"Justice, Justice, Execution, Execution!": The Violent Life and Times of Colonel Daniel Axtell

• In Event: Violent Lives in Early Modern Britain and Ireland

Abstract

Historians have focused on the devastating impact of Oliver Cromwell’s 1649 re-conquest of Ireland, but little has been written about the underlings who accompanied him and remained behind to exert their own tyrannical rule. Colonel Daniel Axtell was one such figure, asserting his violent despotism as governor of Kilkenny and its environs; but he was much more besides. Advancing in the army during the English civil wars, present at the trial of Charles I, central in the campaigns to retake Ireland (and court martialed later for his behavior), he was ultimately tried and executed as a regicide upon the restoration of Charles II, his career having encapsulated the very worst of the previous twenty years. This paper will examine trial records and other documents to explore how Axtell accounted for himself, and the tension that existed between personal responsibility and “simply obeying orders” in the violence that occurred under him.

Author

• Sarah Covington, Queens College, CUNY