WEBVTT - The Desperate Young King Charles II 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.120 You're listening to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:12.720 Radio and Aaron Minky. Listener discretion advised. In seventeen eighty six, 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:17.080 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson visited the battlefield at Fort 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.200 Royal Hill in Wooster, England. Adams was the ambassador to 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.479 Great Britain, Jefferson was negotiating trade deals with Europe, and 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.280 the two were political rivals, but they had traveled together 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.240 in order to see the place where the Royalists had 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.800 been utterly defeated by Oliver Cromwell and his army over 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:39.920 two centuries prior. Adams and Jefferson found the place deeply moving. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.400 After all, like Oliver Cromwell, the pair had firsthand experience 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:48.320 in waging war to overthrow a monarch. But to the 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.280 shock and shame of the future presidents, Wooster locals seemed 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:54.840 to barely note or care at all that they lived 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.960 near the historic battle site, and so John Adams delivered 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:03.560 what he called an impromptu lecture to the townspeople. Do 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.640 Englishmen so soon forget the ground where liberty was fought for? 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.399 Tell your neighbors and your children that this is holy ground, 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.520 much holier than that on which your churches stand all 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:19.400 England should come in pilgrimage to this hill once a year. 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:24.880 To Adams and Jefferson, Worcester represented the place where liberty 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.800 loving Englishmen had risen up to conquer a despotic would 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.440 be king. But less than a decade after the battle, 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.200 England had welcomed Charles the Second back to their shores 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:41.720 with open arms, parades and celebration. He was a homecoming 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.880 son the merry monarch who became synonymous with indulging in 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:50.320 women and debauchery. Those familiar with Charles the Second tend 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.840 to imagine him after the restoration of the monarchy as 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:57.000 king in a flowing curly wig and surrounded by a 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:01.200 fleet of spaniels. But just after the Battle of Worcester, 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:05.440 he was a man on the run, haircut short and 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:09.240 ill fitting shoes, always just an inch ahead of certain 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:13.680 death at the hands of parliamentary soldiers searching for him. 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.800 Charles would spend his young life doing whatever it took 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.359 to win his crown back and avenge his father's execution, 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:26.440 even if it meant sacrificing religion, friends, safety, and dignity. 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.000 How much would he be willing to give up in 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:34.080 order to win back his birthright. For Charles the Second, 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:41.560 if it meant being king, the answer was everything. I'm 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:51.600 Danish schwartz and this is noble blood. If Charles the 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:55.400 Seconds father Charles the First believed in one thing, it 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.360 was the divine right of kings to rule. Charles the 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.200 First lived and breathed the notion that being king meant 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:08.000 power bestowed upon him by God. After all, wasn't it 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:11.240 God who made him king in the first place, And 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.200 that belief was one he instilled in his young son 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.480 from the very beginning. Remember, son, you were chosen by 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.520 God to rule, and your will is God's will. That 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.640 was the constant refrain for young Charles the Second in 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.480 his father's court. That, and don't become a Catholic like 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:34.079 your mother. Charles the Second mother, Henrietta Maria of France, 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.960 had only been given permission by the Pope to marry 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:40.040 the Anglican king Charles the First if she promised to 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:44.840 be a force for Catholicism in Europe. Most of Charles 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.240 the Second childhood was a Dylic cushioned by the luxury 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:51.840 of court, even if that luxury demanded certain restrictions and 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:57.440 ritual For eleven years his father ruled singularly until his 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:01.680 taxes and continual dismissal of Parlia Mint ignited a rebellion. 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.920 The parliamentarians, led by Oliver Cromwell, rose up in civil 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.360 war against King Charles the First, who they accused of 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.680 tyranny and treason. Even though he was only fourteen at 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.560 the time, Charles the Second joined his father in the 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.000 battles of the First English Civil War. Members of the 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.599 army noticed the young prince's bravery. The boy, who was 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.680 already so tall with the striking dark complexion of his 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.480 French Italian mother. He stayed with his father on the 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.359 front lines of battle on warships, refusing to retreat to 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.920 the safety of below deck, fighting a more and more 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:45.800 perilous war against Oliver Cromwell's new model army, until finally 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.360 everyone knew that the cause was lost and the Prince 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.599 would need to leave the country for his own safety. 