Battle of Burton Bridge (1643)

Battle of Burton Bridge

An early photograph of the medieval Burton Bridge

Date	4 July 1643
Location	Burton upon Trent 52°48′24″N 1°37′26″W / 52.8067°N 1.6238°W / 52.8067; -1.6238Coordinates: 52°48′24″N 1°37′26″W / 52.8067°N 1.6238°W / 52.8067; -1.6238
Result	Royalist victory

Belligerents

Royalists

Parliamentarians

Commanders and leaders

Henrietta Maria
Thomas Tyldesley

Richard Houghton (POW)
Thomas Sanders (POW)

Strength

200 infantry, 60 dragoons and a cannon

The Battle of Burton Bridge was fought between Royalist and Parliamentarian forces at Burton upon Trent on 4 July 1643 during the First English Civil War. By the time of the battle the town, which had at various times been held by both sides, was garrisoned by a Parliamentarian unit under the command of Captain Thomas Sanders and the town's military governor, Colonel Richard Houghton. The key river crossing at Burton was desired by Queen Henrietta Maria, who was proceeding southwards from Yorkshire with a convoy of supplies destined for King Charles I at Oxford. The Royalists, led by Colonel Thomas Tyldesley, launched a cavalry charge across the bridge which succeeded in defeating the Parliamentarians and capturing most of their officers, including Sanders and Houghton. The Queen's convoy proceeded on its way south to Oxford with Tyldesley receiving a knighthood and a promotion in recognition of his victory. Burton changed hands several more times during the course of the war, before finally coming into Parliament's control in 1646.

The county of Staffordshire, several days travel from the main seat of power in London, had a long-standing disinclination to paying taxes and levies imposed by the King. James I's Privy Council was forced to write to the county's Justices of the Peace for their failure to raise a single penny to support the King's campaign to reclaim the Palatinate in Germany for his son-in-law Frederick V in the 1620s. The county was also slow to pay Charles I's ship money which began to be levied (in defiance of the Parliament) on the inland counties in 1634 and saw much resistance. Open dissent against the King's decrees occurred in 1640 in objection to the levying of 300 men from the county for the King's campaign against the Scots. Riots took place in Uttoxeter with an armed guard having to be formed to prevent the levy from deserting.

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