The Battle of Chalgrove, Battlefield

THE ACCOUNT OF PRINCE RUPERT'S MARCH

The Battle of Chalgrove Field has been called a skirmish by many historians in the past.   It was Prince Rupert's intention that the near 2000 strong army he assembled at Magdalen Bridge, Oxford on Saturday 17th June 1643, should only be a large raiding party.   Within the 'Late Beating Up'   (Ref 1 - LBU) it refers to the raids on 'Postcombe and Chinner' and his victory at Chalgrove.   In the Earl of Essex Letters to Parliament (Ref 2 - EEL) it refers to a 'skirmish at Chinner' and later to only a running encounter with the Royalists '..... kept still upon the Reare for almost five Miles'.    Chalgrove is not even mentioned.   The discourse in the EEL gives an accurate description of the lead up to the conflict, but deliberately leaves out how they were thoroughly beaten and routed at the Battle.

A brief account of the whole episode is as follows.   Parliament tried to attack Islip on the morning of Saturday 17th June 1643, but declined to engage with the Royalist when they realised that Islip was strongly defended.   While Parliament's forces returned to their quarters, Prince Rupert finalised plans to attack Chinnor the following day in the earlier hours.

He ordered that a 2000 strong raiding party be ready to march from Oxford by 4 p.m. that afternoon.   They set off on their mission, stopping at Chiselhampton on the way to rest, before entering enemy territory at nightfall.   The march took them through Little Milton and past Tetsworth by 1 a.m.   They burst into Postcombe around 3 a.m. capturing a few men, a quantity of equipment and a Colour.

They then marched on up the Lower Icknield Way to Chinnor, arriving before 5 a.m., where after a brief encounter the village was captured.   They started their homeward trek back down the lower Icknield way around 6.30 a.m. with 120 prisoners, large quantities of military equipment, the food they had pillaged in their stomachs and Chinnor on fire behind them.

The first contact with the enemy came when Rupert's men discovered a body of around 200 men in Aston Rowant, described in the LBU as 'the village hard upon the left hand of us,' between 7 and 8 in the morning. Shortly after this encounter Parliamentarian scouts were seen on Beacon Hill which was located on the Royalist's left about a mile from Aston.   The LBU gives the location as, 'Presently whereupon some half score of their Scouts were discovered upon the sides of Becon Hill, beyond the Village.' These pieces of information locate, with reasonable accuracy, the site of the first skirmish and the beginning of the running battle.

The Royalist column, marching four abreast, was nearly a mile long and took about 20 minutes to pass a given point.   Where times are given in the LBU they are 'Prince Rupert's time', as the narrator, it can be gleaned from the text, is by the side of Rupert.

After the Royalists had just passed Aston Rowant, 200 Rebel troops as Rupert called them, charged the rear of the Royalists, encountering the Prince's Own and General Percy's Regiment of Horse.   These two Troops would have numbered around 600 men so the Rebels could only hope to slow the Royalists down.

As the LBU's narrator is with the Prince and his Lifeguard, who are away from this action and retreating towards Chalgrove, he quotes from the EEL which takes up the story.

Those Rebels, who had been skirmishing, retreated a short distance, reformed their Body and once again attacked the Royalists rear guard, near the village of South Weston.   This time the Prince's men gave the Rebels a real fright and threatened to kill them all.   The Earl of Essex writes, '.... so that being encompassed and overborne with multitude, they broke and fled, though it was not very far;'   Interestingly after this quotation the Earl is very economical with the truth, carefully mixing the running skirmishes with the Battle.   He never mentions Chalgrove by name.   His version of the rout after the Battle is queried in the LBU page 8; as is the number of troops present.   (LBU page 6).

While this gallant band are slowing the Royalists retreat, Sir Philip Stapleton who had the Watch that night in Thame, had sent two Cornets of Horse and 50 men with a Troop of Dragoons to Chinnor from Thame to investigate the fire. When they learnt of Chinnor's fate they chased off in pursuit of the Royalists, and finding their colleagues, who had been skirmishing, they joined them.

The highway that led from South Weston to Clare, Easington and on to Chalgrove had a brook running along its left hand side, that afforded protection to the Royalists left flank.   This stream flowed towards Clare crossing Kinghtsbridge Lane 300 yards to the left of the crossroads.    Its direction always narrowing the distance to the Stoke Talmage to Clare road that ran along the top of a steep incline.   The steepness of the bank to the road limited the area on their right flank that the rear guard needed to defend.   With the lie of the land being in the Royalists favour those Rebels who had been pursuing the Prince's men had little chance to outflank them anywhere along the five mile route to Chalgrove.   The terrain funnelled the Royalists in the direction of Chalgrove, allowing them the luxury of only having to protect the rear of their army.

This five mile march, from Aston Rowant to Golder Hill, at some three mph. had taken just over one and half hours.   Parliament's men, who had been following the Royalists, met with the scratch force of about 800 troopers who had been sent by Stapleton from Thame.   It was as the LBU's narrator stated, 'Just at this time (being now about o'clock)' that Rupert halted his Troopers in Solinger Field (1).   This is described by the narrator as 'His Highnesses was now making halt in a Chalgrove cornfield:'   Meanwhile the head of the Prince's column was crossing Warpsgrove lane half a mile further up.

