The Battlefields Trust

PresentsThe Battles ofBrentford

&Turnham Green

When:-

Battle of Brentford

12th November 1642.

Battle of Turnham Green

13th November 1642

So......

Who fought

whom?

V

Royalist s advance from Hounslow Heath

They are met by the red coated parliamentary regiment of Denzil Holles who are hiding in hedges around Sir Richard Wynn’s House.

The royalists have many more men and easily clear them from the hedges.

The royalists advance to Brentford Bridge

The parliamentarians, still outnumbered keep the royalists back for over an hour, having built a barricade across the bridge

The royalists again advance but are faced with a second barricade.

barricade is defended by troops from Lord Brooke's parliamentary regiment of foot

The royalists were again delayed, this time for 2 or 3 hours until they had Lord Brooke’s regiment almost surrounded.

The parliamentarians made a run for it! Some towards London but others tried to swim across the Thames. Many were drowned.

The Battle of Brentford

An artist’s impression of the Barricade at Brentford Bridge

What happened after the battle?

The parliamentarians fled at least 50 were killed

327 were captured and many drowned

Royalist losses were less than 20.

The royalists then looted Brentford.

By 8am, after calling-up reinforcements from London overnight, 24,000 parliamentarians formed up on Turnham Green to prevent the royalists marching on London

The royalists army of 12,000 which had taken part in the previous days battle at Brentford, formed up to attack.

The Battle of Turnham Green

To protect their left flank, the royalists sent troops into the hedgerows on the rising ground towards Acton.

The parliamentarians sent a larger force to counter this move.

A number were killed and wounded on both sides, as the Parliamentarians succeeded in driving the Royalists back to their lines.

The Earl of Essex ordered 4 regiments of foot soldiers and 2 of horsemen to march to Acton to outflank the royalists.

But he quickly changed his mind as he didn’t want to split his army. He soon called them back

By late afternoon, the royalists, realising that they couldn’t win withdrew through Brentford back to where they started at Hounslow Heath the day before.

The battle had become a stalemate – both sides swapped cannon fire but neither side had the upper hand

During the early part of the battle the experienced royalists sent skirmish parties to attack the inexperienced parliamentarians in attempts to break their lines.

What were they fighting about?

• The Constitution• Control of the army

• Beliefs

• Taxes

The ConstitutionWho should rule the country

The King or Parliament?Royalists

• Everyone must obey the King.

• I am loyal to my Lord and I will fight if he asks me.

• The king is divine and takes his orders from God.

Parliamentarians

• It is possible that Kings could be wrong.

• I will only fight if I agree with the reasons.

• The King must listen to parliament.

Control of the army

The King ParliamentOr

Taxation

The King

Is lord of everybody and can tax people as much as he likes for whatever reason he likes.

Parliament

Should set how much tax people pay and say how that money should be spent

Beliefs

The King

Everyone should worship God in the same way.

Parliament

There is more than one way to worship God.

What happened at the end of the civil war?

• Eventually the Parliamentarians won

• King Charles was captured, tried and his head cut off.

• Britain became a republic under Oliver Cromwell.

• In 1660 the monarchy was restored.