IRONSIDES  , a

nickname given to one of great bravery, strength or endurance, particularly as exhibited in a soldier . In English history Ironside or Ironsides first appears as the name of Edmund II., king of the English . In the Great Rebellion it was first given by Prince Rupert to Cromwell, after the battle of Marston Moor in 1644 (see S . R . Gardiner's History of the Great Civil War, 1893, vol. ii. p . 1, and Mercurius civicus, September 19-26, 1644, quoted there) . From Cromwell it was transferred to the troopers of his cavalry, those "God-fearing men," raised and trained by him in an iron discipline, who were the main instrument of the parliamentary victories in the field . This (see S . R . Gardiner, op. cit. iv . 179) was first given at the raising of the siege of Pontefract 1648, but did not become general till later .