Sorry I didn't respond to your rather well delivered comment with something more interesting, but it is Christmas(happy Christmas btw),and trust me I have no love for the Tudors either as a welshman hahaha.

Not a Cromwell supporter by any means, and I don't think any sane person would argue he was a good person....

But what he actually did at the time wasn't considered terribly brutal.

Basically he just killed everyone who didn't surrender.

It's actually a really common thing if you look at siege warfare. Soldiers just went nuts and we're extremely brutal to sieges where the people did not surrender.

There's a lot to blame him for.... However his sieges are basically par for the course...

Look at the siege of szigetvar, a few of the mongol sieges, etc. There are baseline genocidal sieges throughout history.

Looked at by the lens of today naturally it's absolutely horrible, but yeah at the time....Completely normal.

I'd honestly blame religion and royalists for it all far more than Cromwell.

Here's some reading for you.

https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/research/spotlight-research/why-did-oliver-cromwell-end-ireland-first-place

https://www.history.co.uk/shows/al-murray-why-does-everyone-hate-the-english/articles/oliver-cromwell-the-most-hated-man-in