Template:Wp-Battle of Camp Hill

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The Battle of Camp Hill (or 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.