To Catch A King: Charles II's Great Escape

Only about half the text is a very detailed and colourful account of how Prince Charles, the future Charles II, evaded capture after his defeat at the battle of Worcester in 1651 and of his escape to France 43 days later. Just over a third of the text deals with the decade before Charles’ escape after the battle, and also with what had happened to Charles’ younger siblings during the Civil War. The story of the siblings wdoes not figure in this review.Prince Charles had been present, aged 12, at the battle of Edgehill, 1642. He was given his own separate command in the West in 1645; but his troops were no match for the parliamentarians, and in 1646 he escaped to France to re-join his mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, who had returned to her native country to raise funds for Charles I. When the Second Civil War broke out in 1648, he went to Holland, en route for Scotland, where, aged 21, he arrived in 1650.When Charles was executed by the Independents in 1649, the Scots recognized Prince Charles as King. In return, Charles, as his father had done before him, accepted Presbyterianism in Scotland, betraying, in the process, the royalist Montrose, whom the Covenanters captured and hanged. Cromwell invaded Scotland and won a remarkable victory at Dunbar, on the East coast, in 1650. Charles then marched his army into England down the western road, through Carlisle, which had been left open. Very few Englishmen joined the army of these Scottish invaders. Cromwell raced south and his generals prepared to fight Charles. The two armies would meet at Worcester.An army of 28,000 men surrounded the 16,000 royalist troops in and around Worcester. The battle is described in great detail. The outcome was not in doubt, and Charles fled from the city just before it was overrun.Major General Harrison was in charge of hunting down the fugitives, and his forces were extremely effective: his troops captured up to 10,000 of them. Many of the English among them were executed; the lives of the Scots were spared, but many of them were transported as slave labour in the colonies.Charles urged those few who fled with him to disperse for everyone’s safety, until only some sixty men remained with him. They first took shelter in Whiteladies, a Catholic house that had once been a nunnery, near another royalist manor at Boscobel House in East Shropshire, 26 miles from Worcester. There Charles dismissed the men who were still with him.Even now, what happened to Charles is interspersed with long passages about what befell Lord Henry Wilmot, one of those he had sent away. There is, later, another chapter of 16 pages recounting what fate awaited many other of Charles’ supporters.Wilmot later re-joined the King and was his main companion in the escape. He is one of the two people who really comes to life in the book. The other is Charles himself: gallant, resourceful, courageous, enduring, unflappable, and inspiring loyalty. There are dozens of other characters in the story, but they are difficult to remember, and the only thing we know about their personalities is their devotion to the King.Charles left Whiteladies, guided by locals (he always had a few simple and loyal folk to travel with him and to scout ahead) and disguised as a woodcutter as he set off on foot towards Wales, where royalist sympathies were strong. Unused to walking long distances and poorly shod, he suffered agonies in his feet as they approached the Severn; but he gathered that all the crossing points were so guarded by his enemies that he had to give up his goal, and returned to Boscobel House. But he was told that the area was swarming with soldiers looking for him, and was advised to hide himself up a thick-leaved oak tree nearby. He was there while soldiers were beneath the tree. Afterwards he hid in a priest’s hole in the house.Later, he and Wilmot were reunited in Moseley Hall in Staffordshire. From there, he made his way towards Bristol, whence he planned to take a ship to France or Spain; but none such were due to sail for a month. So he made for Trent House, near Sherbourne in Dorset. He planned to take ship at Charmouth; but this failed because an intermediary of Charles’ had failed to pay the ship’s captain the sum promised, and the ship did not turn up. Charles had to return to Trent House.Next he made for Shoreham in Sussex, from where a ship was willing to take him. This time he was successful, and, 43 days after the battle of Worcester, he arrived in France.The rest of the book is about the reactions, on the continent and in England, to Charles’ escape, and about the rewards the restored king gave to those who had helped him. There are various other bits and pieces about Charles after the Restoration, which have nothing to do with what happened during those 43 days. Most of the last chapter is devoted to the account of Charles’ death following the grisly details of how fourteen doctors administered quack remedies to the dying monarch.

This was an edge-of-the-seat read as Charles pinballs through England trying to evade ruthless and determined troops and bounty-hunters, when capture means probable execution at the hands of his father's regicides. He is unusually tall, has an aristocrat's pale skin, and walks with regal bearing, all of which could get him recognized. Yet his composure throughout is exemplary, even when in disguise he is literally rubbing shoulders with Cromwell's troops! There are fascinating details, such as rubbing walnuts on his skin to darken his complexion. My only quibble is how hard it was to keep track of who was who among the supporting characters, and the book could benefit from stripping down in that regard. Yet a great read overall, and I would love to see this turned into a film.

Great factual historical book, could not put it down. I had the pleasure of visiting Moseley Hall and their recollections exactly mirrored this book.The Priest Hole would have been very cramped for such a tall man, how he stayed in their for any time is testament to him.Now I will have to read it again.

A genuine masterpiece, one of the best books I have ever read in both content and style. It brings to life the way people lived during the period. Just one comment:- it was a shame that we know the ending before we read the book, what a thriller that would have made without that prior knowledge!.

Purchased following an intriguing podcast interviewing the author (BBC History Magazine). A fascinating insight into such a tumultuous (relatively brief) time span of British history. Some historians are very skilled but they just don't have 'it'. They write for other historians and you find yourself bored by a topic you thought you'd enjoy reading about. Charles Spencer has the detail down but he also has 'it'.