<P> Cromwell's suppression of the Royalists in Ireland during 1649 still has a strong resonance for many Irish people . After the siege of Drogheda, the massacre of nearly 3,500 people--comprising around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and 700 others, including civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests (Cromwell claimed all the men were carrying arms)--became one of the historical memories that has driven Irish - English and Catholic - Protestant strife during the last three centuries . The Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland ground on for another four years until 1653, when the last Irish Confederate and Royalist troops surrendered . The victors confiscated almost all Irish Catholic - owned land in the wake of the conquest and distributed it to the Parliament's creditors, to the Parliamentary soldiers who served in Ireland, and to English people who had settled there before the war . </P> <P> The execution of Charles I altered the dynamics of the Civil War in Scotland, which had raged between Royalists and Covenanters since 1644 . By 1649, the struggle had left the Royalists there in disarray and their erstwhile leader, the Marquess of Montrose, had gone into exile . At first, Charles II encouraged Montrose to raise a Highland army to fight on the Royalist side . However, when the Scottish Covenanters (who did not agree with the execution of Charles I and who feared for the future of Presbyterianism under the new Commonwealth) offered him the crown of Scotland, Charles abandoned Montrose to his enemies . However, Montrose, who had raised a mercenary force in Norway, had already landed and could not abandon the fight . He did not succeed in raising many Highland clans and the Covenanters defeated his army at the Battle of Carbisdale in Ross - shire on 27 April 1650 . The victors captured Montrose shortly afterwards and took him to Edinburgh . On 20 May the Scottish Parliament sentenced him to death and had him hanged the next day . </P> <P> Charles II landed in Scotland at Garmouth in Morayshire on 23 June 1650 and signed the 1638 National Covenant and the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant shortly after coming ashore . With his original Scottish Royalist followers and his new Covenanter allies, King Charles II became the greatest threat facing the new English republic . In response to the threat, Cromwell left some of his lieutenants in Ireland to continue the suppression of the Irish Royalists and returned to England . </P> <P> He arrived in Scotland on 22 July 1650 and proceeded to lay siege to Edinburgh . By the end of August, disease and a shortage of supplies had reduced his army, and he had to order a retreat towards his base at Dunbar . A Scottish army, assembled under the command of David Leslie, tried to block the retreat, but Cromwell defeated them at the Battle of Dunbar on 3 September . Cromwell's army then took Edinburgh, and by the end of the year his army had occupied much of southern Scotland . </P>

Who was the first reigning monarch to face a public trial and execution