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:57.360 The prince's mother, the Queen, had already left, sobbing and 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.200 calling out for her husband until her boat disappear here 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.520 beneath the horizon. Charles the second, younger sister and brother 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:08.640 were left behind, separated and hidden, but as heir to 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.240 the throne. Charles the Second represented a massive threat to 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.600 the new republic that the parliamentarians were building. His freedom 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:20.839 meant royalists could still rally behind him, and so they 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:30.560 needed him dead. Young Charles the second exile began in Jersey, 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.520 an island off the coast of France, where his host 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.839 attempted to maintain the royal pomp and ceremony that the 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.479 young prince had been accustomed to back when he was 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.160 the heir to a throne that still existed. Charles the 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.279 Second would sit alone at elaborate banquet tables every night 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:51.480 for dinner. Kneeling squires would offer each dish one at 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.839 a time, while another servant carved a portion of the 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.760 food to serve for the prince, and a third, on 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.719 a bended knee, offered a silver bowl for him to 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:05.599 rinse his hands. A cupbearer poured his wine, always tasting 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.800 it first to check for poison, and lifted a silver 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:11.960 basin under the Prince's chin while he drank, so a 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.719 drop would never fall and soil his fine royal clothes. 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:22.000 It was empty, pathetic pageantry. Charles the Second was a 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.920 prince without a nation, a teenage exile surrounded by hollow 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.800 ritual that no longer had any meaning. He had servants 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:34.520 but no power. After Jersey, his exile brought him to 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.200 Sicily and finally to France, where he was able to 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.680 join his mother. In France, the prince, who had battled 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.520 on warships alongside his father's army, was treated like a child. 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:47.840 His only income was pocket money given to him by 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:52.080 his mother. Although later in life Charles the Second would 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:56.200 be famous for his lascivious flirtations and many mistresses. As 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.640 a young man, he was gawky and awkward, especially compared 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.120 to the sophistication of the French court. There was a 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:08.039 princess there at court, Madame de Montpensier, titled and fabulously wealthy. 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.680 In short, she would be a strategic match, and the 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:13.880 two were set next to each other a feast to 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.800 see if Charles might be able to woo her. Later, 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.360 Madame de Montpensier would recount the evening back to her friend, 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:26.520 who shrieked and laughter. The prince humiliated himself, and Madame 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.440 de Montpensier was humiliated for him. He sat next to her, 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.000 so paralyzed with fear that he didn't utter a single 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:39.080 word for fifteen minutes. Not long after that banquet, Charles 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.080 the Second left France to stay with his elder sister 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.560 and her husband in the Netherlands, hoping that the Dutch 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.000 might be more willing than the French to help his 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:54.960 father in the fight still raging in England. But it 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:59.520 was too late. The former King Charles the First was 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.960 defeat did by the parliamentarians and brought into custody awaiting trial. 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.920 It would be a trial for treason, and the penalty 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:13.680 was death. Charles the Second went to extraordinary lengths to 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:18.080 try to protect his father, engaging in every flavor of diplomacy, 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.120 begging forging new allies, offering ransoms, writing to the new 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:28.760 parliamentarian government, and all but begging for his father's life. Finally, 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:32.880 he made the ultimate concession. Charles the Second sent the 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.200 new English government a blank sheet of parchment with his 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:40.760 signature at the bottom, a literal carte blanche, a moral 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:46.560 blank check. It said, I will agree to anything to 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:53.240 save my father Cromwell and his government ignored it. On 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.280 an icy day at the end of January, the former 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.280 King Charles the First was brought to the scaffolding for 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:03.480 his execute Jian he put on two shirts before he 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.840 left his prison cell so people wouldn't see him shivering 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:10.640 in the cold and think that he was afraid. Even 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.600 as he walked the steps to his death, Charles the 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.960 First never denounced his faith or his belief in the 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:21.680 divine right of kings. In his final words, Charles the 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.600 First addressed the large crowd that had assembled to bear 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:28.680 witness to the regicide. He called himself a martyr of 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:32.280 the people, and one final time he proclaimed his innocence. 