3-017-213 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Old Ship Inn, Birmingham, Prince Rupert's head-quarters, 1865. View of '...the Old Ship Inn, at Camp Hill, where Prince Rupert took up his head-quarters, in April, 1643, when he attacked the town of Birmingham with a force of 2000 horse and foot. Birmingham had sided with the Parliamentarians and made swords for their army. An obstinate resistance was made by the townsmen when Prince Rupert came to punish them for their share in the opposition to King Charles. After two hours' fighting, in which the Earl of Denbigh, Lord Digby, and Lord John Stewart fell on the Royalist side, the town was taken by assault, more than eighty houses destroyed by fire, and many of the townspeople slain. This was the battle of Birmingham, or, as it is sometimes called by the inhabitants of that town, the battle of Camp-hill'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.