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. Aston was employed as Colonel General of Dragoons, and served in this capacity during the Edgehill campaign. When Charles made Oxford 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 was captured by the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Essex. He was released by prisoner exchange and became Sergeant-Major General of Horse to Prince Rupert. He fought at the Storming of Bristol and the First Battle of Newbury. Aston 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 at Horspath 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, Aston joined the Earl of Ormonde, who had recently been made Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Confederates and other Royalist forces in Ireland. He was made governor of the vital port of Drogheda. Drogheda was a Protestant town in The Pale and had previously supported Parliament through two sieges by Irish Confederates. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell laid siege to Drogheda. The siege ended on 11 September, when Cromwell's forces stormed the town. Cromwell's troops were ordered to show no quarter to any man bearing arms; in Cromwell's words, in the heat of the action, "I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town...", and many of the defenders were killed by the victorious Parliamentarian soldiers. Aston and other English Royalists retreated to the defensible Millmount Fort. They eventually agreed to surrender after a parley on the bridge, but were massacred after they laid down their arms. It is widely believed that the Parliamentarian soldiers killed Aston by bashing his brains out with his own wooden leg, which they believed concealed gold coins. Aston was said to have had a daughter, Elizabeth Thomson alias Aston, and to have been made a Doctor of Physics in 1644. References British Civil Wars, Commonwealth & Protectorate: Sir Arthur Aston 1590-1649 Sources Reilly, Tom