The Battle of Edgehill - Warwickshire
Edgehill is between the villages of Kineton and Radway in South Warwickshire and was the sight of the first pitched battle of the English Civil War on Sunday the 23rd of October 1642.
In 1629, King Charles I dissolved his Parliament after they quoted a petition of right from the 1215 Magna Carta that stated that the King could not raise taxes unless it was approved by Parliament. He believed that it was his divine right to rule and his authority came directly from God and he was only accountable to God. This became known as the Personal Rule which lasted for eleven years, from 1629 until 1640, until he was forced to reform Parliament because he had run out of money.
In 1629, King Charles I dissolved his Parliament after they quoted a petition of right from the 1215 Magna Carta that stated that the King could not raise taxes unless it was approved by Parliament. He believed that it was his divine right to rule and his authority came directly from God and he was only accountable to God. This became known as the Personal Rule which lasted for eleven years, from 1629 until 1640, until he was forced to reform Parliament because he had run out of money.
He wanted to raise a new tax to support the Bishops Wars in Scotland, which were caused by William Lord, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who introduced a new prayer book to Scotland which leant towards Catholicism, but the MPs would not approve it as he had ignored them over the last eleven years.
During the Personal Rule of Charles I, he introduced various policies whether anyone liked them or not. Charles wife, Queen Henrietta Maria was a practising Catholic and it was feared that she had influenced Charles as he was the head of the Church of England. One of his policies was to force Church of England followers to kneel to receive sacrament and all alters had to be replaced. |
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Charles had raised extremely high taxes across the country, these taxes were known as Ship Money, which was only ever used to fund the Navy when at war. A lawyer named William Prynne, stated that, because it wasn’t agreed by Parliament, Charles actions were illegal. Others followed and refused to pay the high taxes.
By 1640, Charles had no choice to but to call parliament as he had no money but after MPs refused to agree to his tax rises, he shut this parliament down after only three weeks. In November of the same year, he was forced to call another parliament after a defeat in battle. This parliament was known as The Long Parliament which lasted until 1653 and they refused to give the King any money. They outlawed Ship Money in 1641 and in November of that year, they presented him with The Grand Remonstrance, a list of complaints about Charles during his years of Personal Rule. Charles rejected the claims which brought the King and Parliament at heads.
The people of Britain believed that Charles was starting a Catholic plot as protestant English and Scottish settlers in Ireland were being slaughtered in an Irish rebellion. This brought even more financial problems for the King. After unsuccessfully trying to arrest 5 members of Parliament for treason, Charles left London in January 1642 for Nottingham where he raised the Royal standard. He sent messages out across the kingdom for loyal followers to take up arms and rally to his flag against parliament.
As both sides, the Royalists and the Parliamentarians moved across the country to rally soldiers, they finally came to a head in Warwickshire on the 22nd of October. The King took position on Edgehill which towered above the surrounding countryside and gave him a position of strength.
The next day arrived and the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, who lead the Parliamentarians, known as the roundheads, attacked the Royalists with his artillery, causing severe casualties for the King. The Kings army was lead by his nephew, Prince Rupert, who charged the cavalry down the hill, wiping out many of the Roundhead artillery. Fighting carried on until sundown, both sides suffering heavy casualties.
This was the start of the English Civil War.
This was the start of the English Civil War.
On Christmas Eve on the same year following the battle, a group of shepherds and various other country folk witnessed the battle being re-enacted. It lasted for around an hour from midnight and it started with the sound of far off drums and soldiers groaning. It became loader and closer until 5hey were in the midst of the battle. They could see men fighting at each other, men on horses charging, their colours and flags from each side showing up clearly, they could hear gun fire and shouting and screaming. The battle carried on until one of side back off. After telling other people in the village, they joined them the following night, Christmas day when the battle took place again, as it did on the previous night.
After this second re-enactment, the local Justice if the Peace and the Minister were told, who both held vigil for a week. They witnessed the battle for themselves along with many others with the Minister watching the whole spectacle with his faith unshaken.
News of this great paranormal event spread quickly throughout the whole kingdom with the news reaching King Charles I who was staying in Oxford at the time. The King sent out six officers to Kineton to take statements from witnesses and to investigate this supernatural event for themselves.
When they saw the battle, they recognised many men who survived and who were killed in battle, including Sir Edmund Verney. Verney was the official bearer of the Royal standard but was a noted noble who was against the Kings policies. He rode with the king as he believed it was his duty. Amongst the midst of battle, Sir Edmund Verney was surrounded by Roundhead soldiers who demanded that he surrendered the flag, but he refused, saying, “My life is my own, but this standard is the kings, I cannot surrender it".
After the Roundheads killed him, they couldn’t take the flag from his hand, so they hacked his arm off. The Royalists recaptured the flag and returned it to the King and his hand was still attached, gripping it tight. His body was never found amongst the thousands of bodies but his hand was sent home for burial.
The ghost of a man with dark hair has been seen walking slowly around the area who seems to be searching for something. It is believed to be the ghost of Sir Edmund Verney still searching for his hand.
The figure of a tall man riding down the hill on a white horse swinging a sword high in the air has been a regular sighting since the original sightings in 1642 and is believed to be the ghost of Prince Rupert, often seen with his dog.
A few miles north of the battlesite is a village called Lighthorne where a phantom lady in white is seen often on Church Lane. It’s believed that she married two months before the battle and her husband joined the Parliamentarians against the King but died during the battle. She is often seen walking along the roadside, crying over her lost love.
The battle of Edgehill is the only haunting in England that has been recognised as a legitimate haunting.