[2] After the Battle of Edgehill, King Charles I captured Banbury and was greeted by cheering crowds as he arrived in Oxford on 29 October.

While in Reading, Berkshire, King Charles decided that the peace talks were inconclusive and that if he advanced on London it would place him in a better negotiating position.

So on 11 November he moved his army closer to London by encamping at Colnbrook at the edge of Middlesex and to put further pressure on the Parliamentarians he ordered Prince Rupert to take Brentford midway across the small county.

The initial attack by the cavaliers on Sir Richard Wynne's house, an outpost west of Brentford held by Holles's regiment, was repulsed.

[5] The fighting continued into late afternoon,[6] before the survivors of Holles's and Brooke's regiments were able to disengage under the protection of John Hampden's infantry brigade, which arrived from Uxbridge to cover their withdrawal.

Historians Keith Roberts and John Tincey cite Parliamentary propaganda pieces which include accusations of atrocities.