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.120 But the crowd was held too far away, and Charles 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.200 the First was blocked by a wall of parliamentary guards. 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:44.080 The king's final address to his people went entirely unheard. 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.280 Charles the First lowered his head onto the block and 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.920 apologized for his long hair, in case it made the 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:59.200 executioner's job more difficult, he gathered it beneath a silk cap. Then, finally, 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.480 for the first and only time in British history, the 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:07.280 executioner brought his blade down on the neck of a monarch. 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.040 When the executioner held up the head to the crowd, 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:17.719 he was expecting cheers, The crowd only gasped. It was 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:23.320 very very quiet, it said. When Charles the second heard 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:28.240 of his father's execution, he fell to the floor and 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:38.520 screamed in agony. If Charles the Second was going to 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.320 win back the English throne, he needed an army, and 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:47.560 his best hope was Scotland. Though the deeply pious Presbyterian 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.719 Scotland had nominally declared Charles the Second as king, they 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.000 refused to let him enter the country unless he pledged 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:59.240 to accept Presbyterianism and spread the faith across Britain when 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.040 he had once again and become king. That would mean 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.840 Charles the Second formally renouncing the faith of his Anglican 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:09.320 father and the faith of his Catholic mother. He needed 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:14.000 to negotiate. Fortunately for Charles the Second, he had a 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:18.240 brilliant bargaining chip, the spectacular General Montrose, who had fought 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:22.839 valiantly for Charles the First and won several spectacular, surprising 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:27.400 victories for the royal forces. Montrose was loyal to Charles 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.400 the Second and readily agreed when Charles the Second asked 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.920 him to invade Scotland with a small force to attempt 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.840 to raise the Highland clans in order to challenge the 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:42.040 Scottish government on his behalf. But as Mantros fought, Charles 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.240 privately continued his negotiations with the Scottish government until he 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.600 finally agreed to the terms of the Scottish nobles. Charles 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.560 wrote a letter to Mantros telling him that he was 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.559 making him a Knight of the Garter, the most prestigious 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.360 order of chivalry that could be granted by a monarch. 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.720 It was as good as a kiss of death. While 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:07.880 Mantros was still battling on his behalf, Charles secretly signed 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.360 a treaty with the very people against whom Montrose was fighting. 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:16.680 Montrose was captured, dragged through the streets, and hanged like 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.600 a common criminal, not even receiving a nobleman's death of 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.640 beheading with an axe. Charles the Second gave up Mantros, 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.360 his father's finest general and a military hero, but he 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:35.200 got his alliance to Scotland. After agreeing to uphold Presbyterianism. 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:39.120 Charles the Second entered Scotland as their king. He and 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:42.040 his men made their way from the coast into Edinburgh, 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:46.240 passing through the North gates into the city. What's that, 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.079 Charles asked, looking up an irregular shape on the gate. 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.240 It was twisted and blackened, pecked at by birds and 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:58.200 run through with a large nail. One of the Scottish 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:02.880 guards answered him. It was one of Montrose's arms hung 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.840 up on the city gate as a warning and deterrent 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:16.160 to others. Charles was silent the rest of the ride, 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.840 even though he was technically king in Scotland. Having signed 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.240 the Presbyterian Covenant meant that that crown was almost more 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.720 symbolic than anything it had, about the same power as 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.280 a crown made a foil or a burger king paper 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.800 crown a few hundred years too early. See. While his 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.120 father had a foundational faith in the divine right of 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:46.600 kings to rule as granted by God himself, the Presbyterian 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.559 Scots saw a king as more of a magistrate than 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.960 anything else. Charles was a king again, but with no 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.960 real kingliness. In Scotland. The king was a man just 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:00.280 like anyone else, and like other men, Charles the Second 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:03.760 was required to obey the strict protocols of the religion. 