Sir Arthur Aston (1590–1649) was a lifelong professional soldier, most noted for his support for King Charles I in the English Civil War, and in folklore for the gruesome manner of his death. He was a native of Cheshire and from a prominent Roman Catholic family.
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Arthur Aston's father was a professional soldier who had served in Russia in the 1610s, and, being a Catholic, had caught the attention and trust of the Polish king Sigismund III. Arthur Aston senior agreed to raise 2,000 British mercenaries for the Polish crown for the Turkish war of 1621. Though most of these mercenaries bound for Poland were turned back by Protestant Denmark in the Denmark Straits, Captain Arthur Aston Junior successfully landed about 300 Britons and Irishmen of his father's levies in Poland in 1621. These troops later formed a guard for the King of Poland. Arthur Aston Senior died in 1624. Aston advanced to the rank of Major by 1627, and saw considerable service during the Polish-Swedish wars.[1] He was captured by Swedish troops near Danzig in 1627. After the peace of Altmark of 1629, Aston left Poland for the service of Sweden and was commissioned by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden to raise an English regiment in 1631. His unit was shipped from Britain in 1632, but fought in the secondary theatres of Germany, never attaining the fame of Scots units such as Mackay's Regiment. Its strength had fallen so much, mostly due to sickness, that by 1634 Aston was recruiting Germans to fill the ranks.[2]
By 1640 Aston had returned to Britain, and commanded a regiment for King Charles during the Second Bishops' War. There was uneasiness in many quarters about his religion, and he was forced to resign his command, although he received a knighthood for his services. In 1642, When the English Civil War broke out, Charles initially refused to employ him on account of his Catholic faith, but Prince Rupert of the Rhine persuaded him to do so. Because of fears that Parliament could use anti-Catholic propaganda to incite opposition to the Royalists, the Earl of Clarendon claimed that Aston was the only officer in the King's army who was a Papist, "if he were one", although at least six other officers of the rank of Colonel or above were also known to be Catholics.[3] Aston was employed as Colonel General of Dragoons, and served in this capacity during the Edgehill campaign.
When Charles occupied Oxford and made it his wartime capital, Aston was made commander of an outpost at Reading, where he became unpopular through his authoritarian methods. He was wounded when Reading was besieged (struck on the head by a falling tile) and captured by the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Essex. He was released by exchange of prisoners and became Sergeant-Major General of Horse to Prince Rupert. He fought at the Storming of Bristol and the First Battle of Newbury.
He became Governor of Oxford in late 1643 and again made himself unpopular, until he lost a leg as a result of a fall from a horse in September 1644 and was relieved as Governor. He received a large pension from the King, but did not hold any appointments during the rest of the First English Civil War.
In 1648, he joined the Earl of Ormonde, who had recently been made Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Confederates and other Royalist forces in Ireland. Aston was made governor of the vital port of Drogheda.
In 1649, Oliver Cromwell's forces attacked the town in the Siege of Drogheda, one of the most vicious episodes of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. When the town was stormed, the garrison and many civilians were massacred by the victorious Parliamentarian soldiers. Aston agreed to surrender after a parley on the bridge but Cromwell's officers were ordered to put the entire town to the sword. It is widely believed that the Parliamentarian soldiers killed Aston by dashing his brains out with his own wooden leg, which they believed to conceal gold coins.