Edmund Ludlow (c. 1617–1692) was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his Memoirs, which were published posthumously in a rewritten form and which have become a major source for historians of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Ludlow was elected a Member of the Long Parliament and served in the Parliamentary armies during the English Civil Wars. After the establishment of the Commonwealth in 1649 he was made second-in-command of Parliament's forces in Ireland, before breaking with Oliver Cromwell over the establishment of the Protectorate. After the Restoration Ludlow went into exile in Switzerland, where he spent much of the rest of his life. Ludlow himself spelt his name Ludlowe.
Early life
Ludlow was born in Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire, the son of Sir Henry Ludlow of Maiden Bradley and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Phelips of Montacute, Somerset. Most of his campaigning in Ireland was against Irish guerrillas or "tories" and much of his operations consisted of hunting small bands and destroying foodstuff and crops. Ludlow is remembered for what he said of the Burren in County Clare during counter-guerilla operations there in 1651–52; "It is a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him."
The Protectorate
Though disapproving of Cromwell's action in dissolving the Rump Parliament in April 1653, Ludlow maintained his employment. However, when Cromwell was declared Lord Protector after the failure of Barebone's Parliament he declined to acknowledge his authority.
According to his Memoirs he believed that Cromwell "had not appeared that he ever approved on any persons farther than he might make them subservient to his own ambitious designs; ...and that the generality of the people that had engaged with us having acted upon no higher principles than those of civil liberty, and that they might be governed by their own consent, it could not be just to treat them in another manner upon any pretenses whatsoever."
On returning to England in October 1655 he was arrested, and on refusing to submit to the government was allowed to retire to Essex.
After Oliver Cromwell's death, Ludlow was returned for Hindon, Wiltshire, in Richard's Parliament of 1659, but opposed the continuance of the Protectorate. He sat in the restored Rump Parliament, and was a member of its Council of State and of the Committee of Safety after its second expulsion, and a commissioner for the nomination of officers in the army. Edmund Ludlow, was still loyal to Henry Vane the Younger and other Long Parliament leaders.
In July 1659, Edmond Ludlow was appointed commander-in-chief by the restored Rump Parliament of all forces in Ireland; and made Lieutenant-General of the Horse. Upon Ludlow's departure from parliament, he pleaded with Sir Arthur Haslerig, Henry Vane the Younger, Mr. Henry Nevil, Mr. Scot, and Major Saloway not to put any unnecessary hardships upon those in the army.
In August 1659, King's party addressed themselves to Col. Lambert through his wife, endeavouring to persuade her to solicit her husband to be the instrument of the King's return, with large land offers of whatsoever terms he would demand. "She acquainted the colonel with their propositions; but he having resolved to play another part, discovered the whole intrigue to Henry Vane the Younger, who having communicated it to Sir. Arthur Haslerig, and knowing there had been some differences between the colonel and Sir. Arthur, he persuaded them to renew their former friendship, with promises on each part to unit their endeavours in the service of Parliament". Ludlow and Lambert were more or less aligned and of the same party. Similar offers were apparently made to Col. Monk by the King's party at about this time.
Returning to England again in October 1659, he endeavoured to support the original republican cause by reconciling the army to the parliament. The attempts at reconciliation between the Wallingford House part of the army and Parliament failed.
Despite Ludlow's efforts of bringing these parties together, he was accused by some members of the Parliament of treason for having conspired with the Wallingford House party, who to these same members of Parliament seemed to be against the restoration of the original republic and only for their own continuance. Many of the generals and officers of the Wallingford House party also considered Ludlow as disloyal to their own cause and rights given his devotion to the "Old Commonwealth way". In the confusion, the Parliament recalled his commission and in December as Ludlow returned hastily to Ireland to suppress a movement in favour of the adverse party in the Long Parliament he found generals of the corresponding and opposing factions in command of all strategic points and himself almost without supporters. He came back to England in January 1660, and was met with an impeachment presented against him by parliament. His own republican faction allies had also been largely forced out of power and could not assist him. Accordingly, on the proclamation of the king ordering the regicides to come in, Ludlow emerged from his concealment, and on 20 June surrendered to the Speaker; but finding that his life was not assured, he succeeded in escaping to Dieppe, France, travelled to Geneva and Lausanne, and thence to Vevey, Switzerland. On 16 April 1662, the canton of Bern granted Ludlow and two fellow fugitives, Lisle and Cawley, an act of protection allowing them to live in the canton. His wife joined him in 1663. For security, he adopted the pseudonym of Edmund Phillips, based on a variant of his mother's maiden name.
In 1691–1693 four pamphlets were published in Ludlow's name. Like the Memoirs after them, they were a contribution to the Whig cause. Contemporaries variously attributed them to Slingsby Bethel, John Phillips (Milton's nephew), Thomas Percival, and John Toland.