Smitten by Books

by Gillian Bagwell

In 1651, an English girl named Jane Lane embarked on a dangerous adventure that not only saved the life of the king but preserved the future of the English monarchy.
On September 3, 1651, the 21-year-old King Charles II, the exiled son of Charles I, who had been executed in 1649 – made a valiant attempt to take back his throne.  His defeat by Oliver Cromwell’s forces at the Battle of Worcester set off one of the most astonishing episodes in British history – Charles’s desperate six-week odyssey to reach safety in France, which came to be known as the Royal Miracle because he narrowly eluded discovery and capture so many times.

Charles and his ragged and outnumbered army knew that all their hopes rested on the outcome of the battle, and Charles thought that for him, the outcome would be “a crown or a coffin.”  Their bloody rout ended the Royalist cause.  Once Charles had been convinced that the best he could do was survive, he fled as his supporters made a last ferocious stand, and legendarily dashed out the back door of his lodgings as the enemy entered at the front, slipping out the last unguarded city gate.

One of Charles’s companions during his flight from Worcester was the Earl of Derby, who had recently been sheltered at a house called Boscobel in Shropshire.  He suggested that the king might hide there until he could find a way out of England.

Jane Lane lived at Bentley Hall in Staffordshire, not far from Boscobel.  She became involved in the king’s troubles because she had a pass allowing her and a manservant to travel the hundred miles to visit a friend near Bristol – a major port where the king might board a ship.  In a story that sounds like something out of fiction, Charles disguised himself as Jane’s servant, and Jane rode pillion (sitting sidesaddle behind him while he rode astride, and holding tight to the handsome young king!) along roads traveled by cavalry patrols searching for “Charles Stuart, son of the late traitor,”  through villages where the proclamation describing him and offering a reward for his capture was posted, and among hundreds of people who, if they recognized him, had every reason to turn him in and none – but loyalty to the outlawed monarchy – to help him.

It was an improbable scheme.  Charles was six feet two inches tall and very dark complexioned, not at all common looking for an Englishman of that time.  And yet time after time he rode right under the noses of Roundhead soldiers without being recognized.
I learned about Jane Lane from Derek Wilson’s book All the King’s Women, and I was convinced by the evidence Wilson presented for his belief that Jane and Charles became lovers when they were in each other’s company, in close physical contact, and in perilous circumstances from September 9 to September 18, 1651.  Jane remained in touch with Charles, seeing him occasionally and corresponding with him, throughout the years before he was restored to the throne in 1660.  Then she became famous, and Charles rewarded her richly, awarding her a pension of £1000 pounds a year – quite a lot of money then – as well as giving her a watch that had belonged to his father, paintings of himself, and many other personal mementoes.  He also offered her brother a title and gave her family the right to add the three Lions of England to their coat of arms.

The time that Charles spent on the run was an enormously formative experience, he told the story for the rest of his life, and Jane was clearly someone who he regarded with respect and affection until his death.

If Charles had been caught, he would certainly have been executed, and it is an open question whether the monarchy would have been restored as it eventually was in 1660, after the death of Oliver Cromwell.  So Jane’s courage had far-reaching results and her story deserves to be remembered.

Gillian Bagwell’s first novel, The Darling Strumpet, based on the life of Nell Gwynn, was published in January to applause from readers and critics alike.  Her second novel, The September Queen, the first fictional accounting of Jane Lane’s romantic and perilous adventures with the young Charles II, was released on November 1.  Please visit her website, www.gillianbagwell.com, to read more about her books and read her blog Jane Lane and the Royal Miracle www.theroyalmiracle.blogspot.com, which recounts her research adventures and the daily episodes in Charles’s escape after Worcester.