After the first battle of Newbury in September 1643, the royalist forces in Oxfordshire and Berkshire fanned out into Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, and early in October a force of 400 royalist horse under the command of Sir Lewis and of Sir John Digby of Gayhurst, near Newport Pagnell, entered Bedfordshire. Riding into Ampthill, the royalists surprised the Bedfordshire committee which was meeting there to consider the sequestration of royalist estates. The members of the committee, however, managed to escape, with the exception of two who were taken prisoner, together with Captain Temple, a Bedfordshire officer who subsequently escaped and reported in person to the House of Commons on 7 October. The royalists stayed in Ampthill for only a few hours and then withdrew, taking with them a number of horses which they had seized.

The numerous movements of the royalists in October 1643 are difficult to trace, but the raid on Ampthill which took place on either 4 or 5 October appears to have been in the nature of a diversion to cover the occupation of Newport Pagnell by royalist forces on 6 October. The nearness of these forces was so encouraging to Bedfordshire royalists that a royal Commission of Array was held at Shefford. Highly coloured accounts of the activities of royalist forces in and around Bedfordshire appeared in the Parliamentary newspapers :—

Those that come from Northampton tell us that another part of the King’s horse are come towards Newport-panell, and that they intend to fortifie that place, and 1500 horse are designed to quarter at Bedford.