Escape of Charles II


The escape of Charles II from England in 1651 was a key episode in his life. The retreat started with the Royalist defeat at Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651 when Charles was forced to flee. He had many adventures, 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

Charles had lost to Cromwell's New Model Army at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and was a wanted man. 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. Furthermore, there were cavalry patrols whose specific task was to find the King. Fortunately for Charles, his Catholic supporters had an organisation with 90 years of experience in keeping secrets and hiding people. He also had supporters amongst the gentry.

Flight from Worcester

Late on 3 September 1651, Charles headed back to his lodgings and escaped by the back door as Parliamentary forces arrived. He fled the city by St Martin's Gate, to the north, in the company of Lord Wilmot, Lord Derby, Charles Giffard, and many others. Charles wanted to travel to London rather than Scotland, which was the preferred destination of the majority of the party. He told only Wilmot of his plan, arranging to meet at the Three Cranes Tavern. At this point, night was falling, shelter was needed, and he needed the support of the small band of his loyal officers.
The royal party, in all about 60 mounted officers headed north from Worcester. The interpretation of what is recorded as to their route is controversial. The earliest written account is that of Blount, who mentions "Kinver Heath not far from Kidderminster" and Stourbridge. They may have been the party of fugitives observed by Richard Baxter passing through Kidderminster. One interpretation identifies Kinver Heath as the heath of which Kinver Edge is a remnant, in which case the party would probably have crossed Cookley bridge and passed through Blakeshall. However, they would be unlikely to have gone from there to Stourbridge, as this would have involved them turning sharply east. An alternative explanation is that heath in question was that in the eastern part of the parish of Kinver, east of Caunsall, Whittington, Dunsley, and including Iverley. This extends beyond the boundary towards, Hagley, Pedmore, Oldswinford, and Wollaston. Willis-Bund's interpretation was that they took the direct route to Stourbridge, though Hagley, but that would not have taken them through Kidderminster or over anything that could be called Kinver Heath.
At Kinver Heath, the party then conferred; Lord Derby was a committed Cavalier and a prominent Catholic nobleman who, the previous week, when left wounded and pursued after the Battle of Wigan Lane, had been sheltered by a Catholic tenant family, the Penderels, at Boscobel House in Shropshire, before rejoining the royal party. He now suggested Boscobel House to Charles as a safe place of refuge. Shropshire remained a Catholic stronghold with many hiding places. The owner of Boscobel, Charles Giffard, was himself accompanying the group and agreed to the plan; however, he suggested another house, White Ladies Priory, as being safer than Boscobel.
Having agreed on this plan, the party then diverted eastwards towards Stourbridge which was garrisoned by Parliamentary troops, but Charles was able to pass without the alarm being sounded. Heading north again, the party stopped briefly at Wordsley before arriving at White Ladies Priory on Giffard's estate at Boscobel in the early hours of 4 September.

