September 9, 1651 - "The traitor, Charles Stuart"

Tuesday, September 9, was a day in which the king’s position, already dangerous, grew considerably more so.  Parliament issued a proclamation headed “A Reward of a Thousand Pounds for the Capture of the Traitor Charles Stuart,” which was to be posted all over England.  The broadsheet went on, “For better discovery of him take notice of him to be a tall man above two yards high, his hair a deep brown, near to black, and has been, as we hear, cut off since the destruction of his army at Worcester, so that it is not very long. Expect him in disguise, and do not let any pass without a due and particular search, and look particularly to the by-creeks and places of embarkation in or belonging to your port.”

Charles in about 1651

The net was tightening. And that afternoon, Thomas Whitgreave heard that soldiers were approaching Moseley Hall with “Southall the priest catcher.” The king climbed into the priest hole, but that was no guarantee he would not be found, and his capture would certainly mean his death.  Whitgreave made a bold gamble.  He threw open all the doors of the house to show that he had nothing to hide, and met the soldiers when they arrived.  They accused him of having been at the Battle of Worcester, but he denied it, and neighbors gathered to attest to the fact that Whitgreave had not been away from home at the time of the battle.

Of course the soldiers searched the house anyway, but didn’t discover the priest hole. One of them approached an ostler working in the yard and told him he could earn an easy thousand pounds by turning the king in.  Luckily, the man didn’t know that Charles was hiding only yards away.  Eventually the frustrated searching party left, but it was clear that every hour Charles remained in the neighborhood increased the likelihood he would be taken.  Fortunately, all was in place for him to be moved to Bentley Hall that night and to depart in the morning.

Entrance to the chapel at Moseley Hall

Moseley Hall, view through garden gate
October 2009

Late that night, John Lane rode to Moseley and waited near a stile.  Whitgreave met him there and then brought him to the corner of the orchard and went inside to get the king.  Charles took leave of old Mrs. Whitgreave, Thomas’s mother, who gave him some almonds and raisins to take with him.  He had already been given a catechism which he had admired as being a very pretty book.  The night was cold, and Huddleston begged the king to take his cloak, which the king accepted, promising to send it back.  Then John Lane, Lord Wilmot, Wilmot’s serving man Robert Swan, and the king set forth for Bentley, about eight miles away, arriving around midnight.

Bentley Hall in 1685

September 8, 1651 - safe at Moseley Hall

Moseley Old Hall

Charles arrived at Moseley Hall late at night on Sunday, September 7, and stayed up until 4 or 5 a.m. eating biscuits and drinking sack with Thomas Whitgreave, the owner of Mosely, and Father John Huddleston, and giving them a long account of what had happened during his time in Scotland, the march toward Worcester, the battle, and what had happened to him since.  Finally, with day breaking, he slept, with Huddleston and Whitgreave keeping guard.

"King's Bedroom" at Moseley Old Hall
from The Flight of the King

Back of Moseley Old Hall, October 2009

Moseley Hall in the 19th century

Moseley Hall, October 2009

In the morning, Whitgreave sent away his servants, except a Catholic maid, who was told only that a relative of the family who had escaped from Worcester was taking shelter in the house.  Whitgreave then dispatched John Penderel to Bentley Hall to ask John Lane to bring Wilmot’s horses to the marle pit near Mosely about midnight so Wilmot could go to Bentley Hall and finalize the plans for the king’s journey to Bristol with Jane Lane.

Door of Moseley Hall, October 2009
Charles describes this door in his account

The attic of Mosely Hall, October 2009
the window looks down onto the road

Charles spent the day in the attic of the house, from which he could look down at the road and watch the wretched remains of his army making their way northward.  The road passes so close by the house that Charles recognized one man from his own regiment of Scottish highlanders.  Some of them came to the house, and Mrs. Whitgreave fed them and nursed them as best she could.  They told her that they were subsisting on pea straw, cabbage stalks, and whatever they could find.  The English had not been happy to have an army of Scots in their midst, and the poor soldiers were not only starving and in danger of capture, and likely transportation to near-slavery in the West Indies, but were subjected to hostility and abuse by the residents of the country. 

Moseley Hall, October 2009
looking toward gate onto the road

Mrs. Whitgreave had been taken into the secret of the king’s identity and sat with him at dinner at his insistence.  There were three young boys in the household, who had been excused from their lessons and posted to keep a sharp eye out for Cromwell’s soldiers.  They didn’t know who the stranger at the table was, but he was amused when one of them urged the others, “Eat hard, boys, for we have been on the lifeguard and hard duty this day.”  One of the boys was named Palin, and according to the guide at Moseley Hall, he was an ancestor or distant relation of Michael Palin of Monty Python fame.

