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The escape of Charles II from England in 1651 was a key episode in his life and of great significance in English history. The journey started immediately the Royalist defeat at Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651 when Charles and his army was forced to flee from Oliver Cromwell's Roundhead Army. There were many incidents, most famously hiding up an oak tree in Boscobel Wood, before setting sail at 2:00am on 15 October from Shoreham-by-Sea and arriving in France the following day. Although only taking six weeks, it had a major effect on his attitudes for the rest of his life.

The fugitive king
The Battle of Worcester was the last engagement of the English Civil War; this was fought between the Parliamentarians (or Roundheads) led by Oliver Cromwell's and forces loyal to the Monarchy, known as the Royalists or Cavaliers.

This war was not a continuous conflict but rather divided into three separate wars. The second war ended with the execution of King Charles I in 1649 and the confirmation of Oliver Cromwell as the main power in the land.

The third phase of the war centred on Cromwell’s conflicts with dissident elements in Ireland and Scotland. Eventually, the Scottish rebels formed an alliance with Charles I's son, also called Charles, who saw the Scots as being his best hope for regaining the crown. He was proclaimed King Charles II by the Scottish Parliament on 5 February 1649, came to Scotland in 1650 and was crowned on 1 January 1651, then marching into England at the head of a Royalist army. As they marched, some English Royalists joined forces, but they came in far fewer numbers than Charles and his Scottish supporters had hoped. Their defeat at Worcester came on 3 September 1651.

Flight from Worcester


Charles himself had watched the battle develop from the tower of Worcester Cathedral and then moved to to the ground as the city become the scene of the fighting. Eventually he returned to his lodging house (now the King Charles House public house) and escaped via the back door as the soldiers entered by the front. He made his way out of the city on horseback via St Martin's gate and there met with some 60 of his officers. Capture meant execution for Charles and possibly the end of the British Monarchy. Escape meant that hope for a restoration survived. The ramifications of Charles’ successful bid for freedom continue to this day.

A reward of £1,000 was offered for the capture of the King. It is likely that the King and anyone helping him would have been executed for treason if caught. The King had a distinctive appearance: very swarthy and 6' 2" tall (1.88 metres). Furthermore, there were cavalry patrols whose specific task was to find the King. The Royalist party headed out of Worcester on horseback and conferred about a mile outside the city at Barbourne Bridge, deciding to ride North. The party paused again at at a place called Kinver Heath for a further conference. One of the party, Lord Derby, was a prominent Catholic nobleman who had been sheltered at Boscobel House in Shropshire in the Brewood area, a noted Catholic enclave with Royalist sympathies and several safe houses. The owner of Boscobel, Charles Giffard, was with the group and suggested another of his houses in the same area, White Ladies Priory, as being the safest option due to its remote location.

The party then diverted eastwards towards Stourbridge which, despite being occupied by Parliamentary troops, they were able to pass through without alarm. They stopped briefly at Wordsley before arriving at White Ladies in the early hours of 4 September. It was now decided that it would be safer for Charles to continue with minimal support and so all his followers, apart from Lord Wilmot, were persuaded to leave him and ride for Scotland. The majority of them, including Lord Derby, were to be captured and executed.

Boscobel to Bentley - failure of the escape via Wales plan


The properties on the Boscobel estate were mostly looked after by the five brothers of the Pendrell family who were loyal to the Catholic religion and the Crown. When Charles arrived, he was met by George Pendrell who contacted his brother, Richard, who had a farm, Hobbal Grange, nearby. They disguised Charles as a farm labourer, "in leather doublet, a pair of green breeches and a jump-coat ... of the same green, ... an old grey greasy hat without a lining [and] a noggen shirt, of the coarsest linen," and Richard cut Charles's hair, leaving it short on top but long at the sides. However, the shoes provided for him were far too small and had to be slit all around to make them fit. The coarse leather was to irritate his soft feet and made them bleed, causing Charles great pain.

