During the English Civil War in the 17th century the county was generally on the Parliamentarian side, Lord Brooke of Warwick Castle being one of the fiercest enemies of the king. The Battle of Edgehill (1642) was fought in Warwickshire, near the Oxfordshire border. Prince Rupert, who was in charge of the Royalist forces, marched his soldiers through Henley in Arden in 1643 on his way to Birmingham and pillaged the neighbourhood.'Parishes: Henley-in-Arden', A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 3: Barlichway hundred (1945), pp. 206-212. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=57012 Date accessed: 8 January 2012. Charles II was assisted in his escape following his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 by Jane Lane who, disguising the king as her man-servant accompanied him across the county, passing through Wooton Wawen, Stratford-upon-Avon and Long Marston.Pepys Transcription of the Kings Account of his Escape, Charles II's Escape from Worcester, Edited by William Matthews 1966 The footpath the Monarch's Way commemorates the events and approximates the route of his escape where the modern landscape permits.