Moseley, entrance to the Long Walk
from The Flight of the King

Garden at Moseley Hall, October 2009
photo by Alice Northgreaves

That afternoon, the Parliamentary Colonel Ashenhurst and a party of his soldiers stationed at Codsall arrived at Whiteladies.  They had heard the king was hiding there, and had been guided there by a captured Royalist soldier.  They tore the place apart and roughed up Charles Giffard, but of course they didn’t find Charles. Enraged at having been led astray, they seriously beat the captive soldier.

The news of this event reached Moseley and raised the already high stakes in the dangerous game being played by the king and his supporters.  With Cromwell’s men searching the neighboring houses, it was imperative that the king must be gotten out of the area as soon as possible.  It was agreed that Wilmot would tell John Lane that night that they must get the king to Bentley Hall the next night, and set off for Bristol the following morning.  And Lord Wilmot told Whitgreave that if Whitgreave should be taken and tortured, he should confess all he knew about Lord Wilmot’s actions, hoping that might satisfy his inquisitors and spare the king.

September 6 and 7, 1651 - The Royal Oak

At about 3 a.m. on Saturday, September 6, Charles and Richard Penderel arrived at Boscobel, very close to Whiteladies, from which they had set forth on Thursday evening. The king stayed in the woods near the house while Penderel went in to reconnoiter.

Boscobel in 1798

Entry to priest hole, Boscobel

It turned out that another refugee from the Battle of Worcester was already there – Colonel William Carliss, who had been in Worcester to the bitter end, having seen the last man killed before he made his escape. Carliss, another local Catholic, had also thought of the priest holes at Boscobel, and had made his way there over three days, hiding in the fields to evade the Parliamentary cavalry patrols scouring the countryside.

Priest hole, Boscobel

Hatch into priest hole at Boscobel House

Looking down into priest hole, Boscobel House

Boscobel House, turn of 20th century, from The Flight of the King

Richard Penderel and his brother William brought Charles into the house, and after learning from William that Wilmot was being sheltered at nearby Moseley Hall, Charles summoned Carliss and consulted with him about what they should do, as day was coming on. Carliss told the king “that it would be very dangerous for me either to stay in that House or to goe into the Wood (there being a great Wood hard by Boscobel), that he knew but one way how to pass the day, and that was to get up into a great Oake in a pretty plaine place, where we might see round about us; for the Enemy would certainly Search all the Wood for People that had made their Escape.”

The successor to the Royal Oak

The rear of Boscobel, October 2009

William’s wife gave Charles some bread and cheese and made him a posset of milk and small beer. Just as important, she did what she could to ease the agony of his feet. She heated water while Colonel Carliss helped Charles take off his shoes and stockings, which were sopping wet and full of gravel. There were no shoes in the house that would fit the king, but Mrs. Penderel put hot embers in the wet shoes to dry them, and after bathing his bloody and blistered feet, gave him clean stockings.

William Penderel at the age of 84

Dawn was breaking, so Carliss and the king, carrying some bread, cheese, and small beer, used William Penderel’s ladder to climb “up into a greate Oake that had been Lop’t some 3 or 4 Yeares before, and being growne out again very Bushy and Thick, could nott be seen through.” From their perch, they could see “soldiers goeing up and downe in the thickest of the Wood, searching for persons escaped.”   

The descendant of the Royal Oak, October 2009

Charles had now spent three days and nights with very little sleep, and with nothing now to do but hide, he went to sleep on the broad branch of the oak, lying on a couple of pillows that had been handed up into the tree and resting his head on Carliss’s arm. After a while, Carliss’s arm grew so numb that he couldn’t hold onto Charles and keep him from falling out of the tree. He had to wake the king, but was worried that if he spoke, he might be heard by the searching soldiers. So he pinched the king, waking him silently.

Charles and Carliss in the Royal Oak
from Isaac Fuller's series of paintings

Boscobel House, October 2009

Boscobel House and outbuildings, October 2009

While Charles and Carliss hid in the tree, Richard Penderel went to Wolverhampton to buy wine and biscuits for the king, and another brother, Humphrey, went into Shifnal, using the excuse of paying a levy to find out what the news was. While he was handing over the money, a Parliamentary colonel came in. Cromwell’s soldiers had some reason to think the king had been in the neighborhood, and finding that Humphrey lived near Whiteladies, the colonel began to question him. Thinking fast, Humphrey said that a group of Royalist gentleman had been at Whiteladies on the morning after the battle, but they were no long gone and he didn’t know if the king had been among them.    

