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The King in the Oak
They searched every hedge. Nobody looked up.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Timber-framed lodge and a descendant oak
- Legend from
- Civil War history
- Best time
- 29 May, Oak Apple Day
- Tone
- Curious
Up in the oak, the king held his breath. A soldier walked right underneath.
After the Battle of Worcester in 1651, the defeated Charles II fled into Shropshire and reached Boscobel, a hunting lodge of the Catholic Giffard family. With Colonel William Careless he spent a whole day hidden in an oak in Boscobel Wood, watching the Parliamentarian patrols searching below; he later told Samuel Pepys that a soldier passed directly beneath. That night he slept in one of the house's priest holes, then moved on to Moseley Old Hall and escaped abroad. After the Restoration the story became famous, celebrated each year as Royal Oak Day, and countless pubs are named after the tree. A descendant oak grows there today.