Boscobel to Bentley – failure of the escape via Wales plan

The houses on the Boscobel estate were mostly looked after by five Catholic brothers called Pendrell. At one of these houses, White Ladies, the King was met by George Pendrell who contacted his brother, Richard, who had a farm, Hobbal Grange, near Tong. They disguised the King 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 a noggen shirt, of the coarsest linen," and Richard cut the King's hair, leaving it short on top but long at the sides. However, as Charles was an unusually tall man, the shoes provided for him were far too small and had to be slit all around to make them fit. The coarse leather irritated his soft feet and made them bleed, causing the King excruciating pain. It was now felt that it would be safer for the King to travel almost alone and so all his followers, apart from Lord Wilmot, were persuaded to leave. Those who struck out on their own attempted to reach Scotland, but the majority, including Lord Derby, were captured and later executed.
At sunrise and in pouring rain, Charles was moved out of White Ladies into the nearby Spring Coppice on the estate, hiding there with Richard Pendrell. Shortly after the King had left the Priory, a company of local militia stopped at White Ladies and asked if the King had been seen. The soldiers were told he had journeyed on some time before; convinced, they passed on, but were seen by Charles as they rode by.
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".
The Pendrells quickly taught Charles how to speak with a local accent and how to walk like a labourer. They told Charles they knew no way to safely get him to London, but that they knew of a Francis Wolfe who lived near the River Severn, and whose house, Madeley Court, had several hiding places. After dark, Richard Pendrell took Charles to Hobball Grange, where he had a meal and then immediately set off for Madeley, hoping eventually to cross the River Severn into Wales where the Royalists had strong support. At Evelith Mill, they were challenged by the local miller and the pair fled. It later turned out the miller was himself a Royalist who was hiding some members of the defeated army. Charles and Richard arrived at Madeley Court close to midnight on 5 September.
At Madeley, Wolfe told Richard and the King that his house was no longer safe, but he provided a barn for Charles to hide in while Richard and Wolfe scouted the Severn crossings. They found that the Severn was very closely guarded, so Charles and Richard were forced to return to Boscobel, wading through a stream along the way and also stopping at White Ladies, where they learned Lord Wilmot was safe at nearby Moseley Hall. Though greatly hampered by Charles' sore and bleeding feet, they moved on to Boscobel House at close to 3 in the morning of 6 September, after which Charles' feet were tended to.
at Boscobel House.
On the same day a Colonel William Careless, who had fought at Worcester, also arrived at Boscobel House. At Careless' suggestion, he and the king spent all day hiding in a nearby oak tree, while Parliamentary troops searched the surrounding woodland. The exhausted king slept for some of the time, supported by Careless, whose arms soon tired of supporting the King and who was "constrained...to pinch His Majesty to the end he might awaken him to prevent his present danger". They returned to Boscobel House that evening. Meanwhile, another Pendrell brother, Humphrey, reported that while at the local militia headquarters, he had been interrogated by a Parliamentary colonel, who questioned him closely about whether the King had been at White Ladies; however, Humphrey had managed to convince the officer he had never been there. The Colonel though had reminded Humphrey of the £1,000 reward for information leading to the King's capture and of the "penalty for concealing the King, which was death without mercy". This further emphasized the importance of getting Charles out of the country as soon as possible. Charles spent the night in one of Boscobel's priest-holes.
Late in the evening of 7 September, Charles left Boscobel for Moseley Old Hall at the suggestion of Wilmot who was staying there. Humphrey Pendrell was the local miller and provided Charles with the old mill horse. The King was accompanied by all five Pendrell brothers and Francis Yates. 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, as it was unsafe to continue riding. Three Pendrells took the horse back, while Richard and John Pendrell with Francis Yates continued with the King to Moseley Old Hall, which was the home of Thomas Whitgreave.
At Moseley, Charles was given a meal and dry clothes, and the Whitgreave family's priest, Father John Huddleston, bathed the King's bruised and bleeding feet. 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". Charles spent the night and the next two days hiding at Moseley Hall, sleeping in a bed for the first time since 3 September. Later that morning he saw some of his fleeing Scottish troops passing by.
That afternoon, Parliamentary troops arrived at Moseley Hall, and Charles was hurriedly hidden in the Moseley priest-hole, hidden behind the wall of a bedroom. The troops accused Thomas Whitgreave of fighting for the King at Worcester, which he had not done. Whitgreave further convinced them he was too feeble to aid any Royalist fugitives. However, they were eventually convinced that Whitgreave had not fought and went away, without searching the house, but the King no longer felt safe at Moseley Hall. Shortly after midnight on 10 September, Charles left Moseley Hall and went to Bentley Hall near Walsall.

Bentley to Trent – failure of the escape via Bristol plan

The King reached Bentley Hall in the early hours of 9 September. Bentley Hall was the residence of Colonel Lane who had been an officer in the Royalist Army since 1642, and his sister, Jane Lane. At Moseley, Wilmot learned that Jane had obtained a permit from the military for herself and a servant to travel to Abbots Leigh, Somerset to visit Mrs. George Norton, a friend of Jane's who was having a baby. Abbots Leigh also lay just across the Avon Gorge from the important seaport of Bristol. Lord Wilmot saw the opportunity of escaping through Bristol in the guise of the servant. On learning of the King's failure to reach Wales, Wilmot decided that the King should take advantage of the military pass and travel to Bristol as Jane Lane's servant, and then find a ship to take him to France.
Early on 10 September, Charles was quickly dressed as a tenant farmer's son and adopted the alias 'William Jackson' for the next part of his journey. The party then set out, Charles riding the same horse as Jane Lane. They were accompanied by Withy Petre, her husband John Petre, and Henry Lascelles, another related Royalist officer. Lord Wilmot refused to travel in disguise; he rode openly half a mile ahead of the party and if challenged he said he would claim to be out hunting. This was a brave and useful decoy. The party rode through Rowley Regis then Quinton to Bromsgrove. When they arrived at Bromsgrove they found that the horse ridden by Charles and Jane had lost a shoe. The King, playing the role of servant, took the horse to a blacksmith.
The King, 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".
The party reached Wootton Wawen where cavalry had gathered outside the inn. Here John and Withy Petre went ahead of the party. The King, Jane and Henry Lascelles with great coolness rode through the troops. 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, another relation of Jane's. Here, in keeping with his outward guise as a servant, the cook of the house 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 clumsiness by saying that as the son of poor people, he so rarely ate meat that he did not know how to use a roasting jack. Given the state of the economy at the time, his story was accepted and he was not identified.
On Thursday 11 September they continued through Chipping Campden and then to Cirencester, where it is claimed they spent the night of 11 September at the Crown Inn. The next morning they traveled on to Chipping Sodbury and then to Bristol, arriving at the Nortons' home, Abbots Leigh late on the afternoon of 12 September. The Nortons were unaware of the King's identity during his three-day stay at Leigh Court. However, the butler, Pope, who had formerly been a Royalist soldier and was familiar with Charles' appearance, immediately recognised him. Charles soon confirmed his identity to Pope, who later admitted Lord Wilmot into the house unobserved. Pope also attempted to find a ship for the King at the port of Bristol, but discovered none would be sailing to France for another month. While staying at Abbots Leigh, Charles deflected suspicion by asking a servant, who had been in the King's personal guard at the Battle of Worcester, to describe the King's appearance and clothing at the battle. The man looked at Charles and said, "The King was at least three fingers taller than ".
Since no ships were to be found, Pope suggested the King find refuge with the Wyndham family, who lived 40 miles away in the village of Trent on the Somerset and Dorset border. The Wyndhams were known to Wilmot and Charles, as the daughter of the King's old nurse had married the elder Wyndham brother Edmund. Charles and Wilmot therefore decided to make for the south coast with Jane. However, Mrs Norton suddenly went into labour and bore a stillborn infant. As Jane could not now leave Abbots Leigh without raising suspicion, the butler Pope forged a letter to Jane informing her of her father's serious illness and that she was immediately required at Bentley.
On the morning of 16 September Charles set out and reached Castle Cary that day where he spent the night. The next day they reached Trent, near Sherborne.