Post-Restoration broadsheet
about the Penderels's help to Charles

When it was dark, Charles and Carliss came down out of the tree–which came immediately to be known as the Royal Oak–and ravenously ate the chicken dinner that Mrs. Penderel had prepared. Charles was alarmed to hear Humphrey’s news, especially that a reward of a thousand pounds was offered for his capture. This was an enormous amount of money–enough to support a country family comfortably for years–literally a king’s ransom. But the Penderels assured him that nothing would induce them to give him up. And he had no choice but to trust them.

Boscobel House, October 2009
photo by Alice Northgreaves

Charles must have felt relieved and relaxed, for he sat in an arbor on the grounds of Boscobel and drank wine. 

The bed at Boscobel in which Charles slept

Bedroom in which Charles slept at Boscobel

After supper, Carliss had asked the king what he would like for dinner the next day, Sunday. Charles said he’d fancy some mutton, not realizing that it was a luxury for his simple hosts. There was neither mutton in the house nor sheep belonging to William Penderel, and it would call attention to the household to go to buy it, but here were ways around this problem.  

Chicken in the yard at Boscobel House

On Sunday morning William Penderel and Carliss picked out one of the best sheep belonging to a neighbor, and Carliss stabbed it with his dagger. They brought it into the cellar and hung it up. When dinner time came, the king himself cut some of the mutton into what he called Scotch collops, and he and Carliss worked together to fry them with butter, giving rise to a jocular dispute as to who was the master cook.  

Carliss's arms, including three crowns
and the Royal Oak.  After the Restoration,
Charles permitted him to change his name
to Carlos, i.e., Charles

Alice Northgreaves at Boscobel House, October 2009

Me, visiting Boscobel in October 2009
photo by Alice Northgreaves

Entrance to priest hole at Moseley Hall

The Penderels had arranged with Thomas Whitgreave of Moseley Hall, where Wilmot had been staying, that Charles would go there. So late that rainy Sunday night the brothers, armed with clubs and woodsmen’s billhooks, took him there, riding on Humphrey’s mill horse, because by this point his feet were too damaged to walk the eight or ten miles to Moseley.

The Penderels with Charles of Humphrey's mill horse
by Isacc Fuller

On the way, Charles complained jokingly that the horse was "the heaviest dull jade" he'd ever ridden.  Humphrey retorted, "My liege, can you blame the horse to go heavily when he has the weight of three kingdoms on his back?"  Charles appreciated the humor, and when the Penderel brothers were summoned to Whitehall to be honored after the Restoration, they reminded the king of the job.

The Penderels accompanying Charles
from a 1660 broadsheet

It had been decided that Charles should go on foot from Pendeford Mill, with only John and Richard Penderel and their brother-in-law Francis Yates accompanying him to Moseley.  When they got there, Charles dismounted and set off, getting a few paces before he realized that he was taking leave of William, Humphrey, and "Trusty Dick" Penderel, who had risked their lives for him.  He ran after them and apologized, "My troubles make me forget myself.  I thank you all."  The brothers kissed his hand and disappeared into the night.

The Penderels' marks, in lieu of signatures

At Moseley, Lord Wilmot was waiting anxiously for the king's arrival.  He had not told his host, Thomas Whitgreave, who it was that he would be sheltering, but Whitgreaves probably had a good idea already.   Whitgreave later recalled that when Charles and his companions finally arrived at the door, the king was so effectively disguised that Whitgreave could not tell which of the men he was, "only I knew all the rest."

Richard Penderel

Charles was reunited with Lord Wilmot, who whisked him upstairs to the room of Father John Huddleston, who tutored the boys of the house and acted as chaplain, while Whitgreave took the others into the buttery for something to eat.  When Huddleston brought Whitgreaves up to his room, Wilmot announced, "This gentleman is both your master, mine, and the master of us all."  Whitegreave and Huddleston knelt and kissed the king's hand, and showed him the priest hole off Huddleston's bedroom. 

The priest hole at Moseley

I visited Mosely near the end of a day, and had the privilege of walking through the rooms alone after having gone around with a tour.  It gave me chills to kneel on the floor and peer down into the very space where Charles hid.  It was perhaps four feet square, maybe five, and probably not four feet high, and it can’t have been comfortable, especially for a man who was six feet two, but it would provide safety. 

Father Huddleston, seeing that Charles was wearing a very coarse shirt, now filthy from the exertions of the last few days, offered the king his own shirt, as well as clean stockings, and Whitgreave fetched biscuits and sack.  Refreshed by food and drink and more comfortable clothes, Charles declared himself ready for another march, and said, “If it shall please God once more to place me in the head of but eight or 12,000 good men, men of one mind, and resolved to fight, I shall not doubt to drive those rogues out of my kingdom.” 

