Colonel Daniel Axtell[1] (1622 – 19 October 1660) was Captain of the Parliamentary Guard at the trial of King Charles I at Westminster Hall in 1649. Shortly after the Restoration he was hanged, drawn and quartered as a regicide.
He was a Baptist from Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire who apprenticed as a grocer. He joined the New Model Army, serving in John Pickering's regiment of Foote [2] and rose to the Rank of Colonel. Apart from his participation in the regicide, he is best remembered for his participation in Pride's Purge of the Long Parliament. His defence at his trial as a Regicide, that he was only obeying orders at the trial of the King, was refuted by several witnesses who testified that Axtell had behaved discourteously towards the King encouraging his men to jeer at or shout-out the King when he tried to speak in his own defence. He was executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered. His commanding officer Colonel Francis Hacker who had also been condemned as a Regicide was also executed. Axtell went to his execution unrepentant declaring "If I had a thousand lives, I could lay them all down for the [Good Old] Cause".[3][4]
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Axtell played a big part in the Civil War after being recruited by Parliament in 1643. He fought as an infantry man and was present at the siege of Lindon (1644, May), the siege of York (1644, June) and was at the battle of Marston Moor and many other sieges and battles. Axtell was a keen puritan and in 1646 he and some other puritan soldiers started preaching in churches in Oxford. At that time it was illegal to preach unless you were a qualified clergyman so he had to force the clergymen to give way.
Axtell was a figure of some prominence in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. In October 1650 Axtell led the Parliamentarian army to victory at the battle of Meelick Island (a Crannog on the Shannon, on which the Connaught Irish army was camped) after launching a sudden attack on the Irish army on October 25 under cover of darkness. After fierce hand to hand fighting, the Parliamentarians were victorious, killing several hundred of the Irish soldiers and capturing their weapons and equipment. After the conflict however it was alleged that many of the Irish had been killed after the promise of quarter. Axtell was court-martialled for this by Henry Ireton and sent back to England. It is possible that Axtell was a scapegoat: Cromwell had committed similar atrocities a year earlier at Drogheda and at Wexford, in the sense that no quarter had been offered. It is possible that the leaders of the Parliamentarian forces in Ireland (if not the Parliamentarian leadership in Britain) felt that 'shock' tactics initially adopted in Ireland were counter-productive. For example, Ireton's request for lenient surrender terms to be made known by Parliament were refused. Axtell's actions may have run counter to a less ruthless strategy putatively adopted by Ireton in the field.
Granny Castle beside the river Nore is an imposing ruin. Its early history is identified with that of its founders and proprietors the earls of Ormond. "In the civil wars" writes Grosse "it was strongly garrisoned for the King and commanded by Captain Butler, Colonel Axtell the famous regicide who was governor of Kilkenny dispatched a party to reduce it, but they returned without accomplishing their orders; upon which Axtell himself marched out with two cannon and summoned the castle to surrender on pain of military execution. Without any hope of relief it is no wonder the garrison submitted."(Grose Antiquities Vol. II p. 79)
In 1678 Daniel Axtell, the son of the regicide, fled to Carolina after his house in Stoke Newington was searched for seditious libels. He died in 1687.[5]