Soon after King Charles I established himself in the university town of Oxford, he decided to march on London. He was receiving pleas for help from the royalist garrison of Reading, which Parliament was harassing. The Earl of Essex and his army had occupied Caversham heights near the town and was using this superior position to open fire on the town, in particular, St Peter’s Church. The church guarded the bridge which was a most important route and his cannon eventually pounded down the spire. The Governor of Reading was a harsh and unpleasant man; Sir Arthur Aston. He had used his most ruthless side to force the townspeople to fortify the place, with ditches and embankments. Aston was highly unpopular. Though he was Catholic, other Catholics denied he was of their faith and he had even threatened to cut a soldier’s right hand off because Aston held a grudge against him. The townspeople were overworked, cajoled and forced into abiding by his rule, over taxed and the small garrison of three thousand were of equal dispirits. On top of the woes, powder was in usual short supply. This was how Reading fared when Essex arrived. After exchanging fire and a failed attempt by the royalists to get more powder, Essex and his men had advanced closer, tightening the noose. By now they were reinforced by another 3500 men and had more heavy guns. Soon these guns would be ripping into the defences. One day Aston was walking the fortifications and stopped in a guardroom. A cannon ball careered overhead and crashed through the roof, the ball or some debris actually knocking him unconscious. After coming round some time later, it was clear from his wandering manner that he would be unable to exercise command in the forthcoming siege. Later it would be seen that Aston’s determined nature may have saved Reading if he had stayed in command, despite all that has been said about him. Colonel Richard Fielding took over. Fielding was a younger son of the Earl of Denbigh, a committed Royalist, while his older brother served Parliament faithfully. Fielding was another example of how the war divided families. One of the first things he did was to send a worrying message to Oxford stating that if Reading was not relieved within one week, he would have to surrender it. The King responded immediately, calling his nephew Prince Rupert back to Oxford so they could march to Reading. Ahead of him he sent 500 men with some powder, but they clashed with the Parliamentarians at Caversham Heights, charging down the hill towards the town. Too late they found out that an old barn on their way was full of Roundheads and the resulting fire killed many cavaliers. Within the town, where the sounds of musket shot was heard, Fielding was urged to lead an assault from the town gates. Fielding resisted. Without Aston’s firm command, this was the one and only chance for Fielding to succeed. Just before the Royalist’s arrival, he had already ran up a white flag and he refused to break his honour by attacking after opening up surrender terms. He even went so far to say that he would continue to refuse to attack, even if the King himself ordered it. The royalists were forced to retreat back up Caversham Heights, unable to carry on without any support. It had been a total waste of lives. Shortly articles of surrender were signed and Aston led the garrison out, being carried in a litter. Behind him marched the garrison, fifty baggage carts, sick and wounded and all with colours flying ad drums sounding. The King had waited for them to join his unsuccessful relief force, for the march back to Oxford, but disaster and dishonour soon hit. As they left Reading and marched through the ranks of enemy soldiers, the royalists were set upon with insults, jeering and they were plundered and disarmed, despite the articles of surrender prohibiting this. Essex looked on powerless while his men rebelled. It was an incident long to remain within the memories of every Royalist. Back to Table of Contents -- King or Parliament # 6 Back to King or Parliament List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Mark Turnbull. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com