Thomas Whitgreave of Moseley Hall

Wilmot, thinking Charles safely on his way to Wales, had planned to ride with Jane Lane of nearby Bentley Hall to Bristol, where he could board a ship, but the king's return changed everything. Now it would have to be Charles who rode with Jane, disguised as her manservant – an alarming proposition, given the king’s striking appearance, the Parliamentarians’ frantic efforts to find him, and the terrible temptation of that thousand pound reward.

Proclamation offering £1000 reward

for capture of Charles

September 5, 1651 - a fruitless trip to Madely

On September 4, Charles had set out at dusk with Richard Penderel from Hobbal Grange with the plan of getting to Wales, where he could board a ship. The way was not easy, especially since Charles was wearing shoes that were much too small for his large feet.

The road between Boscobel and Whiteladies, October 2009

At about midnight or one a.m. they came to a mill bridge over a stream. As Charles recalled, they “could see the miller … sitting at the mill door, he being in White Cloathes, it being a very dark night. He called out, ‘Who goes there?’ upon which Richd. Penderel answered, ‘Neighbors goeing home,’ or some such words. Whereupon the miller cryed out, ‘If you be neighbors stand, or elce I will knock you down.’ … The miller cryed out, ‘Rogues, Rogues,’ and thereupon some men came out of the Mill after us, which I believed was Soldiers. Soe we fell running … up the lane as long as we could Runn, it being very deep and very dirty; Till at last I badd him leap over a hedge and lye still to heare if any boddy followed us. Which we did, and continued lyeing down upon the Ground about half an hower; when hearing noe body come, we continued on our way on to the Village upon the Seavern.”

Countryside near Whiteladies

Penderel suggested that it might be safer for them to take refuge, and that he knew a man named Wolfe in Madely whose house featured a priest hole. So on they went for another couple of hours. But Charles was cautious and when they reached Wolfe’s house, he “would not goe in, till I knew a little of his minde, whether he would receive soe dangerous a Guest as me; and therefore stayed in a Feild under a hedge … commanding him not to say it was I, but only to ask Mr. Woolf whether he would receive an English Gentleman, a person of Quality, to hide him on the next day till we could travel againe by night.”

Courtyard of Wolfe's house, Madeley

Penderel knocked on the door, but when he told Wolfe he had a man with him who had escaped from the battle at Worcester, Wolfe said “it was soe dangerous a thing to harbor any boddy that was knowne, that he would not venture his Neck for any man, unless it were the King himself.” When Penderel said that in fact it was the king who was with him, Wolfe said “he should be very redy to venture all he had in the World to Secure” him.

Wolfe's house in Madeley, from The Flight of the King

Interior of the barn at Madely
from The Flight of the King

One the fugitives were in the house, Wolfe said he was sorry to see Charles there, as there was a company of militia in the town, and they had a guard at the ferry to examine anyone attempting to cross. Moreover, Wolfe said, it would be dangerous for Charles to hide in his house because the priest holes had been discovered, and would certainly be searched if the house was searched.

Wolfe gave the king and Penderel some cold meat, and they spent the rest of the night and all the next day in the barn, hiding behind some corn and hay. In the evening, Woolf’s son, just released from being a prisoner at Shrewsbury, arrived home. As soon as it was dark, father and son brought Charles and Penderel some more meat. Charles asked whether they thought he could cross over the Severn into Wales, which they advised him “by noe means to adventure upon, because of the Strict Guards that were kept all along the Severne where any Passage could be found for preventing any Boddyes escapeing that way into Whales.”

Upon hearing this discouraging news, Charles decided he had no other choice but to go back to Boscobel or Whiteladies, where he should be able to reconnect with Wilmot, and execute his original idea of making for London.

There was discussion of whether Charles and Penderel should ride, but they decided it would be less noticeable and safer to walk, so poor Charles, his feet now covered with blood blisters, set out with Penderel for the long walk back.

When they came to the mill where the miller had pursued them the night before, having “noe mind to be questioned a second time,” Charles asked Penderel how deep the river was and whether he could swim. Penderel said “it was a Scurvey River, not easy to be past in all places, and that he could not swimm.” Charles investigated, and finding that the river was “but a little above my middle,” he took Penderel by the hand and helped him across, and they continued through the night toward Boscobel and Whiteladies.

Ruins of Whiteladies, October 2009

Arches at Whiteladies, October 2009
photo by Alice Northgreaves