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 been locked into his bedroom by his wife, who was afraid for his safety.
On the 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 had lost 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 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

Charles spent the next 12 nights hiding at Trent House while his friends tried to arrange a passage to France. The night he had returned to the house, he had met a cousin of Edward Hyde's who knew one Colonel Edward Phelips of Montacute House. Wyndham himself suggested the aid of his friend John Coventry, son of the former Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. Once contacted by Wilmot, both Phelips and Coventry pledged themselves to Charles's service. Passage was booked on a ship from Southampton on 29 September, but the ship was commandeered to transport troops to Jersey. Phelips, Coventry and a Doctor Henchman of Salisbury Cathedral then decided to try the Sussex coast, and contacted Colonel George Gunter of Racton between Havant and Chichester.
On 6 October the King, Julia Coningsby and Henry Peters, Colonel Wyndham's servant, left Trent for the home of Mrs Amphillis Hyde at Heale House between Salisbury and Amesbury. The first day Charles was there he pretended to leave permanently, he rode about the district, visiting Stonehenge, and then returned 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 the King and Wilmot from Shoreham in a coal boat called Surprise for £80.
In the early hours of 13 October, the King 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, 50 miles away, stopping at Houghton for a meal before riding to the village of Bramber, which to their horror 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 50 soldiers rode rapidly towards them before dashing past and up the narrow lane, giving the travelers a severe fright. At the village of Beeding, Gunter left the group to ride on alone to Brighthelmstone, while the rest of the party rode to Brighthelmstone by a different route, meeting Gunter at the George Inn at Brighthelmstone on the evening of 14 October.
Gunter knew that the George Inn was a safe place to spend the night. However, once Captain Tattersell arrived, he immediately recognised the King and, realising the perilous situation he had got into, was furious. The captain's immediate reaction drew the attention of the inn-keeper, who had once been a servant in the royal household and had served Charles I. Drunk, the inn-keeper fell on his knees before Charles, who also recognised him. All the King could do was to smile and sidle away, remarking to Gunter that "the fellow knows me and I him; I hope he is an honest fellow". Meanwhile, the angry Tattersell demanded an additional £200 as danger-money. Once the King and Gunter had agreed, Tattersell unreservedly pledged himself to the King's service. The King then rested briefly before setting out for the boat.
Around 2:00 am on 15 October, the King and Lord Wilmot boarded the Surprise, which sailed at high tide five hours later at 7:00 am. Two hours after the ship had set sail, a troop of cavalry arrived in Shoreham to arrest the King, having been given orders to search for "a tall, black man, six feet two inches in height".
The King and Lord Wilmot landed in France at Fécamp, near Le Havre, on the morning of 16 October 1651.

Afterwards

Next day Charles went to Rouen and then to Paris to stay with his mother, Queen Henrietta Maria. The King 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 in 1660 the King granted various annuities and gifts to the people such as the Pendrill brothers and Jane Lane for their services. They were summoned to Whitehall Palace to attend the King and did so for a number of years. For Thomas Whitgreave and Richard Pendrell, Charles created annual pensions of £200 to be paid to them and £100 to the descendants of Richard Pendrell in perpetuity. At some point the Whitgreave pension lapsed and so did Jane Lane's because she had no children. The other Pendrell brothers also received lesser pensions. The pensions to the Pendrells are still being paid to a number of their descendants today.
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 loved to recount the exact details of his escape. The 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 put on intimate terms with people with whom he would normally have had no interaction, such as country matrons, simple yeomen, servants and merchants; he found he could easily rub along. 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 Father 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