Battle of Brentford (1642)
Who Fought
Royalists: approximately 4,600 troops (predominantly cavalry with one Welsh foot regiment) under Prince Rupert; Parliamentarians: approximately 1,300 troops (two infantry regiments with supporting horse) under Lord Holles and Lord Brooke
History & Significance
The Battle of Brentford was a small pitched battle which took place on 12 November 1642 in Brentford, Middlesex, between a detachment of the Royalist army (predominantly horse with one regiment of Welsh foot) under the command of Prince Rupert, and two infantry regiments of Parliamentarians with some horse in support. The result was a victory for the Royalists.
After the Battle of Edgehill, King Charles I captured Banbury and was greeted by cheering crowds as he arrived in Oxford on 29 October. Prince Rupert swept down the Thames Valley, capturing Abingdon, Aylesbury and Maidenhead, from where he attempted to capture Windsor though failed due to Parliamentary strength there. Afterwards many officers wanted to open peace negotiations, contrary to Rupert's desire to carry on to London immediately. King Charles, however, agreed with the officers and as a result, the Earl of Essex was able ready the defense of London with the Parliamentarian army.
While in Reading, Berkshire, King Charles decided that the peace talks were inconclusive and that if he advanced on London it would place him in a better negotiating position. So on 11 November he moved his army closer to London by encamping at Colnbrook at the edge of Middlesex and to put further pressure on the Parliamentarians he ordered Prince Rupert to take Brentford midway across the small county.
Meanwhile, the Earl of Essex had rapidly positioned men on the western approaches to London. One force covered the bridge at Kingston upon Thames while another, downriver to the north, barricaded the small town of Brentford, the main crossing of a tributary to the Thames, concentrating their efforts in the proximity of the bridge that connected Old Brentford to New Brentford and the Bath Road (which passes Colnbrook) to London.
On 12 November under cover of an early morning mist Rupert's cavalry and dragoons attacked the two regiments of Parliamentary foot, one, Denzil Holles Regiment (although Holles was not present) and the other of Lord Brooke, which were barricaded inside Brentford. The initial attack by the cavaliers on Sir Richard Wynne's house, an outpost west of Brentford held by Holles's regiment, was repulsed. So a Welsh regiment of foot were ordered into action by Rupert. The combined force successfully captured the outpost and carried forward their attack into Brentford itself. They drove Holles's men over the bridge into the defences manned by Lord Brooke's men. These in turn were driven out of the town into open fields.
The fighting continued into late afternoon, before the survivors of Holles's and Brooke's regiments were able to disengage under the protection of John Hampden's infantry brigade, which arrived from Uxbridge to cover their withdrawal. Nevertheless, a large number of Holles's men drowned while trying to escape their pursuers by swimming across the Thames. The Royalists captured 15 guns and 11 colours and about 500 prisoners, including John Lilburne who was a captain in Brooke's regiment.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Brentford (1642) lies on Thames Group, bedrock that formed in the Eocene. The rock here is clay, silt, sand and gravel.
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- Battle of Brentford · Wikidata
- Battle of Brentford (1642) · Wikipedia