I, Coriander (28 page)

The late King’s sons and his wife Queen Henrietta Maria had taken refuge abroad some time before, but in 1653 his eldest son, Prince Charles, came back to Scotland where he was crowned King and gathered together an army to fight Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester. Although the King fought bravely, his army was no match for Cromwell’s. Defeated, and with a price on his head, nineteen-year-old Charles went on the run. He had many narrow escapes and even had to hide in an oak tree while soldiers came with dogs to sniff him out, but after six weeks he managed to escape to France.

Oliver Cromwell found that peace is harder to manage than war. He wreaked vengeance on all those who had supported the Royalist cause, confiscating lands and money. It was wise in those days to be seen as a good Puritan. Cromwell had, in fact, as much trouble with Parliament as Charles I had experienced. In the end he virtually became a dictator. He was offered the ultimate prize, the crown, but refused it, preferring to keep the title he had been given in 1653, that of Lord Protector.

Cromwell died in September 1658. His son Richard, nicknamed Tumbledown Dick, took over, but he had none of his father’s gifts for leadership. It was General Monck, one of Cromwell’s staunchest supporters, who saw that England lurched on the brink of another civil war and took the brave decision, much against the will of the army, to invite Charles II back to be King of England. And so began the Restoration.