Major-General Thomas Harrison (1616 – 1660) is one of the most complex figures to emerge during Interregnum. He was promoted through the ranks of the Parliamentary Army, starting as a trooper at the Battle of Powick Bridge, one of the first engagements of the war in September 1642. He rose to command the Army in Wales, and then in England in 1651 while Cromwell was in Scotland.
Unsurprisingly as a prominent Parliamentarian, Harrison was appointed one of the King’s Judges, and was an early signatory of the death warrant which sent Charles to his execution.
But his relationship with Cromwell ended in acrimony when Harrison was associated with the Fifth Monarchist movement. These were radical Puritans who believed in Christ’s imminent return to England. They opposed Cromwell’s appointment as Lord Protector and were forced out of Parliament by soldiers. Harrison was arrested and imprisoned four times.
With the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Harrison knew that he would be marked out for retribution. As the eminent historian, Dr Stephen Roberts describes, he was the first to suffer the king’s revenge.
