The Royal Oak is the name given to the oak tree within which King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The tree was located in Boscobel Wood, which was part of the park of Boscobel House. Charles confirmed to Samuel Pepys in 1680 that while he was hiding in the tree, a Parliamentarian soldier passed directly below it. The story was popular after the Restoration; numerous large dishes painted in slip with the Boscobel Oak, supported by the Lion and Unicorn, with the king's face peeping from the branches were made by the Staffordshire potter Thomas Toft.

History

---

After the defeat of Charles's Royalist army at the hands of Cromwell's New Model Army, the King fled with Lord Derby, Lord Wilmot and other royalists, seeking shelter at the safe houses of White Ladies Priory and Boscobel House.

The King was among those sheltered at Boscobel House, where he was disguised as a woodman by the owners of the property, Charles Giffard and the Pendrill family. Their initial attempt to escape to Wales was thwarted by Commonwealth troops, and the King returned to the house. He there met with William Carlis (or Careless), one of the last royalists to escape the battlefield. According to tradition Carelis's variable last name was altered after the Restoration to "Carlos" ("Charles" in Spanish) by Charles II himself to commemorate the events at Boscobel. Carlis's rank is variously reported as Captain, Major and Colonel.

As Commonwealth troops approached the house, searching for Royalists, the King and Carlis spent a day hidden in the Royal Oak, and the next day hidden in a priest hole at Boscobel House. After this, Giffard and the Pendrills were able to use their contacts with other Catholics to smuggle the King and Wilmot to France.

When King Charles returned to England and took the throne in 1660, he granted annuities to the Pendrills for their services (still paid to their descendents to this day), and the Pendrills and Colonel Carlis were permitted to amend their coats of arms to depict an oak tree and three royal crowns. Polar explorer Pen Hadow is a descendant.

The Oak today

---

The tree standing on the site today is not the original Royal Oak, which is recorded to have been destroyed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by tourists who cut off branches and chunks as souvenirs. The present day tree is believed to be a two or three hundred-year old descendant of the original and is thus known as 'Son of Royal Oak'.

In 2000, Son of Royal Oak was badly injured during a violent storm and lost many branches, becoming a shadow of its former self. Another oak sapling was planted near the site of the original Royal Oak in 2001 by Prince Charles; it was grown from one of the Son's acorns and is thus a grandson of the Royal Oak.

In commemoration of the tree's significance in British history a number of places and things have been...