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To Catch A King: Charles II's Great Escape

Год написания книги
2019
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To Catch A King: Charles II's Great Escape
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 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 his dreams of power had been dashed. Surely it was a foregone conclusion that he would now be caught and follow his father to the block?At six foot two inches tall, the prince towered over his contemporaries and with dark skin inherited from his French-Italian mother, 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 of Charles’ life. Pursued relentlessly, Charles ran using disguise, deception and relying on grit, fortitude and good luck. He suffered grievously through weeks when his cause seemed hopeless. He hid in an oak tree – an event so fabled that over 400 English pubs are named Royal Oak in commemoration. Less well-known events include his witnessing a village in wild celebrations at the erroneous news of his killing; the ordeal of a medical student wrongly imprisoned because of his similarity in looks; Charles disguising himself as a servant and as one half of an eloping couple to escape capture.Charles never forgot those who helped him and, when restored to the throne as Charles II, told the tale of his adventures to Samuel Pepys who transcribed it all.In this gripping, action-packed, true adventure story, based on extensive archive material, Charles Spencer, bestselling author of Killers of the King, uses Pepys’ account and many others to retell this epic story. With bloodied feet and facing certain death if caught, Charles relied upon a patchwork of hiding places that had evolved to hide Catholics from lethal persecution. Now, in the 1650s, they saved the life of a king.

(#u0ad1e3f4-633d-5c9d-8dd0-e9c891d8408f)

Copyright (#u0ad1e3f4-633d-5c9d-8dd0-e9c891d8408f)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com)

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © Charles Spencer 2017

Charles Spencer asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover illustration Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017

Map by John Gilkes

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008153632

Ebook Edition © October 2017 ISBN: 9780008153656

Version: 2018-10-01

Dedication (#u0ad1e3f4-633d-5c9d-8dd0-e9c891d8408f)

For Karen

Contents

Cover (#u45c1bca6-b494-576b-9fa5-a30b08f5dfe1)

Title Page (#u9e83a54b-c97f-5c97-83ab-7b651ec16ef3)

Copyright (#u7d8e0310-e35a-5807-9819-2709c3156965)

Dedication (#u6b77d700-5eb7-57ee-8096-97ab61719e5b)

Epigraph (#ue1881008-010b-5d51-8408-52086c61c99b)

Map (#u15c1ebc3-0a51-5333-b45a-870fd3779703)

Introduction (#u6777827e-57eb-55f2-8b01-a9519bcdd7a7)

PART ONE: KING OF SCOTLAND (#u570afcb1-1096-5674-adab-cbb681a5d9bf)

1 Civil Warrior (#u626b4cf6-e8d4-5510-abf9-9c942ac6fccd)

2 Royal Prey (#u8c780e0b-3610-51df-bf23-7acf54cccb3d)

3 A Question of Conscience (#ufe98aa94-91b1-578e-9b1d-993d7e9d4709)

4 The Crown, Without Glory (#u0019ecef-2913-514c-a75c-aceefff6aa64)

5 A Foreign Invasion (#u68421442-9887-59d6-b56a-dc44a276b317)

6 The Battle of Worcester (#litres_trial_promo)

7 The Hunt Begins (#litres_trial_promo)

PART TWO: THE ROMAN CATHOLIC UNDERGROUND (#litres_trial_promo)

8 Whiteladies (#litres_trial_promo)

9 The London Road (#litres_trial_promo)

10 Near Misses (#litres_trial_promo)

11 Reunion (#litres_trial_promo)

PART THREE: A LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN (#litres_trial_promo)

12 Heading for the Coast (#litres_trial_promo)

13 Processing the Prisoners (#litres_trial_promo)

14 Touching Distance (#litres_trial_promo)

15 Still Searching for a Ship (#litres_trial_promo)

16 Surprise Ending (#litres_trial_promo)

PART FOUR: REACTION, REWARDS AND REDEMPTION (#litres_trial_promo)

17 Reaction (#litres_trial_promo)
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