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.720 He was forbidden from walking about on Sundays and forced 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:13.000 to sit through six hours of Sunday sermons. With the Covenant, 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.520 Charles had signed away his religion and his divine power, 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.280 but at least he had an army willing to go 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:23.840 up against Oliver Cromwell in England, and on September three, 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:28.680 six fifty, they got their chance. Cromwell and his men 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.560 had advanced in a preemptive strike towards Edinburgh. When they 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.640 met with the Scottish forces in the Battle of Dunbar. 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:40.480 The Scots massively outnumbered the Englishmen, and they also occupied 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:44.000 the high ground, leaving the English soldiers trapped between a 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.320 hill and the north Sea. All the Scottish army needed 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.600 to do was await them out, but the Scottish general 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:56.240 believed that England was already fatally weakened, and so Scotland charged. 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:02.040 Cromwell watched with amazement. The Lord hath delivered them into 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.560 our hands. He said. It was a decisive victory for 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.040 England that put the entirety of southern Scotland under their 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:16.360 control and left Scotland completely humiliated. Needing a scapegoat for 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.680 the victory, they forced their King, Charles the Second, to 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.000 publicly declare that the outcome of the battle was God's 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.520 punishment for the sins of his parents and his entire family. 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.360 What could the young king do but agree he was 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.440 a king in name only a puppet for the Scottish 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:38.520 Presbyterian covenanters, and so Charles the Second swallowed his pride 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:43.240 and did as they asked. Now, Charles the second path 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.320 for winning back the English throne would require him doing 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.640 it on English soil, and so he and a small 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:53.080 army of Scottish men and the English royalists he could 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.240 gather along the way, went down south to make their 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.960 final stand against Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester. 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:03.880 This time it was the English who had the advantage 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:08.840 of numbers, nearly thirty thousand men, the largest army ever 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.240 assembled on British soil, and double what Charles had been 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.400 able to gather. Cromwell had predicted the movements of Charles 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.880 and his armies and made a strategic decision to delay 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.560 the charge three days, so it would occur on September third, 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.960 sixteen fifty one, exactly one year to the day after 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:30.600 he had beat Scotland in the ground in the Battle 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:35.760 of Dunbar. Worcester was an instant massacre for Charles the 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:39.280 Second and his army. Three thousand of his men were 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.480 killed and another ten thousand were captured to pored it 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.440 off to work as indentured servants or worse. As Charles 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.840 and his close cadre of men rode away from the 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.520 battle site, the king kept stopping his horse. His father 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.000 had taught him to always fight on the front lines. 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:57.880 We have to go back, Charles the second said, we 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.400 have to keep fighting. His men looked at one another, 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.879 but only first split second that was it. One of 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:17.280 his men finally said, the battle is over. The parliamentarians 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:22.119 needed Charles dead. Even though the Parliamentarians had won a 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.680 decisive military victory, there were still those loyal to Charles, 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:28.879 and as long as he lived, he was still a 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.960 symbolic threat to the new Republic. Almost no one in 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.720 Charles's army had escaped from Worcester. Cromwell's men had cast 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.439 a wide net around the battle, and they assumed that 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.159 the king, who had been on the front lines leading 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:44.600 his army for most of the fight, would be among 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.600 the many dead bodies left when the fighting was over. 