A Life of John Hampden: The Patriot

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"Scholar, statesman and soldier, John Hampden was as adept on the battlefield as he was brilliant in Parliament. In this impressive biography, John Adair vividly portrays one of the most remarkable figures to emerge from the English Civil War era. A Buckinghamshire landowner and member of the Puritan gentry, Hampden was the first member of the House of Commons to achieve a reputation outside Westminster and a truly national popularity. During the Long Parliament, Hampden was one of five members of the House of Commons who launched a vigorous attack on royal policies. Accused by the King of high treason in 1642, Hampden successfully evaded arrest, yet the episode kindled the flames of discontent, for to declare a member of the Commons a traitor without any legal process was a breach of privilege, both against the liberty of the subject and the law of the land. On the outbreak of the Civil War, Hampden raised and commanded a regiment in the Parliamentarian army, fighting alongside his cousin Oliver Cromwell, before he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Chalgrove Field in 1643. Drawing on a wealth of contemporary material, Adair masterfully portrays the celebrated Puritan leader as a man of honour and integrity, whose patriotic opposition to arbitrary rule resulted in a case of momentous national significance and who has been known ever since as 'The Patriot'." -- Provided by publisher