Oxford in June 1643 was buzzing with delight. The Kings cause seemed to be going from strength to strength, but a handful of men were more excited about an event, which had lately occurred. Colonel Urry, a Scot had entered Oxford. This was no ordinary entry, as Urry had previously been fighting with Parliament. As if this success was not enough, he carried with him some valuable cargo. John Urry, a soldier of fortune and quick thinking, had no money or ammunition, but carried news and information about the enemy. Prince Rupert knew this was more valuable than any of the former and immediately hatched a plan in his head, as Urry told them of his late commanders positions and quarters. Lord Essex, commander of the rebel Parliamentarians, was expecting a convoy of £21000 for the pay of his army; two valuable pieces of information in their own right. Riding out of Oxford on the afternoon of 17th June, Rupert was at the head of 1700-1800 men. The makeshift army was made up of Rupert’s own regiment of horse, The Prince of Wales and Lord Percy’s regiment, 300 dragoons under Lord Wentworth and the foot regiment of Henry Lunsford. Rupert excelled in gluing together scratch forces like these and successfully commanding them as one army. Sending his great friend, “Honest Will” Legge on with an advance guard, Rupert made to and crossed the Thames at Chiselhampton. By 1am the following morning, they had reached Tetsworth, 3 miles South of Essex’s headquarters. Rupert had by now travelled roughly 10 miles. At three in the morning, the first piece of action came, when the Royalists approached Postcomb. Colonel Herbert Morley’s troop of horse, from Sussex, was quartered there and the Royalists unlikely arrival surprised them. As Rupert’s men dismounted, some of the Parliamentarians galloped away, but the Royalists managed to capture nine men and one officer, a cornet. They added to their stock, arms and horses, which were left by the untimely flight of the Roundheads; the small victory took around half an hour. By 5 in the morning, the Royalist’s unrelenting advance reached Chinnor, four miles South of Essex. By this point, Rupert and his men had ridden past the whole of Essex’s army, from west to east! Will’s advance force then entered Chinnor, which contained 200 enemy horse, who had been on the march all the previous day, while Rupert’s men surrounded it. The enemy were from Sir Samuel Luke’s newly raised regiment from Bedfordshire and the Royalists captured 120 of them. Unfortunately, the firing gave an alarm to the nearby pay convoy, which dragged its way into thick woods to hide. The second Royalist victory had spent an hour and a half and time was pressing now to get back to Oxford; Essex was now well aware of Rupert’s presence, to say the least. The withdrawal back to Oxford took much longer than the advance; maybe Rupert didn’t want to return before he had a chance to score a hat trick of victories. At any rate, he withdrew slowly and a force from Lord Essex soon reached him and he was brought news of a force nearby at around 7-8 am that morning. The Roundheads were soon skirmishing with Percy and Rupert’s horse regiments and at 9am Rupert halted in Chalgrove Field, two miles from Chiselhampton. His men had travelled roughly 15 miles and fought two battles. As his own and Percy’s regiments came up, Rupert could see the enemy coming over the hill, jubilant in the thought that they were pressing down on a retreating Royalist force and maybe somewhat over-confident. Rupert’s quick brain and keen eye sensed the peril he could be in and issued orders that Colonel’s Lunsford and Washington should take all foot regiments to Chiselhampton bridge and occupy both ends of it. Wentworth's dragoons should line the hedges there so as to ambush the enemy if required. By now, Rupert and the enemy were separated only by a hedge and the Roundheads formed up opposite Rupert’s men. Several Royalist officers now approached Rupert and counselled further retreat, but Rupert who was in an exhilarating mood from the victories of the morning refused with good reason. Telling those present that such a close proximity of the rebels, would bring the Royalist rearguard into confusion, he bellowed, “Yea this insolency is not to be tolerated!” Rupert then faced everyone to the enemy, yanked the reigns of his horse and stuck his spurs in, leaping clean over the hedge towards the faces of the enemy. Obviously those who knew the Prince and had served him before expected nothing less than this brave and courageous show of leadership and impetuousness, but some no doubt were taken aback. At once, all his men and as many as could go, leaped over after him, while Rupert drew them all up until the rest had gotten over. Roundhead dragoons were firing at them by now, but the Royalists had followed Rupert’s example. Dan O’Neill took Rupert’s regiment round the hedge to encounter the main body of the enemy and both he and Rupert charged them until they fled from the field. Major Thomas Daniel attacked the other wing of the Roundheads and soon the whole of the enemy was routed, Rupert achieving his hat trick to a tee. After standing ground for roughly half an hour in the field, until it was clear the Roundheads were in no mood for a fourth defeat, Rupert rode leisurely back to Chiselhampton, sending Urry to the King with news of the success. At 2 o’clock in the afternoon, they reached Oxford, with over a hundred prisoners, proudly and victoriously displaying to the crowds the standards and orange colours of the various regiments they had defeated. A further victory was learned when news came that John Hamden, the darling of the Parliamentarians, had been killed. Hamden had always been an active enemy to the King and had protested against him during peacetime. Being of good nature and well respected, Hamdon’s death was a large blow to Parliament, he being thought of as a possible better leader for the army than Essex. Notwithstanding Hamden’s previous protests and treason, Charles sent his own physician to his side on learning of the news, but it was too late. Over the space of one day, the Royalists had: Defeated 3 detachments of enemy, captured stores, colours and men. Asserted their superiority over Parliament forces. Increased their own moral and detracted on that of their enemy. Killed a leading enemy commander. Most importantly, threw Essex’s army into chaos and made it impossible for him to commence any hostilities at that time. Rupert’s courage, leadership and drive together with the great performance and skill of his leading officers and men, had secured a large advantage out of a small opportunity. Back to Table of Contents -- King or Parliament #1 Back to King or Parliament List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Mark Turnbull. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com