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:52.680 But by some miracle a brilliant stroke of luck, Charles 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.480 had escaped, and so the would be king spent the 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:59.719 next six weeks weaving through the English countryside in an 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.720 increasingly perilous series of near captures. Trying to make it 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:07.720 to safety while the parliamentary and guards searched for him. 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.760 Escape was a risky and dangerous prospect. The king was 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:13.840 six ft two at a time when the height of 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.960 the average Englishman was closer to five ft six, and 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:20.440 he had an astonishing price on his head, a thousand pounds. 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.560 He had a few allies, a small network of England's 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.080 secret Catholics, but anyone he meant could betray him and 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.400 would certainly be tortured as to his whereabouts if soldiers 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:36.200 discovered that they had been associated. Among that Catholic network 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.560 were five brothers with a surname Pendril, who sought as 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.679 a mission from God to protect their king against the 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:47.840 enemy of Cromwell's Protestantism. One of the brothers, Richard, cut 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:49.919 the King's hair so that it was short on top 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.040 and long at the side, in the style of a 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.040 common laborer. Charles was trained in the local dialect and 0:18:56.080 --> 0:19:00.720 given workmen's clothes and shoes for King Arles, the second, 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.199 who had up until that point only ever won the 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:07.040 finest footwear. The rough shoes left his feet bleeding and 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:10.760 blistered thanks to his height. None of the shoes the 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.119 Pendrols had on hand would fit him, and so Charles 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:16.960 was forced to slice open the sides of a pair 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:26.920 of shoes several sizes too small. Charles would go days 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.840 without sleep, making escapes in the middle of the night 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.639 to a state where he might be welcomed and smuggled in. 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:37.960 Charles was hidden inside secret priest holds where Catholics hid 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.359 priests to keep them safe from forced conversions after the 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:46.399 religion had been outlawed. A captain named of all things 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.200 William Careless had been one of the final royal soldiers 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.320 to make it out of Worcester alive. He and Charles 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.320 had made it to the boscobell estates, where the Pendril 0:19:56.400 --> 0:20:00.520 brothers were caretakers, only to hear of an approaching battillion 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:04.440 of Puritan guards. Careless knew that if he brought the 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:07.479 king inside, no matter how well hidden the houses, priests 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:11.960 holes were, eventually the soldiers would find him, and so, 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:17.440 at Careless's suggestion, William Pendril brought out a ladder. Careless 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.000 and the king climbed high into an oak tree dense 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.640 with leaves, and stayed there for an entire day while 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.840 a troop of Cromwell's guards marched beneath them, searching the 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.480 countryside for a king who, at that very moment was 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:37.160 a dozen feet above their heads. The king was asleep 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.119 in the branches when a pair of guards sat at 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.080 the base of the tree, taking a break from their 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:47.520 search to clear the rubble from their shoes. Careless was 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:51.399 awake and came to a terrible realization his leg was 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:56.639 asleep and Charles was lying on his leg. If the 0:20:56.680 --> 0:21:00.440 sleeping Charles didn't move, Careless's numb leg would caused them 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:05.320 both to tumble from their perch directly onto the guards below, and, 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:10.000 so covering Charles's mouth so he wouldn't yell, Careless pinched 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:14.440 him and then pinched him again. Mercifully, Charles woke up 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:18.320 and quietly shifted his weight, and the two remained safely 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:27.440 hidden in their perch until the guards moved on. After 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:31.320 the king successfully evaded troops at Basketball, two of the 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:34.360 Pendril brothers went with him to the estate of mostly 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:39.840 Old Hall, the home of a man named Thomas white Grave. There, 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:42.919 Charles the second was given his first proper bed to 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.560 sleep in since he had escaped from the Battle of Worcester. 