John Hampden

John Hampden , 1594-1643, English parliamentary leader; cousin of Oliver Cromwell. He entered Parliament in 1621, became closely associated with Sir John Eliot , and was imprisoned (1627) for refusing to pay the forced loan demanded by Charles I . With Viscount Saye and Sele , John Pym , and other parliamentary leaders, he involved himself in various colonization schemes. In 1637, Hampden challenged the king's right to raise revenue by the device of ship money, a tax originally levied on ports for defense purposes but extended by Charles to inland counties. He was convicted (1638) by a very narrow margin for his refusal to pay the tax, and the case inflamed popular resentment against the king. Conspicuous as a leader of both the Short and Long Parliaments, Hampden was one of the five members whose attempted arrest by Charles (1642) helped to precipitate the English civil war . He raised a regiment for the parliamentarians and was mortally wounded at Chalgrove Field, fighting Prince Rupert.

Hampden, John (1594–1643). Hampden, a parliamentarian, sat in every Parliament from 1621 until his death. He was imprisoned in 1627 for refusing the forced loan and became a close friend of Sir John Eliot. He rose to national fame by providing the test case of the legality of ship money (1637–8), and in the Short and Long Parliaments his reputation was second only to Pym's. He raised his own foot regiment in his native Buckinghamshire, fought at Edgehill, and was mortally wounded in a skirmish with Rupert's horse at Chalgrove Field.