Battle of Kings Norton
52°24′26″N 1°55′38″W / 52.4072°N 1.9272°W / 52.4072; -1.9272
300 foot[1]
20 captured[1]
- v
- t
- e
- 1st Hull
- Marshall's Elm
- Portsmouth
- Plymouth
- Babylon Hill
- Powick Bridge
- Kings Norton
- Edgehill
- Aylesbury
- Brentford
- Turnham Green
- Farnham Castle
- Piercebridge
- Tadcaster
- 1st Exeter
- Muster Green
- 1st Bradford
- Chichester
1643
- Braddock Down
- Leeds
- 1st Middlewich
- Hopton Heath
- Seacroft Moor
- Camp Hill
- Lichfield
- Ripple Field
- Reading
- Sourton Down
- 1st Wardour Castle
- Stratton
- Wakefield
- 1st Worcester
- Chalgrove Field
- Adwalton Moor
- 2nd Bradford
- Burton Bridge
- Lansdowne
- Roundway Down
- 1st Bristol
- Gainsborough
- Gloucester
- 2nd Hull
- Aldbourne Chase
- 1st Newbury
- Winceby
- Olney Bridge
- 1st Basing House
- Heptonstall
- 2nd Wardour Castle
- Alton
- Bramber Bridge
- Arundel
- 2nd Middlewich
1644
- Nantwich
- Newcastle
- 1st Lathom House
- Newark
- Boldon Hill
- Stourbridge Heath
- Cheriton
- Selby
- Lyme Regis
- York
- Lincoln
- 1st Oxford
- Bolton
- 2nd Basing House
- Tipton Green
- Oswestry
- Cropredy Bridge
- Marston Moor
- Gunnislake New Bridge
- Ormskirk
- Lostwithiel
- Tippermuir
- 1st Aberdeen
- Montgomery Castle
- 1st Chester
- 1st Taunton
- Carlisle
- 2nd Newbury
1645
- Inverlochy
- High Ercall Hall
- Weymouth
- Scarborough Castle
- 2nd Taunton
- Auldearn
- 3rd Taunton
- 2nd Oxford
- Leicester
- Naseby
- Alford
- 2nd Lathom House
- Langport
- Hereford
- Kilsyth
- 2nd Bristol
- Philiphaugh
- 2nd Chester
- Rowton Heath
- Sherburn in Elmet
- 3rd Basing House
- Annan Moor
- Denbigh Green
- Shelford House
- Newark
1646
- Bovey Heath
- Torrington
- Stow-on-the-Wold
- 3rd Oxford
- 2nd Aberdeen
- Lagganmore
- 2nd Worcester
The Battle of Kings Norton was fought on 17 October 1642. The skirmish developed out of a chance encounter between Royalists under the command of Prince Rupert and Parliamentarians under the command of Lord Willoughby. Both forces had been on their way to join their respective armies which were later to meet at Edgehill in the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War. The Parliamentarians won the encounter and both forces proceeded to join their respective armies.[1]
Prelude
On Monday 17 October 1642 King Charles I was marching south through Birmingham. While passing through the town some of the Royal carriages were pillaged and the contents sent to Warwick Castle a parliamentary stronghold.[1][a]
Rupert, whose soldiers had been cantoned in Stourbridge after his victory at the Battle of Powick Bridge, left the town on 17 October to join King Charles with 9 troops of horse and about 300 foot.[1] If any reliance is to be placed on one surviving tract of the encounter, Rupert's march crossed the path of a Parliamentary party under the command of Lord Willoughby of Parham on his way to join the Earl of Essex's parliamentary army.[1]
Battle
Lord Willoughby who was in command of about 800 horse and foot met Prince Rupert somewhere between Stourbridge and Birmingham, probably in the Kings Norton area.[1] The resulting skirmish was "very fierce and cruel".[b] It was the Royalists who disengaged having lost between 50 and 80 killed with 20 taken prisoner. The Parliamentarians kept possession of the battlefield losing between 17 and 20 men.[1]
Aftermath
Both parties continued on to their destinations: Rupert joined King Charles, while Lord Willoughby joined Essex. The historian J. W. Willis-Bund speculated that it may have been Willoughby who provided the information on Rupert's (and the King's) movements, which led Essex to move his army towards Worcester on 19 October.[1]
Notes
- ^ Charles, not one to forget a slight, would in late March 1643 command Prince Rupert to lead an expeditionary force through Birmingham to Lichfield, so that while passing through Birmingham Rupert could punish them for their behaviour towards their king. This would lead in early April 1643 to the Battle of Camp Hill and the infamous burning of the town.
- ^ From the tract: "A true relation of a great and cruel battle fought by the Lord Willoughby, of Parham, with 800 horse and foot..."(Willis-Bund 2008, p. 59).
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Willis-Bund, p. 59.
References
- Willis-Bund, John William (2008) [1905]. The Civil War In Worcestershire, 1642–1646: And the Scotch Invasion of 1651. Birmingham: Read Books. ISBN 978-1-4437-7438-3.