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20 Historical Events Seldom Taught in School

Khalid Elhassan June 28, 2019 24 min

3. The English Commander Who Was Beaten To Death With His Prosthetic Leg

Sir Arthur Aston (1590 – 1649) was born into a prominent Catholic family from Cheshire, with a tradition of professional military service. Following in his father’s footsteps and continuing the family’s heritage, Aston became a professional soldier, and served as a mercenary commander in the European mainland during the Thirty Years War. By the time he returned to England in 1640, Aston was a grizzled and highly experienced officer. When the English Civil War erupted in 1642, Aston fought for king Charles I against the forces of Parliament.

In 1648, he was made commander of the Irish port town of Drogheda. There, he was besieged the following year Parliamentary forces led by Oliver Cromwell, who stormed and seized Drogheda on September 11^th, 1649. Aston was captured, and Cromwell’s soldiers, convinced that his prosthetic leg must contain hidden gold, demanded that he show them how to access its secret hidden compartment. They refused to believe his denials, and frustrated at his perceived obstinacy, beat him to death with his wooden leg.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.