At sunrise on 4 September and in pouring rain Charles was moved out of White Ladies into a nearby coppice on the estate, hiding there with Richard Pendrell. Shortly after Charles had left White Ladies, a company of local militia stopped by and asked if Charles had been seen. The soldiers were told he had journeyed on some time before; convinced, they passed on and were seen by Charles as they rode past. Charles recalled: "In this wood I stayed all day without meat or drink and by great fortune it rained all the time which hindered them, as I believe, from coming into the wood to search for men that might be fled there".

Having tried to teach Charles how to speak with a local accent and how to walk like a labourer, The Pendrells suggested transferring him to a wealthy acquaintance, Francis Wolfe, who lived near the River Severn, and whose house at Madeley, had several priest-holes. The plan was eventually to cross the River Severn into Wales where Royalists still had support and a passage to France could feasibly be arranged. After dark, Richard Pendrell led Charles to Madeley COurt on foot, stopping briefly at Hobbal Grange where they ate. Later in that journey, at Evelith Mill, they were challenged by a miller and felt forced to run away. In fact, the miller was a Royalist who was hiding some members of the defeated army at his mill. Charles and Richard arrived at Madeley Court very early on 5 September.

At Madeley, Wolfe told Charles and Richard that his house was not safe as he was under suspicion form the Roundheads and instead offered to conceal Charles in his barn while he and Richard scouted the Severn crossings. They found that the river was very closely guarded by troops so they changed their plan and decided to return Charles to Boscobel that night. On the return journey, they had to wade through a stream before stopping again at White Ladies where they learned Wilmot had moved to nearby Moseley Old Hall, the home of Thomas Whitgreave. Though greatly hampered by Charles' sore feet, they arrived at Boscobel House, where William Pendrell was caretaker, in the early hours of 6 September. William Careless, who had fought at Worcester, also arrived at Boscobel House early on that day and, at his suggestion, he and Charles spent all day hiding in a nearby oak tree, while Parliamentary troops searched the surrounding woodland. The exhausted Charles slept for some of the time, supported by Careless, who was "constrained...to pinch His Majesty to the end he might awaken him to prevent his present danger". Charles hiding in the tree proved to be the most famous incident of the escape and has been memorialised by the many pubs called 'The Royal Oak'.

They returned to the house that evening where Charles spent the night in a priest-hole. Meanwhile, another Pendrell brother, Humphrey, had been interrogated by a Parliamentary colonel, who asked if Charles had been at White Ladies. When Humphrey denied this, the Colonel reminded him of the £1,000 reward for information leading to Charles's capture and of the "penalty for concealing Charles, which was death without mercy".

Very early on 7 September, Charles left Boscobel for Moseley Old Hall to rejoin Wilmot. Charles travelled on Humphrey Pendrell's mill horse and was accompanied by all of the five brothers and Francis Yates (servant to Charles Giffard and brother-in-law to the Pendrells). Soon after leaving Boscobel the horse stumbled, and Humphrey Pendrell joked that it was "not to be wondered at, for it had the weight of three kingdoms upon its back". The party stopped at Pendeford Mill where Charles dismounted, electing to finish the journey on foot so as to be less conspicuous. Three of the Pendrells took the horse back, while Richard and John together with Francis Yates continued with Charles to the Hall.

At Moseley Old Hall, Charles was given a meal and dry clothes, and the Whitgreave family priest, Father John Huddleston, bathed Charles's bruised and bleeding feet and provided spiritual comfort. Deeply touched, Charles told Huddleston, "If it please God I come to my crown, both you and all your persuasion shall have as much liberty as any of my subjects". Later that morning he saw some of his fleeing Scottish troops passing by. Charles spent the night of the 7 September, all of the 8th and most of the 9th at Moseley Hall, being able to sleep in a bed for the first time since the night before the Battle of Worcester.

