The Battle of Maidstone was fought on 1 June 1648 during the Second English Civil War, pitting an attacking Parliamentarian force under Sir Thomas Fairfax against a Royalist garrison holding the town of Maidstone in Kent. The Royalist uprising in Kent had gathered considerable momentum in May 1648, with over 10,000 men assembling at Penenden Heath for the Earl of Norwich before dispersing to hold key towns including Gravesend, Rochester, Dover and Maidstone. With the larger part of the New Model Army already committed to suppressing a rebellion in South Wales under Cromwell, Fairfax could muster only 6,000 men in total, of whom he led 4,000 veteran troops against a Royalist garrison of around 2,000 defenders, most of whom were described as cavaliers, citizens, seamen and watermen rather than professional soldiers.
Fairfax opened the action with considerable tactical cunning. After outflanking the main Royalist forces on Burham Heath and staging a diversionary feint towards Aylesford, he crossed the River Medway at East Farleigh Bridge virtually unopposed. Early skirmishes erupted on Penenden Heath, positioned between the two defending Royalist forces led by Sir William Brockman and Sir John Mayney in Aylesford and Maidstone respectively. The Earl of Norwich failed to grasp the full significance of the assault until late afternoon, at which point Fairfax exploited his advantage and launched a storm of the town itself from the south side. What followed was a grinding, ferocious contest fought in heavy rain, with Parliamentarian troops pushing street by street and inch by inch against a succession of Royalist barricades. The defenders fell back progressively through Gabriel's Hill and Week Street before making their last stand in St Faith's Churchyard.
Fairfax finally secured command of the town just after midnight, during a raging thunderstorm, and was said to be astonished when around a thousand Royalists emerged from inside St Faith's Chapel to offer their surrender. Royalist prisoners were initially held in All Saints Church, and in recognition of the stiff resistance they had put up, Fairfax allowed 1,300 men to return to their homes. The remaining Royalist force of roughly 6,000 men on Burham Heath began to disperse, with the bulk retreating northwards under Norwich in the hope of taking London. Finding the city gates closed, they moved into Essex, pursued by Fairfax, and ultimately chose to make their stand at Colchester on 13 June. The siege that followed lasted some ten weeks before the Royalists there surrendered in late August, effectively ending the uprising that had threatened to reignite the Civil War across the south-east.
One of the most arresting moments of the entire battle came just after midnight, as a thunderstorm raged over Maidstone and the fighting had at last died down. Fairfax, having driven the defenders back through every street and barricade in the town, was already in command of the place when the door of St Faith's Chapel swung open and approximately a thousand Royalists filed out to surrender. The sight of so many men emerging from a single small chapel astonished even the battle-hardened general. That same chapel, in which those men had packed themselves during hours of ferocious street fighting, was later replaced by the Victorian church visible in Brenchley Gardens today, though the doublet Fairfax wore during the battle survives and can still be seen on display at Leeds Castle near Maidstone.
Royalists: 800+ (one source states 300 dead/dying and 1,000 captured); Parliamentarians: 80
Parliamentarian: approximately 4,000 veteran troops under Sir Thomas Fairfax. Royalist: approximately 2,000 defenders within Maidstone, with a further force of around 6,000 remaining on Burham Heath.
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