Canterbury Christmas Day Riot 1647

Who Fought

History & Significance

30 January – Scots hand over King Charles I to England in return for £40,000 of army back-pay. Thomas Fairfax meets the King beyond Nottingham and escorts him to Holdenby House in Northamptonshire.

10 March – set aside by Parliament as a day of public humiliation under terms of February's "An Ordinance, concerning the growth and spreading of Errors, Heresies, and Blasphemies, and for setting apart a day of Publike Humiliation, to seeke Gods assistance for the suppressing and preventing the same."

15 March – Harlech surrenders; the last Royalist castle to do so.

4 June – King Charles I taken to Newmarket as a prisoner of the New Model Army.

June – the Long Parliament passes an ordinance confirming abolition of the feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun, though making the second Tuesday in each month a secular holiday.

15 July – the King is allowed (at the request of Fairfax) to meet his children (James, Duke of York, Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester, and Princess Elizabeth) for what will be the last time, at the Greyhound Inn, Maidenhead.

2 August – the King rejects the proposals set out in the Heads of Proposals.

7 August – Oliver Cromwell takes control of Parliament with the New Model Army, an attempt by Presbyterian MPs to raise the City of London having been unsuccessful.

8 August – Irish Confederate Wars: An English Parliamentary army defeats the Irish Confederate's Leinster army.

October – the Levellers publish their manifesto Agreement of the People.

28 October–11 November – Putney Debates between the New Model Army and Levellers concerning a new national constitution.

11 November – the King attempts to escape captivity but is captured and imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight.

15 November – Corkbush Field mutiny: two regiments of the New Model Army threaten to mutiny.

24 December – Parliament presents the King with new demands which he rejects.

25 December – rioting in Canterbury and elsewhere over the celebration of Christmas.

26 December – the King signs a secret treaty with Scotland in which he promises to impose Presbyterianism in England in return for military assistance.

Anglican professors are dismissed from the University of Oxford.

1 April – John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, poet (died 1680)

3 April – Sir Thomas Littleton, 3rd Baronet, statesman (died 1709)

2 July – Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, privy councillor (died 1730)

8 July – Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond, courtier (died 1702)

date unknown – Henry Aldrich, theologian and philosopher (died 1710)

12 March – Sir Matthew Boynton, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament (born 1591)

The ground they fought on

The site of Canterbury Christmas Day Riot 1647 lies on White Chalk Subgroup, bedrock that formed in the Maastrichtian. The rock here is chalk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scheduled Monuments near Canterbury Christmas Day Riot 1647

Blackfriars

Scheduled monument · ~0.1 mi

Blackfriars is a Dominican friary located in Canterbury, Kent, founded in the mid-thirteenth century as part of the establishment of the Friars Preachers in England. The surviving structures, notably the gatehouse and sections of the precinct walls, date primarily from the fourteenth and fifteent…

Tilman2007 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

The Guildhall

Scheduled monument · ~0.1 mi

The Guildhall is a medieval civic building located in Kent, England, serving as a centre of municipal governance and commerce. Constructed during the medieval period, the structure reflects the architectural conventions of its era, with characteristics typical of guildhalls built to accommodate t…

N Chadwick / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Christchurch Priory and Archbishop's Palace

Scheduled monument · ~0.1 mi

Christchurch Priory is a monastic house founded in the eleventh century in Christchurch, Hampshire, though historically associated with Kent through its ecclesiastical connections and administrative networks. The priory was established as an Augustinian foundation and became a significant religio…

Tilman2007 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Roman site, Butchery Lane

Scheduled monument · ~0.1 mi

Butchery Lane is a Roman site located in Kent, England, comprising archaeological remains dating to the Roman period. The site lies within an area of known Roman activity and settlement in the region. As a scheduled ancient monument, it represents evidence of Roman occupation and land use in Kent…

Tower of St Magdalene's Church

Scheduled monument · ~0.2 mi

Tower of St Magdalene's Church is a medieval ecclesiastical structure located in Kent. The tower survives as a substantial example of parish church architecture, retaining characteristic features of its period of construction. Built of local stone, the tower demonstrates the building traditions t…

Nilfanion / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Canterbury city walls

Scheduled monument · ~0.2 mi

Canterbury city walls is a substantial circuit of medieval fortification surrounding the historic centre of Canterbury in Kent. The walls were constructed primarily during the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, built upon foundations that often utilised earlier Roman stonework from the fourth…

Ymblanter / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Other English Civil War Battles

Battles near Canterbury Christmas Day Riot 1647

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