“This amply shows Cromwell’s frame of mind before leaving for Ireland. His fear was that the young Charles, who had been declared king in Scotland immediately after his father’s death, would land in Ireland, rally the people to the royalist cause and lead an invasion to England. In the summer of 1649 it seemed to Cromwell that Ireland had become a royalist state and the prospects of a successful English invasion of that country were receding with every passing day.”