“Jones” would be in danger whenever he appeared among strangers in his overland bid to flee England.Ĭharles a year before his “History of Wonders.” Though there were no pictures of him in circulation, Army cadres in pursuit of fleeing Scottish troops were on the lookout for a very tall, black-haired man. Charles stood 6’2'', towering above the average height of his subjects. His long, curly black hair was cropped short, and, assuming the name of Jones, he exchanged his military finery for the rough clothes of a woodsman.īut a problem remained. There the young heir was transformed from prince to peasant. Upon Charles’s arrival, Boscobel’s owner directed the royal party to an even more remote house 15 miles distant. That Charles found refuge in this underground Catholic network not only saved the nominal head of the Church of England but also had tremendous consequences later in his life. Still the faith persisted, mainly among aristocratic families in remote locales like the Brewood Forest, visited by fugitive priests who lived and said Mass in hidden rooms behind secret doors. Catholic churches were closed, monasteries disbanded, and any priest who maintained allegiance to the pope over the king, or queen, was subject to imprisonment and gruesome execution.īoscobel House in 2007. Catholics had been a despised and persecuted minority for over a century, since Henry VIII established the Church of England. What follows, then, is fairly well documented.įinding Refuge with an Oppressed MinorityĬharles’ destination that fateful night, Boscobel House, was home to a Catholic family, part of an underground network that had long shielded fugitive priests. The execution of Charles I, the rule of Oliver Cromwell, and the return of Charles II are featured in episode 11 and episode 12 of the MagellanTV series, Monarchy.Īccording to historian Antonia Fraser, in later years Charles never tired of relating his “History of Wonders.” His version of the story was written down on three separate occasions, while most persons of note who helped him escape later recorded their own accounts. Crowned king in 1661, for the next quarter century he ruled a fractious nation slowly entering the modern age. Because the prince returned in glory a decade later. His experiences as a hunted man became the stuff of folktales, and also contributed greatly to the personality, and eventual rule, of King Charles II. And so began one of the most remarkable adventures in English history.įor the next five weeks Charles was a fugitive facing certain execution, with the colossal price of £1,000 on his head (roughly US$385,000 today), before finally escaping to the continent. Ĭharles had shown great courage in the battle and quit the field only after his attendants convinced him that the royalist cause needed a living king more than a dead hero. Cromwell, a brilliant general with crack troops, made quick work of the invaders. Charles landed in Scotland to lead a Royalist army south, but the campaign failed miserably. Exiled in France since then, the 23-year-old heir to the throne remained the primary focus for the network of monarchists seeking to restore him as the rightful king of England. Two years earlier, in 1649, the prince’s father, Charles I, was beheaded by Cromwell’s revolutionary government. Their destination was the dense forest of Brewood, and a remote manor house, romantically named Boscobel, nestled there. His gratitude for the kindness of the common people, who helped him at great risk to their lives, would make him one of the most loved of England’s kings.Īs darkness fell on the Worcester battlefield, where the Commonwealth army of Oliver Cromwell routed the Royalist troops of Charles Stuart, Prince of Wales, the young would-be-king fled north with a handful of aides. With the help of a few loyal aides, and relying on an underground network among oppressed Catholic families, Charles, after many close calls, reached France. Now a fugitive with an astronomical price on his head, facing certain execution, Charles had to find a way out of the country. After the defeat of his army at the Battle of Worcester, young Charles Stuart, the Prince of Wales, was forced to flee the victorious troops of Oliver Cromwell, the man who ordered the execution of the prince’s father, Charles I, two years earlier.
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