Charles Fleetwood

Charles Fleetwood, 1618 to 4 October 1692, was an English lawyer from Northamptonshire, who served with the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A close associate of Oliver Cromwell, to whom he was related by marriage, Fleetwood held a number of senior political and administrative posts under the Commonwealth, including Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652 to 1655. After Cromwell's death in September 1658, Fleetwood initially supported his son Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector, before forcing him from power in April 1659. Together with John Lambert, he dominated government for a little over a year before being outmaneuvered by George Monck. Following the Stuart Restoration, Fleetwood was excluded from the Act of Indemnity of 1660, but escaped prosecution since he had not been involved in the Execution of Charles I in January 1649. Instead, he was barred from public office, and lived quietly in Stoke Newington, where he died on 4 October 1692. Early life Charles Fleetwood was the third son of Sir Miles Fleetwood of Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, and of Anne, daughter of Nicholas Luke of Woodend, Bedfordshire. He may have been educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, before being admitted into Gray's Inn on 30 November 1638.