Following an insurrection in Canterbury in December 1647, the accused leaders were put on trial in May 1648. However, the Grand Jury refused to indict. The events that followed culminated in the Kentish Rebellion: one of the most significant uprisings of the Second English Civil War.
After the jury failed to reach a verdict, they put forward a petition to Parliament. The petition contained four requests. Firstly, that the King should be released and returned to London in order to make peace with both Houses of Parliament. Secondly, that the New Model Army under Lord Fairfax be disbanded. Thirdly, that the citizens of the country be ruled by the established laws of the country (instead of by those of the new Commonwealth Parliament). Lastly, that they be released from the burden of taxes enforced on all necessities of life, including clothing.
The petition was initially signed by 200 gentlemen of Kent, but within a few days the number of signatories had grown to 20,000. The petitioners planned to come together in Rochester on 29 May. They would then march on to Blackheath, where they were to be joined by men from other counties.
Parliament pronounced the petition ‘feigned’, ‘scandalous’, and ‘seditious’. The Deputy Lieutenants of Kent held a meeting in Maidstone on 16 May and published an order addressed to the petitioners. They stated:
We having lately received a special command from the House to use our special endeavours for the preserving of the peace of that County, do hereby in order thereunto advise all whom it may concern to forbear all occasions of public disturbance, by any such pretence whatsoever.
They compelled people to refuse to sign the petition ‘and to counsel and persuade their neighbours accordingly.’ They also demanded that the order be read publicly in all of the parish churches and warned that those who refused to do so ‘may be proceeded against accordingly.’[1]
This drew an angry reaction from the Kentish men, who were determined to march to Westminster with ‘the Petition in one hand and the sword in the other.’[2] In their response to the order they stated that as ‘the knights, gentry, clergy, and commonality of the County of Kent’ they remained determined to present their petition to Parliament. Outraged at the accusation that they were ‘raisers of sedition and tumult,’ they claimed that their Petition ‘contains in it nothing but what is just and fit for freeborn subjects to demand’. Declaring that they would not be discouraged by threats, they asserted:
… we shall go on to prosecute our just rights and desires in such a way as shall neither render us guilty of sedition or public disturbance, nor of betraying ourselves to the violence of such who shall unjustly endeavour to oppose us.[3]
They called forth troops loyal to the King to join them in their march to London. The Royalists mustered a force of about 1,000 horse soldiers and five or six thousand foot soldiers. Edward Hales was appointed General, and Sir Thomas Peyton was made Lieutenant General. On 21 May 1648, they seized Canterbury, Rochester, Sittingbourne, Faversham and Sandwich. The following day, local gentry met and proposed an armed gathering of Royalist troops at Blackheath on 30 May. Over the next few days, Dartford and Deptford were seized by the Royalists, while a naval fleet off the Kentish coast mutinied. With the fleet now a threat, the forts at Deal, Sandown and Walmer surrendered to the Royalists. Dover Castle was besieged by Royalist troops.
General Thomas Fairfax and his troops were sent to Kent to put down the insurrection. When some thousands of Kentish men reached Blackheath on 29 May they found themselves confronted by 7,000 troops. The Royalists asked that just ten of their number be allowed to go on and present their petition to Parliament. In a letter addressed to Sir Thomas Peyton, Fairfax’s forceful reply stated that there was no chance of their request being granted. The Royalists’ responded: ‘We have taken up arms to defend ourselves; we invade not your right, but stand firm to secure our own.’[4]
With the threat of Lord Fairfax approaching, the Royalists abandoned Dartford and Deptford. At Burham Heath they assembled and proclaimed the Earl of Norwich their leader. The Earl decided to concentrate most of his forces at Maidstone, where around 3,000 troops were to defend the town.
Lord Fairfax had 8,000 New Model Army veterans at his command, and he attacked the outpost at Fairleigh Bridge, crossing the River Medway and approaching to the south west of the town of Maidstone. On 1 June, Fairfax launched an assault on the town. A series of furious street battles broke out, with the defenders driven back to assemble in a churchyard. The Royalists fled, leaving 300 men killed and 1,000 taken prisoner.
The Royalists’ defeat at the Battle of Maidstone ended the rebellion. Following their loss, the Earl of Norwich, who had remained outside of Maidstone, headed for London. However, he found the capital strongly defended by Major General Philip Skippon. With Parliamentary troops in hot pursuit, most of Norwich’s troops deserted. The Earl, with his remaining men, moved on to Essex to join the Royalist troops at Chelmsford. In Kent, Fairfax was able to retake the forts that had fallen to the Royalists, and reclaim Dover Castle, securing a victory for the Parliamentarians.
By Christopher Skingley, a U3A Shared Learning Project researcher for the Citizens Project.
[1] ‘By the Deputy Lieutenants of the County of Kent, and County of Canterbury, at their general meeting at Maidstone the 16. May 1648,’ in Matthew Carter, A true relation of that honourable, tho’ unfortunate expedition of Kent, Essex, and Colchester, in 1648 (Colchester: 1750), 18-20.
[2] George Colomb, ‘The Royalist Rising in Kent, 1648,’ Archaeologia Cantiana (1874): 39.
[3] ‘The petitioners’ vindication and answer to the Deputy Lieutenants declaration against the said petition,’ in Carter, A true relation, 22-24.
[4] Quoted in George Colomb, ‘The Royalist Rising in Kent, 1648,’ Archaeologia Cantiana (1874), 41.