On the afternoon of 9 September Parliamentary troops arrived at the door of Moseley Old Hall, and Charles was hurriedly hidden in the a priest-hole, situated behind the wall of a bedroom. The troops accused Thomas Whitgreave of fighting for Charles at Worcester, which was not the case although he had fought as a Royalist before being wounded and captured at Naseby in 1645. Whitgreave convinced them he was too feeble to help any Royalist fugitives and the soldiers left without searching the house.

Meanwhile, Wilmot had prepared a plan for an escape via the port of Bristol using the help of a Royalist Officer, Colonel Lane of nearby Bentley Hall. So late on 9 September, Charles and Wilmot left Moseley Old Hall and travelled to Bentley.

Bentley to Trent - failure of the escape via Bristol plan


Charles reached Bentley Hall, near Walsall, very early on Wednesday 10 September, his care effectively passing from the Catholic underground to the Royalist gentry who had more resources available to provide a measure of comfort. He was met by Colonel Lane had been an officer in the Royalist Army since 1642. Wilmot's plan revolved around Lane's sister, Jane, who had been granted a permit from the military for herself and a servant to travel to Abbots Leigh, Somerset, to visit Mrs. George Norton, a friend of hers who was having a baby. Abbots Leigh lay just across the Avon Gorge from Bristol and Wilmot's plan was that Charles should take advantage of the Jane's pass, travel with her as her servant, and then find a ship to take him to France from Bristol.

Upon arriving at Bentley Hall, Charles was given the clothes of a tenant farmer's son and decided on the alias 'William Jackson'. The party then set out with Jane Lane riding pillion on Charles' horse. They were initially accompanied by Withy Petre (Jane Lane's sister), her husband John Petre, and Henry Lascelles, another Royalist officer. Wilmot refused to travel in disguise and rode half a mile ahead of the party and, if challenged, planned to say he was out hunting. When they arrived at Bromsgrove they found that the horse ridden by Charles and Jane had lost a shoe. Charles, playing the role of servant, took the horse to a blacksmith. Charles, when he later told his story to Samuel Pepys and others said, "As I was holding my horse's foot, I asked the smith what news. He told me that there was no news that he knew of, since the good news of the beating the rogues of the Scots. I asked him whether there was none of the English taken that joined with the Scots, He answered he did not hear if that rogue, Charles Stuart, were taken; but some of the others, he said, were taken. I told him that if that rogue were taken, he deserved to be hanged more than all the rest, for bringing in the Scots. Upon which he said I spoke like an honest man; and so we parted".

Just outside Stratford, the party saw a troop of cavalry gathered to refresh their horses. Here John and Withy Petre went on by a different route while Charles, Jane Lane and Henry Lascelles rode directly through the troops without being stopped. The party then continued through Stratford-upon-Avon, and on to Long Marston where they spent the night of 10 September at the house of John Tomes, a relation of the Lanes. Here, accepting Charles's disguise as a servant, the cook put him to work in the kitchen winding up the jack used to roast meat in the fireplace. Charles was very clumsy at this, and the cook angrily asked him, "What countryman are you that you know not how to wind up a jack?". Charles explained his failings by saying that as the servant of poor people who rarely ate meat he did not know how to use a roasting jack.

On Thursday 11 September they continued via Chipping Campden to Cirencester, where they spent the night the Crown Inn. The next morning they travelled on via Chipping Sodbury and Bristol, to the Nortons' home, Leigh Court, arriving late on the afternoon of 12 September. While the Nortons were unaware of Charles's identity during his three-day stay, the butler, Pope, who had formerly been a Royalist soldier and was familiar with Charles' appearance, immediately recognised him. Charles confirmed his identity to Pope who repaid his trust by promising his support and later let Wilmot into the house unobserved. The next day Pope tried to find a ship for Charles at Bristol, but found that none would be sailing to France for another month. While staying at Leigh Court, Charles deflected suspicion by asking a servant, who had been in Charles's personal guard at the Battle of Worcester, to describe Charles's appearance and clothing at the battle. The man looked at Charles and said, "The King was at least three fingers taller than you".

