The Battle of Worcester during the English Civil War took place between Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army and Royalist supporters of Charles Stuart (the future King Charles II of England, who had been crowned in Scotland) on 3rd September 1651. After loss in the battle, Charles fled to Bentley Hall in Staffordshire, which was owned by Colonel John Lane. The Lanes were a gentry Catholic family of Stuart Loyalists, and John had served in the Royalist Army. Jane Lane (the Colonel's sister), who had been born between 1613 and 1625, was at the Hall when Charles arrived.

 

At the time it was illegal for Catholics to travel without a permit, but Jane had recently obtained permission from the Parliamentary General for herself, a servant, and her cousin, Henry Lascelles, to travel visit a relative who was due to give birth in Abbots Leigh, near Bristol. Charles accompanied Jane and Henry on the journey disguised as a servant named William Jackson. When the party were near to Bromsgrove, one of the horses threw a shoe, and, as he was posing as Jane's manservant, Charles had to venture to the Blacksmiths for the animal to be reshoed. He had been coached in walking and talking more like a country servant, and mimicked the local accent when speaking with the blacksmith to avoid detection. A reward of £1000 was being offered for the capture of the King and Roundhead soldiers were searching for him, so the journey was a fraught enterprise. He would likely have been executed if caught.

 

Charles himself described to Samuel Pepys what happened when he had to take the horse to the Blacksmith:

'As I was holding my Horses Foot, I asked the smyth What Newes? He told me that there was noe newes that he knew of since the good newes of the beateing of the Rogues, the Scots.  I asked him whether there was none of the English taken that joined with the Scots. He answered that he did not heere that that Rogue Charles Steward was taken.  I told him that if that Rogue were taken he deserved to be hanged more then all the rest for bringing in the Scots. Upon which he said that I spoake like an honest man, and soe we parted.'

 

They eventually reached Bristol, then Trent, where Charles set sail for France. Some reports claim that Charles spent a night at Packington Hall during his flight to France, but this does not tie in with the route they are known to have taken.

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