Royal Oak

Coordinates: 52°40′12″N 2°14′31″W / 52.67008°N 2.24185°W / 52.67008; -2.24185
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Royal Oak (tree)
)
For other uses, see Royal Oak (disambiguation).

Royal Oak
Species
English oak (Quercus robur)
Coordinates52°40′12″N 2°14′31″W / 52.67008°N 2.24185°W / 52.67008; -2.24185
Date seededOriginal – unknown
Descendant of Royal Oak – c.1725 AD
Descendant of Royal Oak – 1897 AD
Descendant of Royal Oak – 1951 AD
Descendant of Royal Oak – 2001 AD
Date felledOriginal – c.1725 destroyed as a result of souvenir hunters
CustodianFrancis Yates Partners
WebsiteEnglish Heritage 'BOSCOBEL HOUSE AND THE ROYAL OAK'

The Royal Oak was the

Royal Oak Day
.

History

Coat of arms granted to Col Careless (or Carlis)

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

Initially, Charles was led to

William Careless (or Carlis), a native of nearby Brewood,[1]
one of the last royalists to escape the battlefield. Careless's rank is variously reported as Captain, Major and Colonel.

Careless suggested that the house was unsafe and recommended that the king hide in an oak tree in the woodlands surrounding Boscobel House. The king and Careless took some food and drink and they spent all day hiding in a pollarded oak tree which became known as the Royal Oak. From the oak they could see patrols of Parliamentary soldiers searching for the king. Later Charles spent the night hiding in one of Boscobel's priest holes.[2] He was then moved from Boscobel to Moseley Old Hall, another Catholic redoubt near Wolverhampton, and ultimately escaped the region posing as the servant of Jane Lane of Bentley, whose family were also landowners at Broom Hall and the Hyde in Brewood.

After the

crowns, differentiated by colour.[4]

A Thomas Toft signed charger, c. 1680, with slip-trailed decoration of Charles II in the oak tree

Large

Lion and Unicorn, with the king's face peeping from the branches.[5]

Current situation

The site of the tree is near Boscobel House, but unlike the house, is not owned by English Heritage. The field in which the tree stands is owned and farmed by Francis Yates Partners, who allow the public access along a path from the garden of the house.

The tree standing on the site today is not the original Royal Oak, which is recorded to have been destroyed during 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 damaged during a violent storm and lost many branches. In September 2010, it was found to have developed large and dangerous cracks. Since 2011 the tree has been surrounded by an outer perimeter fence to ensure the safety of visitors.

Three third generation descendants of the Royal Oak have been ceremonially planted nearby:

  1. In 1897, a tree was planted on the western edge of the garden of Boscobel House by
    Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria
    .
  2. A further tree was planted in 1951 near the site of the original Royal Oak by
    tercentenary
    of Charles II's escape.
  3. Another oak sapling grown from one of the Son's acorns was planted in 2001 by
    Prince Charles
    .

Saplings, certified as grown from the Son's acorns, are available from the English Heritage shop at Boscobel House.

In commemoration of the tree's significance in British history, a number of places and things have been named after the Royal Oak. For example, The Royal Oak is the third most common pub name in Britain.[6] and there have been eight warships of the Royal Navy named HMS Royal Oak.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ A memorial to William Careless is to be found in the church of St Mary the Virgin and St Chad, Brewood, he is believed to be buried in the churchyard, but his original headstone no longer exists. William's brother John held the lands of Broom Hall, Brewood. L. Margaret Midgley (editor), Victoria County History (1959), 'Brewood: Introduction, manors and agriculture', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 5: East Cuttlestone hundred (1959), pp. 18–40.
  2. ^ Fraser, pp. 150–152
  3. ^ Carlisle, pp.176,177)
  4. ^ The original grant of arms to Colonel William Carlos is still extant, a copy can be found displayed inside St. Mary's Church, Brewood. No grant of arms is extant for the Penderel family and a number of authorities assert that the Penderel family assumed arms based on those of Colonel Carlos, see Archaeologia Cambrensis, Third Series no. XVII January 1859, "The Penderel family" page 118.
  5. Metropolitan Museum (illustration
    ).
  6. ^ "Strange Names". Archived from the original on 30 June 2010. Retrieved 19 March 2007.

References

  • Carlisle, Nicholas (1829). An inquiry into the place and quality of the Gentlemen of His Majesty's ... privy chamber ..., Payne and Foss, 1829
  • Fraser, Antonia
    (1979) King Charles II, Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Royal Oak.
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