Since no ships were available, Pope suggested Charles moved on to stay with the Wyndhams, a Royalist family who lived 40 miles away in the village of Trent on the Somerset and Dorset border. On 15 September, the day before the Royal party were due to leave, Mrs Norton's gave birth to a stillborn child making it difficult for Jane Lane to leave abruptly. In order to overcome this difficulty, Pope forged a letter saying that Jane's father was ill and she should return to Bentley.

On the morning of 16 September Charles, Wilmot, Lascelles and Jane set out, spending the night at Castle Cary, before reaching Trent the next day, 17 September.

Trent to Charmouth and back - failure of the escape via Charmouth plan
They stayed at Trent House, the home of Colonel Francis Wyndham, another Royalist officer. The King spent the next few days hiding at Trent while Wyndham and Wilmot attempted to find a ship from Lyme Regis or Weymouth. It was while he was at Trent that the King witnessed a bizarre event where the local villagers were celebrating, believing that he had been killed at Worcester. It was also this point that Jane Lane and Lascelles returned home. Now faced with the task of getting Charles out of England, Colonel Wyndham contacted a friend in Lyme Regis, Captain Ellesdon, one of whose tenants, Stephen Limbry, was sailing for St. Malo the following week. Charles and Wilmot, it was decided, could board the vessel in the guise of merchants travelling to recover money from a debtor.

On 22 September Charles rode with Juliana Coningsby, a niece of Lady Wyndham to Charmouth, pretending to be a runaway couple. Charles waited at the Queen's Arms Inn while Wilmot negotiated with Captain Limbry to take them to France. Limbry was prevented by his wife from turning up, having (according to him) been locked into his bedroom by his wife, who was afraid for his safety.

On he morning of 23 September, Charles and Juliana then traveled to nearby Bridport, still hoping the revive the plan to leave from the Dorset coast. When they arrived to discover to their horror that the town was filled with Parliamentary troops about to be sent to Jersey. Charles boldly walked through the soldiers to the best inn and arranged for rooms. The ostler at the Inn then confronted the King, saying "Sure, Sir, I know your face", but Charles easily convinced him that he and the ostler had both been servants at the same time for a Mr. Potter of Exeter.

Wilmot had stayed briefly in Charmouth because he had discovered his horse hadlost a shoe; he called for the ostler and told him to take the horse to a blacksmith's. The inn's ostler, a Parliamentary soldier, became suspicious but wrongly supposed Juliana to be the King in disguise. The blacksmith told the ostler that one of the horse's shoes had been forged in Worcestershire, confirming the ostler's suspicions. Learning the "eloping couple" had departed for Bridport, the ostler informed his commanding officer, who rode to Bridport. Meanwhile, Wilmot trying to find the King, had gone to the wrong Bridport inn. He then a sent a servant to find Charles and send word to meet up outside the town where, in view of the considerable number of troops in the locality, they agreed to return to Trent. They took a small country road (Lee Lane) heading North and thereby narrowly missed the party of Troops who were riding from Charmouth. A memorial stone in Lee Lane commemorates the narrow escape.

After leaving Bridport, Charles and Wilmot lost their way and soon reached the village of Broadwindsor that evening, spending the night at The George Inn owned by Rhys Jones. The royal party were given rooms on the top floor. Later that night, the local constable arrived with 40 soldiers en route to Jersey, who were to be billeted at the inn. Fortunately one of the women travelling with the soldiers went into labour and the locals feared that the parish would be forced to pay for the child's upbringing and this caused a row which diverted attention. As a result, the soldiers left the inn at dawn, allowing the King to escape on the morning of 24 September and return to Trent House.

Trent to Shoreham and escape to France
Wilmot and Wyndham enlisted support from Colonel Edward Phelips of Montacute House, John Coventry, son of the former Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and Doctor Henchman of Salisbury Cathedral in developing a plan. They decided to try to arrange passage from the Sussex coast, and on 6 October Charles, Juliana Coningsby and Henry Peters, Colonel Wyndham's servant, left Trent for the home of Mrs Amphillis Hyde at Heale House, between Salisbury and Amesbury, to be closer to the planned point of departure.

