Battle of Burton Bridge (1643)
James I's Privy Council was forced to write to the county's Justices of the Peace for their failure to raise a single penny to support the King's campaign to reclaim the Palatinate in Germany for his son-in-law Frederick V in the 1620s.[3] In February, Gell placed a garrison across the county border at Burton, consisting of an infantry company under Dutch Major Johannes Molanus, but withdrew it less than a month later to assist in an attack on Newark.[8] Shortly thereafter, Gell, whose forces amounted to around 1,000 infantry, a few horse and 300 partially armed Staffordshire moorlanders, met with Sir William Brereton, Commander-in-Chief of Cheshire, to organise an attack upon Stafford.[3] Whatever the case, Sanders decided to remove himself from Gell's command and place himself and his men under the direction of Colonel Richard Houghton, of the Staffordshire county committee and military governor of Burton.[16] Gell withdrew with his prisoners to Derby, allowing Lord Loughborough to retake the town and bridge, which he intended to hold as a means of communication between his "flying army" at Ashby and the Royalist garrisons in Tutbury and Derbyshire.[16] A Parliamentarian raid again attacked and plundered the town in April 1644, afterwards ceding control to the Royalists once more, before Sanders' newly raised regiment of 400 horse retook it, narrowly failing to capture Loughborough himself.[3] King Charles I briefly made Burton his headquarters in May of that year, before the town was retaken for the final time by Parliament in early 1646, becoming a centre of supply of coin and beer to the forces besieging Tutbury and Lichfield.[3] After the war and the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Burton remained a place of dissent and nonconformism, with large Presbyterian and Baptist congregations, raising doubts within the Church of England over the town's loyalty.[17] A local legend states that Oliver Cromwell was present in the area during the battle and tied his horse to a nail at Tatenhill's St Michael's and All Angels Church, just 3 miles (4.8 km) from the bridge.
First English Civil WarBurton upon TrentParliamentarians1st HullMarshall's ElmPortsmouthPlymouthBabylon HillPowick BridgeKings NortonEdgehillAylesburyBrentfordTurnham GreenFarnham CastlePiercebridgeTadcaster1st ExeterMuster Green1st BradfordChichesterBraddock Down1st MiddlewichHopton HeathSeacroft MoorCamp HillLichfieldRipple FieldReadingSourton Down1st Wardour CastleStrattonWakefield1st WorcesterChalgrove FieldAdwalton Moor2nd BradfordLansdowneRoundway Down1st BristolGainsboroughGloucester2nd HullAldbourne Chase1st NewburyWincebyOlney Bridge1st Basing HouseHeptonstall2nd Wardour CastleSouth HartingBramber BridgeArundel2nd MiddlewichNantwichNewcastle1st Lathom HouseNewarkBoldon HillStourbridge HeathCheritonLyme RegisLincoln1st OxfordBolton2nd Basing HouseTipton GreenOswestryCropredy BridgeMarston MoorGunnislake New BridgeOrmskirkLostwithielTippermuir1st AberdeenMontgomery Castle1st Chester1st TauntonCarlisle2nd NewburyInverlochyHigh Ercall HallWeymouthScarborough Castle2nd TauntonAuldearn3rd Taunton2nd OxfordNasebyAlford2nd Lathom HouseLangportHerefordKilsyth2nd BristolPhiliphaugh2nd ChesterRowton HeathSherburn in Elmet3rd Basing HouseAnnan MoorDenbigh GreenShelford HouseBovey HeathTorringtonStow-on-the-Wold3rd Oxford2nd AberdeenLagganmore2nd WorcesterHenrietta MariaCharles IThomas TyldesleyStaffordshireLondonJames IPrivy CouncilJustices of the Peacecampaign to reclaim the PalatinateGermanyFrederick Vship moneycampaign against the ScotsUttoxeterPuritanHigh Church