GUEST POST BY AUTHOR ABIGAIL DANE, PART THREE
Battle of Worcester and its Aftermath
Part 3 of 3
For six weeks,
Charles II—“England’s Most Wanted,” if you will—survived many harrowing narrow
escapes and near misses before his ultimate safe arrival in France. If those perilous
weeks provided the catalyst for the fugitive king’s future frivolity, as some
posit, they also exposed him to the ordinary lives of ordinary people in a way
most kings would never experience. His turns as servant, tenant farmer, kitchen
helper, debt collector and more may help to explain why Charles II was later referred
to as “a king without airs and graces.”
After Oliver Cromwell’s
death on 3 September 1658—seven years to the day after the Battle of
Worcester—his incompetent son, Richard, became Lord Protector in his stead.
Richard’s succession—or usurpation, as it was widely considered—lasted only
nine months before he was forced to abdicate in 1659. He was allowed to “fade
away” into obscurity but was thereafter referred to, ignominiously, as
“Tumbledown Dick.”
Oliver Cromwell
By 1660, the vacuum
left by the departure of the infamous Cromwells would be filled by none other
than the fugitive king himself. Arriving in London on his 30th
birthday and having survived to gain the ultimate victory, Charles reclaimed
his father’s throne and reestablished the British monarchy during a period that
came to be called “The Restoration,” which restored not only the king and monarchy,
but England’s pursuit of pleasure and gaiety, as well. If Cromwell is best
remembered for his severe, joyless Puritanism, Charles II—affectionately called
“the Merry Monarch”—is best remembered for his many mistresses and his many
illegitimate children by them.
Charles II
With the reign of
Charles II, the pendulum would swing its full arc from piety to hedonism—as if the
last nine years, with their terrible cost, turmoil, misery and death, had never
happened. By the time of Charles’ death in 1685, he had many children but no
legitimate heirs, so he was succeeded by his brother James, who reigned as
James II. One can only wonder what Cromwell would have thought of his legacy if
he had returned to see what had become of his great cause in such a brief time.
POSTSCRIPT: Though the English Civil War ended in Worcester in
September 1651, one might say the curtain did not descend on the last act of
the play until June 2008. That’s when another Charles, also the Prince of
Wales, paid off the debt incurred by his ancestor and namesake 357 years
earlier. It seems Charles II had contracted for the Worcester Clothiers Company
to provide uniforms to outfit his army, but in his haste, skipped town without
paying the £453.3s he owed. With interest, that debt in 2008 would have been
£47,500.
Source: “Historical Notes: Battle of Worcester and its Aftermath,”
in The Baron and the Lady, book two
in the “Whitleigh series” by Abigail Dane.
http://TransitionsUnlimited.biz,
AbigailDaneRomance@gmail.org.
Abigail Dane
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