page_title: Battle of Camp Hill
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Camp Hill
caption_attribution_description: Relief map of the West Midlands, UK. Equirectangular map projection on WGS 84 datum, with N/S stretched 160% Geographic limits: West: 2.22W East: 1.40W North: 52.68N South: 52.33N
context_page_description: The Battle of Camp Hill took place on Easter Monday, 3 April 1643, in and around Camp Hill, 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.
context_section_description: The Battle of Camp Hill (or the Battle of Birmingham) took place on Easter Monday, 3 April 1643, in and around Camp Hill, 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 Royalist's conduct in Camp Hill provided the Parliamentarians a propaganda weapon which they used to disparage the Royalists.
caption: Camp Hill now located close to Birmingham City centre in the West Midlands
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