POLITICAL HISTORY 



readiness to negotiate, and stated that he would receive terms at 

 Brentford. Parliament then sent to the king to explain that their forces 

 were instructed not to open hostilities, but the messenger found an 

 engagement already in progress, and returned without fulfilling his 



mission. 266 



Whatever the explanation, the facts were that on the morning of 

 12 November, Rupert appeared suddenly through the mist 387 which 

 lay heavily on the ground near the river, and fell on Hollis's regiment,* 68 

 which had taken up a position just west of Brentford. Hollis was 

 forced back into the town, where Brook's regiment was quartered. 

 Here the two regiments maintained an unequal fight, having barricaded 

 the narrow entrance to the town, and ' cast up some little breastwork at 

 the most convenient places.' 869 The whole of Charles's army seems to 

 have come up before the place was taken. 870 A Welsh regiment which 

 had been ' faulty ' at Edgehill, now recovered its honour and forced the 

 barricades. ' After a very warm service, the King's troops entered the 

 town.' 2n The chief officers and many soldiers on the Parliamentary 

 side were killed, besides many who were drowned in the river in their 

 attempts to escape ; eleven colours and fifteen pieces of cannon, besides 

 large quantities of ammunition were captured by the Royalists. 878 The 

 town was plundered unmercifully, and before nightfall was thoroughly 

 sacked. S7S That night most of the king's army ' lay in the cold fields.'* 7 * 



During the day of this attack on Brentford the Parliamentary army 

 in and about London drew together with all haste. The life guards 

 were already mustered in Chelsea Fields when they heard the sound of 

 the volleys in the west. 876 ' With unspeakable expedition ' Essex 

 gathered the trained bands together * with their brightest equipage.' 87S 

 All through the evening of 1 2 November, his forces streamed out along 

 the Bath road, until by eight o'clock on the morning of the thirteenth, a 

 large body of troops was drawn up on Turnham Green. 277 This army 

 was nearly twice the size of the king's, but was of very mixed composition. 

 There were a few veterans who had fought at Edgehill, but the greater 

 part consisted of trained bands, and untrained volunteers, who were in- 

 capable of the complicated evolutions necessary for a successful attack on 

 the enemy. On the defensive, the stubborn spirit of the troops made 

 them a formidable array, nerved as they were by the popular report that 

 if the king once entered London, he would allow Rupert to pillage the 

 City unrestrained. 



The king was in a difficult position. It would be madness to 

 attack Essex's superior force, for ' he had no convenient place for his 



* Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 395. "^ Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 53. 



** ' Those honest, religious soldiers.' Pamphlet describing the battle of Brentford, cited by- 

 Gardiner, op. cit. i, 47. 



*" Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 395. * 70 Ashmole MS. No. 830, fol. 85, cited by Lysons. 



171 Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 395. "' Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 53-4. 



171 ' A True and Perfect Relation of the barbarous and cruell Passages of the King's Army at Old 

 Brainceford, nesj London." nt Ashmole MS. No. 830. 



*" Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 54. *" Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 395. *" Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 54. 



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