On the 18th June, during a battle with Prince Rupert's cavalry at Chalgrove near Oxford, John Hampden was wounded. The injury was fatal and after riding across country he reached Thame, where he died a week later.

The Oxoniensia article below provides a revised view of the significance of the Battle of Chalgrove which took place on 18 June 1643. It is argued that the battle's military and political importance to the early years of the Civil War has been underestimated. Many other details about the battle require clarification, including the site of the battlefield, the Royalist and Parliamentarian armies' manoeuvres preceding the battle and the times and places noted en route.

Overview

Chalgrove - The Military and Political Account

After the Battle of Edgehill the Royalists advanced on London from the west. Under a flag of truce they attacked Brentford but were rebuffed at Turnham Green. On their retreat to the King's new H/Q at Oxford they left a garrison at Reading as an outpost which effectively blocked the trade routes from the West Country to London.

On Feb 13 1643 Queen Henrietta Maria landed a huge shipment of supplies at Bridlington. If the King was to prosecute the war this shipment had to get to Oxford. With Lord Fairfax threatening the Queen from the north and Essex's army advancing on Oxford against the poorly supplied Royalists, the Queen had no option but to remain at York Castle.

Prince Rupert set out from Oxford in early April to clear a path to escort the Queen's convoy from York. At Lichfield on the 20 April Rupert was called back to Oxford. Reading fell to Essex and the King expected to be attacked within two days. The assault on Oxford never happened as disease in Essex's army halted the advance.

The King ordered that a convoy of gunpowder be sent from York which arrived in Oxford 16 May. The gunpowder gave the Royalists the confidence to attack towns and villages ever closer to London. Essex's army and London were powerless to respond.

In early June Essex began moving his troops to Thame. In early June Queen Henrietta moved the convoy from York to Newark castle. On the 18 June 1643 Essex lost many of his senior officers at the Battle of Chalgrove. (Exact location see 'Modern Interpretation' below.) His diseased, ill supplied and now leaderless army left Oxfordshire not to return until early September.

The convoy left Newark 27 June confident that Essex could not intercept them. The Earl of Newcastle freed of his duties to the Queen rode north and at Adwalton Moor 30 June wiped out Fairfax's army of the north.

While the Queen was en route to Oxford the Parliamentarians lost Lansdown 5 July - Devices 13 July and the Port of Bristol 26 July. Because of the Battle of Chalgrove and subsequent losses Parliament began an internal reorganisation. Ultimately the Self Denying Ordinance and the New Model Army under Cromwell was enacted which cemented the military and political importance of Chalgrove.

Battlefield Location - Skirmish or Battle

At Chinnor the Royalist's deployed their musketeers and named the street fight a raid. Essex stated in his 'Letter' that his forces 'kept near upon the Reare for almost five Miles' following the Royalist's retreat from Chinnor. On the march the Royalist's confronted and engaged the 300 Parliamentarians who had been skirmishing with their rear. Unable to resist the Parliamentarians were, as Essex relates, 'overborne with multitude they broke and fled'. Essex, by accident or design, confused this skirmish with the Battle of Chalgrove. Prince Rupert referred to the Battle of Chalgrove as a fight in the same terms as the Battle of Hopton Heath where similar numbers of cavalry were deployed.

Lord Nugent raised a monument to John Hampden in 1843 on land donated by Renn Dickson Hampden DD. Nugent's pledge to the subscribers was to raise the Monument close to where John Hampden was mortally wounded. The Monument is sited a mile from where Nugent believed the encounter occurred. The diplomatically phrased inscription, 'within a few paces of this spot he received the wound of which he died', satisfied the subscribers.

In Victorian society John Hampden's name was revered. In 1880 the fledgling Ordnance Survey came to Chalgrove to map the surrounding area for the first time and record where the now famous John Hampden gave his life. Reading the legend on the monument, 'within a few paces of this spot...' and believing that the battle took place in the nearest cornfield the cartographers noted on their map 'Site of Battle 18 June 1643'. The whole area from their battle site through and across the lane encompassing the monument was christened 'Chalgrove Field'.

English Heritage revisited the history of the Battle of Chalgrove Field and concluded for their provisional battlefield register that on their evidence the encounter was a skirmish. New evidence presented to an independent assessment panel was accepted and English Heritage was required to put Chalgrove on the Register of Battles. Favouring their own interpretation English Heritage re-examined 'OS's' battle site and unhappy with their findings and with military expediency the battle site was moved 400 yards northwards. The current interpretation of the Battle of Chalgrove is based on the Earl of Clarendon's and Lord Nugent's utterly flawed understanding of events at Chalgrove.

Modern Interpretation

In Feb 1643 Queen Henrietta Maria landed a huge shipment of arms from the Continent but was unable to progress further than York Castle. The Royalist's concentrated their efforts from April onwards to get this shipment to Oxford.

Using data from contemporary documents the deployment and troop movements of both armies has been plotted from April 1643 through to July 1643 and beyond.

On June 17 the Royalist's night march out of Oxford ended in the Battle of Chalgrove. Their retreat from Chinnor took them across country to Golder Hill and the troops' movements of those descending this Hill has been plotted logically in a timed progression to the Battlefield.

"His Highness was now making halt in Chalgrove cornfield" and "We discerned several great Bodies of the Rebels Horse and Dragooners, coming down Golder-hill towards us." who "drew down to the bottom of a great Close." - Rupert viewed Parliament's troops "ordering themselves there among the trees beyond a great hedge in a great Close". This sight line of data gives an accurate placement of where Prince Rupert assessed the strength of his adversaries.

Rupert turned to follow his infantry leaving the enemy the other side of the Great Hedge. The only gap in the Great Hedge is the track to Warpsgrove House a short distance from Golder Hill. Warpsgrove House has sunk from trace but ancient documents reveal its precise location. Parliament "left a Reserve of 3 Cornets in the Close aforesaid among the trees by Wapsgrove House". - "We discerned them to be eight Cornets of Horse" that faced the Royalists - "we were now parted by a hedge" - Rupert "leapt the hedge that parted us from the Rebels." - "they were in sight of one another, by 9 o'clock in the morning".

The text in italics is taken from the 'Late Beating Up', the Royalist's account published a week after the Battle. The descriptions of landscape features and the timings of events in this publication leave no doubt as to location of the Battle. The data focuses the Battle at the map location OS SU648978.

Oxoniensia Article

courtesy of the Chalgrove Battle Group

The Military and Political Importance of the Battle of Chalgrove (1643)

Derek and Gill Lester

Hampden's Monument

The text on the side reads HERE IN THIS FIELD OF CHALGROVE JOHN HAMPDEN AFTER AN ABLE AND STRENUOUS BUT UNSUCCESSFUL RESISTANCE IN PARLIAMENT AND BEFORE THE JUDGES OF THE LAND TO THE MEASURES OF AN ARBITRARY COURT FIRST TOOK TO ARMS ASSEMBLING THE LEVIES OF THE ASSOCIATED COUNTIES OF BUCKINGHAM AND OXFORD. IN 1642. WITHIN A FEW PACES OF THIS SPOT HE RECEIVED THE WOUND OF WHICH HE DIED WHILE FIGHTING IN DEFENCE OF THE FREE MONARCHY AND ANCIENT LIBERTIES OF ENGLAND JUNE 18, 1643. IN THE TWO HUNDREDTH YEAR FROM THAT DAY THIS STONE WAS RAISED IN REVERENCE TO HIS MEMORY.