The first day Charles was at Heale House he pretended to leave permanently and rode about the district, visiting Stonehenge, and then returned to the house known only to Mrs Hyde. On 7 October Wilmot visited Colonel Gunter, who found a French merchant, Francis Mancell, now residing in Chichester. Together they made arrangements with a Captain Nicholas Tattersell to carry Charles and Wilmot from Shoreham in a coal boat called The Surprise.

In the early hours of 13 October, Charles and Colonel Phelips rode from Heale House to Warnford Down, where they met Wilmot and Gunter. From there, the party set out for Hambledon, where Gunter's sister lived and at whose house they stayed for the night. Next day, they rode to the fishing village of Brighthelmstone (now Brighton), 50 miles away, stopping at Houghton to eat before riding to the village of Bramber, which was filled with soldiers. Gunter decided their only course of action was to boldly ride through the village in order to avoid suspicion. As they were leaving the village, a party of around fifty soldiers rode rapidly past them giving cause for concern. At the village of Beeding, Gunter left the group to ride alone by a different route, meeting up again at the George Inn at Brighthelmstone on the evening of 14 October.

When Captain Tattersell arrived, he recognised Charles and, realising the dangerous nature of the undertaking, was concerned for his own safety. His reaction drew the attention of the inn-keeper, who had once been a servant in the royal household and now recognised Charles; he fell on his knees before Charles, who then recognised the former servant. Charles reaction was to smile and move away, remarking to Gunter that "the fellow knows me and I him; I hope he is an honest fellow". Meanwhile, Tattersell demanded an additional fee as danger-money but once this was agreed, he pledged himself to the Charles's service. Charles then rested briefly before setting out for the boat soon after midnight.

At 2:00am on 15 October, Charles and Wilmot boarded The Surprise, which sailed at high tide at 7:00am. Two hours after the ship had set sail, a troop of cavalry arrived in Shoreham to arrest Charles, having been given orders to search for "a tall, black [haired] man, six feet two inches in height". Charles and Wilmot landed in France at Fécamp, near Le Havre, on the morning of 16 October 1651.

Afterwards
The day after landing, Charles went to Rouen and then to Paris to stay with his mother, Queen Henrietta Maria. Charles did not return to England for nine years. The death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658 was followed by two years of political confusion, which led to the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

When he returned to England as King, Charles granted various annuities and gifts to the those who assisted in the escape. For example, Thomas Whitgreave, Jane Lane and the Pendrell brothers, were granted pensions in perpetuity. At some point the Whitgreave pension lapsed (it may never actually have been claimed) and so did Jane Lane's, as she had no heirs. The Pendrells' pensions however, are still being paid to their descendants.

The families who helped the King were awarded coats of arms, or augmentations to existing arms. The arms awarded to Colonel Careless were an oak tree on a gold field with a red fess bearing three royal crowns; the crowns represented the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. The crest is distinguished by a civic crown of oakleaves, encircling a crossed sword and sceptre. The Penderels employed identical arms, differentiated by colour: a field of silver and a fess of black, the crest incorporating a royal crown in place of the civic crown. The Lanes' coat of arms was augmented with the addition of a 'canton' bearing the three lions of England.

Significance
In later years Charles many times recounted his recollections of the escape. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, Charles' doctor George Bate, and Samuel Pepys each recorded what they were told, with few discrepancies among them. During his escape Charles was able to meet with people with whom he would normally have had no interaction, such as country matrons, yeomen, servants and merchants. The help of the common people seems to have given him a sense that he was genuinely loved, something he would rarely have experienced amid the cynical flattery of court.

