Battle of Brentford (1642)

Battle of Brentford
Part of the First English Civil War
Date 12 November 1642 Location Brentford, Middlesex Coordinates: 51°28′42″N 0°18′34″W / 51.47833°N 0.30944°W / 51.47833; -0.30944 Result Royalist victory
Belligerents
Royalists	Parliamentarians
Commanders and leaders
Prince Rupert	John Lilburne
Strength
4,600	1,300
Casualties and losses
unknown	170 dead or wounded 400 captured.

The Battle of Brentford was a small pitched battle which took place on 12 November 1642, between a detachment of the Royalist army, (predominantly horse with one regiment of Welsh foot) under the command of Prince Rupert and two infantry regiments of Parliamentarians with some horse in support. The result was a victory for the Royalists.

After the Battle of Edgehill (23 October) King Charles I captured Banbury (27 October) and was greeted by cheering crowds as he arrived in Oxford on 29 October. Prince Rupert swept down the Thames Valley, capturing Abingdon, Aylesbury and Maidenhead, from where he attempted to capture Windsor though failed due to Parliamentary strength there. After this many officers wanted to open peace negotiations, contrary to Rupert's desire to carry on to London, but the king agreed with the officers and so the Earl of Essex managed to overtake them and reach London with his Parliamentary army by 8 November.

While in Reading Charles decided that the peace talks were inconclusive, and that if he advanced on London it might place him in a better negotiating position. So on 11 November he moved his army closer to London by encamping at Colnbrook and to put further pressure on the Parliamentarians he ordered Prince Rupert to take Brentford.

On reaching London the Earl of Essex had not been idle, and had positioned men on the western approaches to London. One force covered the bridge at Kingston upon Thames while another, to the west, barricaded the small town of Brentford which lay on either side of the Thames concentrating their efforts in the proximity of the bridge that connected Old Brentford to New Brentford.

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