Escape of Charles II The Escape of Charles II from England in 1651 is a key episode in his life . Although it took only 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 , and 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 ) , at a time when average male height in England was 5 ' 6 " . Furthermore there were cavalry patrols specifically tasked with finding the King . Fortunately for Charles , the Catholics had an organisation with 90 years of experience in keeping secrets and hiding people . However , it was also illegal for Catholics to travel more than five miles away from their homes without a pass from the Sheriff of the County , increasing the hazards faced by those who helped him . Flight from Worcester . Late on 3 September 1651 , Charles fled the city of Worcester by the northern gate in the company of Lord Wilmot , Lord Derby , Charles Giffard ( or Gifford ) and many others . While some of the party elected to try to flee to Scotland , Charles rejected the idea on the basis of its difficulties ; the journey would cover hundreds of miles and expose him to many dangers . Instead , Charles planned to make for London ; as it was such a large city , he could easily disguise himself and find a ship to the Continent . Charles told only Wilmot of his plan , telling him they would meet at the Three Cranes Tavern . Charles attempted to persuade the others in his party to leave , though as he later remarked : " though I could not get them to stand by me against the enemy , I could not get rid of them , now I had a mind to it . " By now night was falling and shelter was urgently required ; decisions would have to be made without delay . Lord Derby was a committed Cavalier and a prominent Catholic nobleman . The previous week , left wounded and pursued after the disastrous Battle of Wigan Lane , he 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 . The royal party then headed into Shropshire , stopping after five miles at an inn in Ombersley ( now the Kings Arms ) for refreshments . Charles continued on towards Stourbridge through the parish of Chaddesley Corbett and past the parishes of Hagley and Pedmore . Stourbridge was garrisoned by Parliamentary troops but Charles was able to pass without the alarm being sounded , ( it has also been suggested that Charles took a slightly different route and did not cross the Stour at Stourbridge but near a village called Wolverley after passing through a dell below Lea Castle and over Hay Bridge ) . Tradition has it the King halted at Whittington Manor , now the Whittington Inn on the A449 . From there he passed through Kinver into Staffordsire . The party stopped again at Wordsley before arriving at White Ladies Priory on Giffard ' s estate at Boscobel in the early hours of 4 September . Boscobel to Bentley . The houses on the estate were looked after by servants . Five Catholic brothers called Pendrell ( also Pendrill or Penderel ) lived on the Boscobel Estate . At White Ladies , the King was met by George Pendrell who called his brother , Richard , from his farm , Hobbal Grange , at Tong . They disguised the King as a farm labourer , " in a coarse noggen shirt , with breeches of green coarse cloth and a doeskin leather doublet . " Charles was then given a pair of patched stockings and a " greasy , long , white , steeple - crowned hat " to wear , and Richard cut the King ' s hair , leaving it short on top but long at the sides . However , a significant problem now arose ; 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 a 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 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 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 . ( Some accounts have the miller chasing them down the lane . ) It later turned out the miller was himself a Royalist who was hiding some members of the defeated army . Charles and Richard arrived at Wolfe ' s home 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 returned to Boscobel House close to 3 in the morning of 6 September , after which Charles ' feet were tended to . On the same day a Colonel William Careless ( or Carlis ) , who had fought at Worcester , also arrived at Boscobel House where William Pendrell was a caretaker . At Careless ' suggestion , he and the king spent all day hiding in a nearby oak tree ( The Royal Oak ) , 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 £1000 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 ( 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 , 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 ( though he had fought as a Royalist before being wounded and captured at Naseby in 1645 ) . 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 . Colonel John Lane lived at Bentley Hall . He had been an officer in the Royalist Army since 1642 . His sister was Jane Lane . At Moseley , Wilmot learned that Jane had obtained a permit from the military for herself and a servant to travel to Abbot ' s 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 . When the King reached Bentley Hall in the early morning of 10 September he 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 ( Jane Lane ' s sister ) , 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 travelled 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 Abbot Leigh . However , the butler , Pope , who had formerly been a Royalist soldier and had often seen Charles as a boy , immediately recognised the King . Charles soon confirmed his identity to Pope , who later slipped 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 [ you ] . " 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 to 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 the Manor House , Castle Cary . The next day they reached Trent near Sherborne . 