Prince Rupert's cavalry defeated Parliamentarian troops at Chalgrove Field in Oxfordshire on 18 June 1643. Parliamentary leader John Hampden was wounded and died six days later at Thame. His death deprived Parliament of a respected organiser and nationally recognised opponent of ship money.

Hampden became the subject of elegies and later patriotic verse portraying him as a martyr for constitutional liberty. His transformation from politician into symbol illustrates how poetry helped establish the war's secular saints.