To Catch a King: Charles II's Great Escape by Charles Spencer
To Catch a King: Charles II's Great Escape by Charles Spencer
In January 1649, King Charles I was beheaded in London outside his palace of Whitehall and Britain became a republic. When his eldest son, Charles, returned to England in 1651 to fight for his throne, he was crushed by the might of Cromwell's armies at the battle of Worcester.
With 3,000 of his supporters lying dead and 10,000 taken prisoner, it seemed as if Charles's dreams of power had been dashed. At six feet two inches tall, the prince towered over his contemporaries, and with dark skin inherited from his French-Italian mother Henrietta Maria, he stood out in a crowd. How would he fare on the run with Cromwell's soldiers on his tail and a vast price on his head?
The next six weeks would form the most memorable and dramatic period of Charles's life -- p ursued relentlessly, he resorted to disguise and deception, and had to rely on grit, fortitude and good luck. With bloodied feet and facing certain death if caught, he utilized a patchwork of hiding places that had evolved to hide Catholics from persecution. He hid in an oak tre -- an event so fabled that over 400 English pubs are named "Royal Oak" in commemoration; he witnessed a village wildly celebrating the erroneous news of his death and a medical student wrongly imprisoned because of his similarity in loos; he disguised himself as a servant and as one half of an eloping couple. Once restored to the throne as Charles II, he told the tale of his escapades to Samuel Pepys, who transcribed it all.
In this gripping, action-packed true story, based on extensive archive material, Charles Spencer, bestselling author of Killers of the King, uses Pepy's account and many others to retell this epic adventure.
William Collins, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 2nd Printing, 2017, 314 pages
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK. THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.