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:49.119 A family priest was also there, a man by the 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:53.119 name of Father John Huddleston, who bathed and bandaged the 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:57.679 King's torn and bloody feet. Charles had been shown so 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:01.760 much generosity and loyalty by Father Huddleston, and by all 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.359 of the Catholic Englishmen who had aided him along in 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:07.960 his escape, that Charles pledged then and there that should 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:10.720 he become King of England again, he would once again 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:15.680 grant Catholics religious freedom. If it pleases God, I come 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:19.320 to my crown, he told Father Huddleston, both you and 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:22.680 all your persuasion shall have as much liberty as any 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:28.480 of my subjects. Charles stayed relatively comfortably at mostly Old 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:32.840 Hall for two days until parliamentary troops arrived on the 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:37.440 afternoon of the third day. Charles and Father Huddleston's were 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:40.680 quickly hidden in a priest hole, but the troops tortured 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.439 and interrogated their host, Thomas Whitegrave, convinced that he had 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.159 fought with Charles at Wooster, even though the truth was 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:53.160 that he hadn't. Eventually, after hours of interrogation, the troops left, 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:56.239 but the forces of danger were only closing in on 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:59.880 Charles faster. The Pendril's brother in Law had already been 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:05.000 haptured by English forces, interrogated, tortured, and hanged, but the 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:09.919 entire time he had refused to give Charles up. For 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:12.760 the final leg of his journey, Charles rode with a 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:15.679 woman named Jane Lane, who had received a permit from 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:18.560 the military to travel to Bristol with one of her 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:21.760 servants in order to visit a family member. If he 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:24.240 made it to Bristol, Charles could find a boat to 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:27.840 take him to France, and so he adopted the alias 0:23:27.880 --> 0:23:31.720 William Jackson and rode on Jane's horse with her, maintaining 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:34.320 the charade that he was her servant to anyone they met. 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:38.480 When the two stopped at an estate for lodging, Charles, 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:41.840 as William Jackson, was sent to the kitchens to work 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:44.960 as any servant would have been. He was assigned to 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:47.480 wind up the jack that would be used to roast 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:51.240 meat in a fireplace, but Charles, having been royalty his 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:54.600 entire life, had no idea how to do it. The 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:58.720 cook was immediately suspicious. What kind of servants are you 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:01.040 who doesn't know how to work a jack? He spat. 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:05.199 Charles thought quickly and came up with an excuse. His 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:08.919 family was so poor. He said that they so rarely 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:11.800 ate meat that he had no experience with roasting it. 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:18.119 The cook was satisfied. The entire escape lasted six weeks, 0:24:18.640 --> 0:24:21.320 and when Charles finally made it to Bristol, he was 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:24.359 able to smuggle his way onto a French merchant ship 0:24:24.760 --> 0:24:27.920 and make his way to safety right under the noses 0:24:28.040 --> 0:24:32.439 of the parliamentary guards. It was the most heroic experience 0:24:32.560 --> 0:24:35.240 Charles the Second would have for the next decade. He 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:37.480 was safe while he was abroad, but he was also 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:41.800 politically impotent, relegated to attempting to beg for treaties with 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:45.120 princes from surrounding countries who had little to no interest 0:24:45.160 --> 0:24:52.520 in his plate. But then something happened. A little less 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:56.879 than ten years later, Oliver Cromwell died on the exact 0:24:56.960 --> 0:25:02.640 anniversary of the Battles of Dunbar and Stir. Cromwell's son, Richard, 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:05.840 was milk toast and passive, and with no strong leader 0:25:05.920 --> 0:25:09.800 to take over, parliamentarians recognized that the country was on 0:25:09.840 --> 0:25:14.239 the verge of civil war. To stave off anarchy, the 0:25:14.359 --> 0:25:17.719 leaders of the government had secretly written to Charles the Second, 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:21.680 who had been living in the Spanish Netherlands. Charles the 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:25.280 Second agreed to their terms of forgiveness and leniency for 0:25:25.359 --> 0:25:28.359 those who had fought him, with the exception of those 0:25:28.400 --> 0:25:38.760 who had committed regicide against his father, and so in 0:25:38.920 --> 0:25:43.080 sixteen sixty Charles the Second was welcomed back to England. 0:25:43.920 --> 0:25:47.040 He hadn't won the crown. Really, this was, if anything, 0:25:47.320 --> 0:25:50.840 a victory of waiting and circumstance. But it didn't matter. 0:25:51.440 --> 0:25:53.560 Even if it was a role stripped of its power, 0:25:54.080 --> 0:25:56.000 even if he was a symbol, even if he was 0:25:56.040 --> 0:25:59.240 a puppet, none of it mattered. He was finally the 0:25:59.320 --> 0:26:03.359 king of an England. Charles would spend much of his 0:26:03.440 --> 0:26:06.240 later life for counting the story of those six weeks 0:26:06.240 --> 0:26:09.560 he had spent on the run, two wrapt audiences. It 0:26:09.640 --> 0:26:11.639 had been the only time in his life where he 0:26:11.720 --> 0:26:15.720 interacted with common people and lived by his wits, completely 0:26:15.840 --> 0:26:19.479 free of palace ritual and formality. They were weeks of 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:23.520 piracy and adventure, of death, defying odds, and close calls 0:26:23.560 --> 0:26:26.320 that became closer the more often the stories were told. 0:26:27.960 --> 0:26:30.879 Charles the Second would be an indulged king, famous for 0:26:30.960 --> 0:26:34.960 his feasts and mistresses, known for his flamboyant fashions and 0:26:35.080 --> 0:26:38.880 general hedonism, and though he was a king, Parliament still 0:26:38.880 --> 0:26:41.159 retained much of the power that they had had in 0:26:41.200 --> 0:26:45.560 the interregnum. When Charles attempted to pass a rule permitting 0:26:45.600 --> 0:26:49.040 Catholic worship, as he had promised his loyal supporters, who 0:26:49.040 --> 0:26:53.000 had risked their live staid in his escape, Parliament instantly 0:26:53.040 --> 0:26:58.320