Rupert noted at this time several large Bodies of the Rebels Horse and Dragooners coming down Golder Hill (3) towards him from Easington and Thame, plus those that had previously been skirmishing with his men.   The Parliamentarians ordered their men in Lewknor Meadow, part of a Great Close (4) or pasture that led down to Warpsgrove House (5), which was separated from Solinger Field by a Great Hedge (2).   This ancient hedge, that exists in parts today, formed the boundary between the Parishes of Chalgrove and Warpsgrove.   Lewknor Meadow though is an anomaly, being part of Lewknor Parish some 5 miles away.

The Prince called his Commanders together and formulated a plan of action. He took care to secure his retreat to Chiselhampton Bridge by sending Colonels Lunsford and Washington with the prisoners there to hold it. He then ordered the Dragooners, some 500 of them, to line the hedges along the lanes on the route to Chiselhampton. While the Parliamentarians were sorting their scratch force of men into Troops and organising the chain of command, Rupert suddenly made show of a retreat along Upper Marsh Lane (9). The Earl's men could see that if they did not make a decisive move immediately, even though they were still disorganised, the Royalists would get away.

Chasing down the Close they turned left in front of Warpsgrove House through the Great Hedge into Chalgrove's pasture land and ordered their men into eight Troops of Horse (6); a direct threat to Rupert's right flank.   They left a reserve of 3 Cornets (7) by Warpsgrove House and a further 2 troops (8) a short distance away from the house, towards Golder Hill, in the Close.   With their best Captains in the front they made a 'fair stand' of eight Cornets of Horse. Extracts from the LBU state at this point 'Wee were now parted by a hedge, ....' and later after detailing where the Reserves were placed, '... they were in sight of one another, by 9 o'clock in the morning'.

The Prince knew that the Rebels were too close for him to retreat any further, so he turned and ordered his regiments to face Parliament behind the small hedge (10). Parliament's frontage of 8 cornets (6) was bigger than the Prince's (11), so he commanded that two more Troops from the Prince of Wale's Regiment (13) join him to make a front even with Parliament's.   Rupert leapt the hedge that parted them, and in turn was followed by fifteen of his Lifeguard (12).   The Parliamentarian Dragoons who lined the hedge were scattered, but not before they had unseated a few riders with their muskets.   The rest of the Lifeguard and the Prince's own Regiment came round the end of the hedge and faced the eight Rebel Troops of Horse.

It was the Parliament's tactics to stand their troops to receive an attack, firing their pistols and carbines at their attackers when they charged.   Conversely the Royalist's would charge full speed at their adversaries with swords drawn, taking the full brunt of the volley fired at them.   Only after they had engaged the enemy would they use their pistols, probably more effectively, at close range.   This is precisely how it is narrated in the LBU.

It is while this melee was in progress that Major Gunter, the commander of the Parliamentarian troops, was killed and Colonel John Hampden seriously wounded.   The Mercurius Aulicus under Saturday June 17th 1643 (Page 321) quotes that Prince Rupert's and the Prince of Wales's Regiment 'slew above an hundred dead in the place, and made the rest shew justice of their cause that is, run away most shamefully;'   During the confusion of the Battle, Rupert called General Percy's Regiment (15) onto the flanks of the Rebels causing them to flee to their Reserves by Warpsgrove House,   Even with these reinforcements they were beaten and quickly routed,   The Prince's men chased them back up the Close, from whence they came, and over Golder Hill.   The Royalist Horse, being so tired after the night's march, were not a match for the speed of the Rebels fleeing for their lives.   Somewhere around Stoke Talmage, Sir Philip Stapleton with his Regiment met the retreating Parliamentarians and drew them up into a Body.

Meanwhile the Prince with his men returned to the Battlefield to survey the scene and attend to the wounded. After half an hour, when he was sure the Rebels would not launch a counter attack, he departed from Chalgrove.   He left General Percy's Horse and Col. Washington's Dragoons to guard Chiselhampton Bridge for the night and instructed them to send out strong patrols.

The Prince entered Oxford about 2pm in triumph with his trophies of war.

References:

LBU = 'His Highnesse PRINCE RUPERTS Late Beating Up The REBELS QUARTERS At Post-comb and Chinner in Oxford Shire. And His Victory in Chalgrove Field, on Sunday morning June 18 1643. PRINTED AT OXFORD, by LEAONARD LICHFIELD, Printer to the University 1643.

EEL = 'TWO LETTERS From His Excellencie Robert Earl of ESSEX: The one unto the SPEAKER of the House of Commons; Relating the state of the late Skirmish at Chinner, between a party of the KINGS and Parliaments Forces, on the Sabbath day the 19 of June 1643. With the number of such persons as was taken and slain on both sides.' LONDON, Printed by John Field for Edw: Husbands, and are to be sold at his shop in the Middle-Temple, June 23 1643.

MERCURIUS AULICUS = 'Communicating the Intelligence and affaires of the Court, to the rest of the KINGDOME. The foure and twentieth Weeke. Sunday June 11 - Saturday June 17'.

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