Struggle in England betivcen King and Parliament 671 a Protestant leader, formed an army of Irish Catholics and Eng- lish royalist Protestants with a iew of overthrowing the Com- monwealth. Cromwell accordingly set out for Ireland, where, after taking Drogheda, he mercilessly slaughtered two thousand of the '* barbarous wretches," as he called them. Town after Fig. 230. Oliver Cromwell This portrait is by Peter Lely and was painted in 1653 town surrendered to Cromwell's army, and in 1652, after much cruelty, the island was once more conquered. A large part of it was confiscated for the benefit of the English, and the Catholic landowners were driven into the mountains. In the meantime (1650) Charles II, who had taken refuge in Erance, had landed in Scotland, and upon his agreeing to be a Presbyterian king, the whole Scotch nation was ready to support him. But Scotland was subdued by Cromwell even more prompdy than Ireland had been.