When Charles II lay dying on the evening of 5 February 1685, his brother and heir the Duke of York brought Fr John Huddleston, whom the King had spent time with at Moseley Old Hall and was then residing at Somerset House, to his bedside, saying, "Sire, this good man once saved your life. He now comes to save your soul." Charles then confirmed that he wished to die in the faith and communion of the Roman Catholic Church so Huddleston then heard the King's confession, and administered Extreme Unction and the Viaticum. On the accession of James II, Huddleston continued to stay with the Queen Catherine at Somerset House

Commemorations and memorials

 * Shortly after the Restoration, Isaac Fuller was commissioned to produce a series of five paintings dealing with the early days of he escape. They record, somewhat imaginatively, The King at Whiteladies, The King in Boscobel Wood, The King and Colonel Careless in the oak tree, King Charles II on Humphrey Penderel's mill horse and King Charles II and Jane Lane riding to Bristol. These are on display in the Banqueting House in Whitehall in London.
 * In 1664, the King's birthday of 29 May was designated Oak Apple Day, by Act of Parliament and a special service was inserted in the Book of Common Prayer. For over 200 years the King's birthday was celebrated by the wearing of a sprig of oak leaves in remembrance of the events. This tradition is no longer widely observed.
 * Hundreds of inns and public houses throughout the country are still called The Royal Oak after the famous escape.
 * The escape from England is commemorated around Oak Apple Day each year with a yacht race from Brighton to Fecamp called The Royal Escape Race and organised by the Sussex Yacht Club.
 * Another commemorations takes place each year at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea on a day designated as Founder's Day which takes place close to Oak Apple Day. On Founder's Day, in-pensioners of the Royal Hospital are reviewed by a member of the British Royal Family.
 * The Monarch's Way is a 625-mile waymarked footpath which approximately following the escape route starting at the battlefield at Worcester and finishing at Shoreham.
 * The escape is the subject of William Harrison Ainsworth's 1871 novel Boscobel, or, The Royal Oak.
 * Georgette Heyer's novel, Royal Escape, published in 1938 is also based on the story.
 * Gillian Bagwell's novel,The King's Mistress recounts the story of Jane Lane of Moseley Hall, the part she played in Charles's escape, her subsequent discovery and escape to France, the years she spent in Holland in the court of Mary of Orange before Charles was restored, and her relationship with Charles throughout. The key element of the plot, that she was the lover of the King, is not a proven historical fact. The book was released in the United States on 1 November 2011 under the title The September Queen, and in Britain in July 2012 under the title The King's Mistress.
 * The Moonraker, a 1958 British swashbuckler, loosely based on the later days of the escape, was directed by David MacDonald and starred Patrick Fenlon, George Baker, Sylvia Sims, Marius Goring, Gary Raymond, Peter Arne, John Le Mesurier and Patrick Troughton.

References and bibliography

 * — Available in various formats at Internet Archive, this is the earliest, not entirely reliable account, of the escape of Charles II, first published shortly after the Restoration in 1660.
 * Fea, A. (1897, second ed. 1908) The Flight of the King, London.
 * — Presents Pepys's transcription of Charles's account and his edited version side by side, as well as other contemporary accounts.
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * — Presents Pepys's transcription of Charles's account and his edited version side by side, as well as other contemporary accounts.
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * — Presents Pepys's transcription of Charles's account and his edited version side by side, as well as other contemporary accounts.
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * — Presents Pepys's transcription of Charles's account and his edited version side by side, as well as other contemporary accounts.
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * — Presents Pepys's transcription of Charles's account and his edited version side by side, as well as other contemporary accounts.
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber
 * Uglow, J. (2009) A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, Faber and Faber


 * —This also chronicles the delightfully daffy 1911 re-enactment of the events.
 * H.P. Kingston. "The Wanderings of Charles II in Staffordshire and Shropshire"
 * Jean Gordon Hughes. "A King in the Oak Tree"
 * H.P. Kingston. "The Wanderings of Charles II in Staffordshire and Shropshire"
 * Jean Gordon Hughes. "A King in the Oak Tree"
 * Jean Gordon Hughes. "A King in the Oak Tree"