Charles II Hides in the Boscobel Oak

At Worcester on Wednesday, September 3rd, the Roundheads under Oliver Cromwell routed Charles II and his Scots. The young king – he was twenty-one – slipped away on horseback with a few trusted companions. About dawn on the 4th they reached White Ladies, a house owned by the Giffard family, east of Tong in Shropshire, 40 miles from Worcester. They were let in by a servant named George Penderel. He and his four staunch brothers were to be key figures in the events of the next few days. As Roman Catholic recusants they had much experience in concealing people and pulling the wool over authority’s eyes. Three of them, including Richard Penderel, were sent for at once.

Charles decided to make for London, on foot and disguised as a simple woodman. He changed into a pair of rough breeches, coarse shirt and leather doublet, stockings and ill-fitting shoes, and was given a stained white hat and a billhook. The house servants cut his hair short and dirtied his face with soot. His companions rode away and he and Richard Penderel hid damply in a wood for the day. As the King remembered the adventure for the benefit of Samuel Pepys years afterwards, while the two were talking and feeling painfully hungry, Charles decided not to go to London, but to head for the Severn and Wales, hoping to reach Swansea or some other port where he could find a boat to France. Meanwhile he took lessons from Richard Penderel in how to talk like a local and walk with a local’s gait. He was a good mimic and the Worcestershire accent proved no problem, but the gait was.