always thought of him as one of the good guys (Like Henry VII) who has suffered a lot from media misrepresentation. Charles (I) may have been better dressed, but he was a bad lot politically and definitely needed taking in hand. EVE Author of The McLaughlin Guides for Family Historians Secretary, Bucks Genealogical Society