Battle of Camp Hill

Battle of Camp Hill
Part of the First English Civil War
Prince Rupert shown attacking "Brimidgham", from the Parliamentarian pamphlet A True Relation of Prince Ruperts Barbarous Cruelty against the Towne of Brumingham
Date 3 April 1643 Location Camp Hill, Birmingham 52°28′16″N 1°52′44″W / 52.471°N 1.879°W / 52.471; -1.879 Result Royalist victory
Belligerents
Royalists	Parliamentarians
Commanders and leaders
Prince Rupert Lord Denbigh (DOW)	Captain Richard Greaves
Strength
200 foot 1,200 horse	300 foot Militia
Casualties and losses
c.30[1]	15 men 1-2 women[2] 40 prisoners[3] More than 340 homeless[4]
Camp Hill class=notpageimage| Camp Hill now located close to Birmingham City centre in the West Midlands

The Battle of Camp Hill, also known as the Battle of Birmingham, took place on Easter Monday, 3 April 1643, in and around Camp Hill, Warwickshire, during the First English Civil War. In the skirmish, a company of Parliamentarians from the Lichfield garrison with the support of some of the local townsmen, approximately 300 men, attempted to stop a detachment of 1,400 Royalists under the command of Prince Rupert from passing through the unfortified parliamentary town of Birmingham.

The Parliamentarians put up a surprisingly stout resistance and, according to the Royalists, shot at them from houses as the small Parliamentary force was driven out of town and back towards Lichfield. To suppress the musket fire, the Royalists torched the houses where they thought the shooting was coming from. After the battle the Royalists spent the remainder of the day pillaging the town. The next morning before the main body of the Royalist force left town, many more houses were put to the torch. While pillaging and firing on an unfortified town in retaliation for resistance was common at that time in Continental Europe it was unusual in England and the Royalists’ conduct in Camp Hill provided the Parliamentarians a propaganda weapon which they used to disparage the Royalists.