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 . Charles and Wilmot then travelled to Bridport , Dorset , 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 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 . Meanwhile , Wilmot had gotten separated from the King and had gone to the wrong Bridport inn . Moreover , while at the Queen ' s Arms Inn , Wilmot had discovered his horse had lost a shoe , so he called for the ostler and told him to take the horse to a blacksmith ' s . The inn ' s ostler , a Parliamentary soldier , 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 but narrowly missed the royal party , as Wilmot had rejoined Charles and the pair were attempting to return to Trent . The next day , Charles narrowly escaped capture by hiding in Lee Lane at Bridport . A memorial stone , erected at the spot , commemorates the event . 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 . 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 evening of 24 September the King returned to Trent House . Trent to France . Charles spent the next few weeks in hiding at Trent House while his friends tried to arrange a passage to France . Wilmot went to Salisbury to contact known Royalists , including Colonel Edward Phelips of Montacute House and John Coventry , son of the former Lord Keeper of the Great Seal . Passage was booked on a ship from Southampton on 29 September , but the ship was commandeered to transport troops to Jersey . Phillips , 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 the 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 . Though sleeping at Heale , Charles spent his days at Stonehenge , returning to the house each evening after dark . On 7 October Wilmot visited Colonel Gunter , who found a French merchant , Francis Mancell . Together they made arrangements with a Captain Nicholas Tattersell to carry the King and Wilmot from Shoreham near Brighton in a coal boat called the " Surprise " for £80 . The King , Wilmot and Gunter set out for Shoreham on 14 October arriving on 15 October . Gunter knew that The George Inn in Brighton was a safe place to spend the night . At the inn while negotiating with Captain Tattersell , Charles was recognised by the inn - keeper who was drunk and who fell on his knees . The captain realising who he would be carrying , demanded an additional £200 as danger - money . On 16 October the King and Lord Wilmot landed in France at Fécamp , near Le Havre . Only hours after the King sailed , a troop of cavalry arrived in Shoreham to arrest him . The escape from England is commemorated each year with a yacht race from Brighton to Fecamp The Royal Escape Race organised by the Sussex Yacht Club . 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 ( it may never have actually been paid ) 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 Pendrill Arms are the same as those awarded to Colonel Careless , an oak tree on a gold field with a red fess bearing three royal crowns , but with a silver field and black fess . The crest is distinguished by a royal crown encircling the crossed sword and sceptre . The Lanes ' Coat of Arms was modified to show the three lions of England . 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 observed , although hundreds of inns and public houses throughout the country are still called The Royal Oak after the famous escape . A series of inaccurate paintings by Isaac Fuller was commissioned shortly after the Restoration to record the episodes such as the oak tree , the King ' s night ride to Moseley Hall and pillion ride south with Jane Lane . These are on display in the Banqueting House in Whitehall in London . Significance . For much of the time without courtiers and troops , Charles had to rely on his own wits to avoid capture . He was a nerveless actor , though he made a few mistakes early in his role as a tenant farmer ' s son . His performance gave him the confidence in later life to be his ' own man ' . For six weeks Charles also experienced ordinary life , which most kings never saw , and learned to appreciate all people , rich and poor . He became a King without ' airs and graces ' and took a great interest in ordinary people as can been seen by his actions after the Great Fire of London . The events made such an impression on Charles that in later years he loved to recount the exact details to people , including : Edward Hyde , 1st Earl of Clarendon , his doctor ( Dr . George Bate ) , and to Samuel Pepys who each recorded what they were told , with few discrepancies between each version . This is why such detail , sometimes hour by hour , is known . Charles also saw that Catholics would take great risks for him and developed a great respect for them and their plight . On his deathbed , he became a Catholic . The Monarch ' s Way Long Distance Footpath . The Monarch ' s Way , a 615 mile waymarked footpath , based on the escape route starts at the battlefield at Worcester finishing at Shoreham . In fiction . The escape of Charles II following his defeat at the Battle of Worcester is the subject of William Harrison Ainsworth ' s 1871 novel " Boscobel , or , The Royal Oak " . Georgette Heyer ' s novel , " Royal Escape " , published in 1938 also tells the tale . Gillian Bagwell ' s novel " The September Queen " recounts the parts of Charles ' s escape during which he was accompanied by Jane Lane , 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 . Charles recounts some of the rest of his adventures in the book , which will be released in the U . S . on November 1 , 2011 , and in the U . K . in July 2012 under the title " The Royal Exile " . In film . The Moonraker , a 1958 British historical drama film set during the English Civil War . It 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 . The film depicts a fictionalised account of the Escape of Charles II following the Battle of Worcester .