Edgehill.

The fate of Birmingham in 1643 was tied closely, but indirectly, to the outcome of Edgehill. By taking offensive action against the King, Birmingham was a marked town. Moreover it had taken such action twice. This is not the place for a detailed consideration of the Battle of Edgehill and the events surrounding it, except in so far as they concern Birmingham. It has been mentioned that the King's route from Shrewsbury took him through Birming-ham, and then he had to move carefully between the Roundhead towns of Coventry and Warwick, where the Castle was a menacing fortress.

It is enough to say that the Battle was a drawn affair, with no decisive advantage for either side. The King's troops withdrew to Oxford, after taking Banbury. Essex, by retreating, had conceded the advantage of tactical and moral victory to the King - but without military success, it was a hollow victory. From Oxford the Royalist forces sallied as far as Brentford and Turnham Green before withdrawing into winter quarters in Oxford. Had the King pressed on immediately after Edgehill he might have taken London - by dithering he allowed Essex enough time to return to London by way of Northampton, Olney, Woburn and St. Albans.

We have no definite evidence that the town sent troops to Edgehill - it would, however, be surprising if they did not, since they had declared themselves so firmly against the King. (Some indirect evidence is provided by Bloxam in an 1872 pamphlet on the Civil War in Warwickshire, where he claims that following the entry of 300 Birmingham men into Coventry, a force then left directly afterwards to join the Earl of Essex's army before the fight.)

And so, when the King's army settled into its winter quarters, we may be sure that to them Birmingham was rather more than simply a name on the map. It was an enemy stronghold to be treated with little consideration, should the King's army be in its immediate vicinity again. For Birmingham was brought to the attention of the chief commanders frequently. It lay on the main commun-ication route from Oxford to the north, and north-west. This gave inhabitants every opportunity to interrupt communications between Royalist commanders -opportunities which they were not slow to accept. They are claimed to have 'with unusual industry and vigilance apprehended all messengers who were employed or suspected to be so, in the King's service'. Lichfield, a few miles further north, was a similar thorn in the flesh of the King's army, though there was Royalist support in Lichfield, too.

At last in early April 1643, the King ordered Prince Rupert, with 1200 cavalry, and 6-700 infantry, to open a line of communication between Oxford and York. At the same time, Rupert was to take over a Commander in Chief of the Royal forces in the Midlands, as a consequence of the death of the Earl of Northampton near Stafford. Rupert's troops were to reinforce a Royalist force at Lichfield.

"At the beginning of April 1643, the King ordered Prince Rupert to march towards Lichfield; in his way thither he was to march through Bromicham, a town in Warwickshire before mentioned, and of as great fame for hearty, wilful, affected disloyalty to the King, as any place in England." Clarendon at this point digresses, to remind his readers of the action of the town in the previous year when they attacked the King's baggage trains and sent the spoils to Warwick Castle. Regrettably, his account of the battle itself is skimpy, and our major sources are three pamphlets, written within a few days and weeks of the event.

These pamphlets will be considered at greater length later, because they are excellent examples of the manner in which the opposing sides presented their case. Their titles are:

1 'A True Relation of Prince Rupert's Barbarous Cruelty against the towne of Brumingham.'
2 'A Letter written from Walshall, by a worthy gentleman to his friend in Oxford, concerning Burmingham.'
3 'Prince Rupert's Burning Love to England, discovered in Birmingham's Flames.
OR A more Exact and true Naration of Birmingham's Calamities, under the barbarous and inhumane cruelties of P.Rupert's forces.'

Of these, the first is a Roundhead account, the second a Cavalier account, and the third is apparently the official statement of the losers, for it was:"Published at the request of the Committee at Coventry, that the kingdom may timely take notice what is generally to be expected if the Cavaliers insolencies be not speedily crushed."

It is only by a careful reading that, on the basis of these three narra-tives, we may satisfactorily reconstruct the events of those days in April, 1643.