Full Description

Royal Escape

A fascinating look into a tumultuous interlude in British history and the life of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

This brilliantly entertaining novel is a fictionalization of the true story of Charles II (May 29, 1630 – February 6, 1685), charting his daring flight to France after the Battle of Worcester, where Cromwell and his Protestant forces defeated the Catholic king. For six weeks, Charles’ life was in danger as he hid in the English countryside, disguised as a servant, unable to find a way across heavily guarded borders. His loyal courtiers were appalled by the ease and glee with which he adopted his new humble identity, insisting on chatting and even drinking with ostlers and houseboys. Two young women were instrumental in his eventual escape and one of them became a lifelong friend of the exiled king.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

One: ‘The Crowning Mercy’ -
Two: White-Ladies -
Three: A Very Rainy Day-
Four: ‘Who Goes There?’ -
Five: Royal Oak -
Six: The Sum Of One Thousand Pounds-
Seven: The Weight Of Three Kingdoms-
Eight: ‘Soldiers, Soldiers Are Coming!’-
Nine: ‘That Rogue Charles Stewart’-
Ten: A Poor Tenant’s Son-
Eleven: ‘I Know It Is My Liege’-
Twelve: ‘Frank, Frank, How Dost Thou?’-
Thirteen: ‘Though The Crown Should Hang Upon A Bush’-
Fourteen: A Prying Knave-
Fifteen: ‘Take Notice Of Him To Be A Tall Man’-
Sixteen: ‘I Know We Are Pursued’-
Seventeen: A Very Hot Conflict -
Eighteen: Cæsar’s Man-
Nineteen: Guests At Heale -
Twenty: ‘I Must Endeavour’-
Twenty-one: Brother Roundhead-
Twenty-two: ‘I Know Him Well’-
Bibliography-

Excerpt

Excerpt

Reviews

Reviews

Book Loons Joan Burton
Royal Escape by Georgette Heyer
Order: USA Can
Sourcebooks, 2008 (1938)
Hardcover, Paperback, Audio, CD

Reviewed by Joan Burton

•———————————————————————————————————————

Georgette Heyer’s Royal Escape is the true story of King Charles II’s flight from England to find refuge in France. As a young boy he lived in France after being smuggled there by his father, Charles I. In 1650 he returned to Scotland and attempted to form an alliance with the Presbyterian Covenant forces to reclaim his father’s throne. Charles was twenty-one years old and was crowned at Scone after his father was executed. He raised an army against Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth soldiers, hoping to restore the monarchy.

In September 1651, Charles was defeated in the Battle of Worcester. He rode North, seeking shelter at Royalist Safe Houses. He was disguised as a servant and spent six weeks in the English countryside trying to get back to France. Parliament put a thousand pound reward on the King’s head, threatening the death penalty to anyone caught helping him. This, however, did not stop the few who offered their homes, food, and lives to help the King to safety.

Charles Giffard, owner of Boscobal House disguised the King in the clothes of a woodsman. His long curly hair was cut, and his face and arms stained with walnut juice to resemble a commoner. He spent time hidden in an oak tree, where he ate and slept for days while troops searched the grounds below him. Another family traveled with him, while he acted as a groomsman to a young woman. Living like this for six weeks did not dampen his spirits. He had a sense of adventure and was always joking with those who helped him. At times they feared for their lives as King Charles walked disguised among the enemy. Eventually he made it to the coast and boarded a ship headed to France.

King Charles returned to England in 1660 for the Restoration and summoned some of the people who helped him in his Royal Escape. They attended the King for years at Whitehall Palace. In 1675 they were given permanent pensions, which to this day are still being paid to their descendants. Royal Escape, first published in 1938, offers readers a very interesting window into the young life of King Charles II.

Jane Austen’s World Vic Sandborn
Gentle Readers, Source Books has reissued a number of Georgette Heyer novels, including two historical novels, The Spanish Bride and Royal Escape, which is about Bonnie Prince Charlie’s escape to France after his defeat at Culloden. Coincidentally, NPR’s Nancy Pearl chose Royal Escape as one of her recommended summer reads.

A friend and colleague who had never read a Georgette Heyer novel, but who is quite knowledgeable about Bonnie Prince Charlie’s life and historical events of the era, agreed to review the book for this blog.

Let’s give Georgette Heyer and her publicists props for her subtitles; she certainly tells it like it is: “a novel in which a daredevil king with a price on his head fools his enemies and terrifies his friends.”

Rightly or wrongly, Heyer expects her reader to know her history – that, though defeated by Cromwell’s forces in 1651 and exiled to Europe for most of a decade, Charles II assumed the throne in 1660, when England’s monarchy was restored (by invitation of Parliament). Thus, despite quite a bit of action in Royal Escape, this is not a novel of suspense. Instead, it’s truly a character study. Heyer spends the length of the novel fleshing out her “daredevil king” and exploring the effects his journey through the English countryside have on Charles the man. Charles is without a doubt the book’s most complex character – foolishly brash in the opening pages as he urges the defeated Scots army to greater efforts; nearly despairing as he contemplates capture or a life in exile (while hiding out in a big tree); saucy in his overtures to a tavern mistress; reckless in risking his life (and his companions’) for a spot of lunch; coolly determined in his plan to disguise himself as a servant despite the indignities. On the whole, however, Heyer’s Charles comes across as confident, persistent, charming, unshakeable in the face of danger – in fact, not so surprisingly, an air of majesty hangs about him like a mantle.

What keeps the book interesting are the small details of how a royal intruder affect the life of an everyday Englishman or woman. From the poor householders who, quite against their will, find themselves slaughtering a neighbor’s sheep for the king’s mutton supper to the not-so-secret Catholic noble who finds his home’s hidey-holes a bit overcrowded with priest, pupils, and royalty, Charles disrupts business-as-usual wherever he goes.

The large cast of minor characters are not treated with as much depth as is the person of Charles: by and large, each is exactly what he seems to be: the poor but loyal farmer, the stern and loyal ex-soldier, the loyal servant, the loyalist noblewoman, the staunchly loyal nobleman. (Get the picture?) True, Heyer adds a twist to some of these types: the steadfast fop, for example, is hardly a literary cliché. And Heyer makes it clear that women are an integral part of the king’s escape, dramatizing such quandaries as whether giving the king the best eiderdown will damage his masquerade as a servingman. While her older female characters are generally wise dames indeed, her younger women fall victim to some rather unfortunate typecasting. Jane is the first young lady to assist Charles in his pose as a servant and escort; she is both sensitive and sensible, the romantic heroine who doesn’t (quite) give in to the romance. The next young woman to perform the role, however, is cast as foolish, fearful, and perhaps even a bit of slut – this despite the fact that she faces even more real danger than Jane and that her fears are quite well-founded. Georgette, couldn’t you be a bit kinder to womankind?

In the end, the almost-too-sweet Jane is the character who best sums up the tone of the novel (as she assures her cousin Harry Lassels that she does not intend to give in to Charles’ not-so-subtle advances):

“I shall not regret, Harry. You spoke of our journey as an adventure. Indeed, it is one, and I have thought that since the King is merry we should be so too. We shall never have another adventure like to this, you and I…. He will go his way, and we ours, but this will be a little part of our lives that we shall remember always, like a fairy tale told us in our childhood. You are anxious because the King kissed me, but you need not fear for me. I am not for him, since I am not a princess to whom he may offer marriage, and not a trollop whom he would make mistress. … In my heart, I know him for an easy lover, but no ravisher.”

Between Heyer’s idealized worldview and the informed reader’s confidence of an eventual happy ending, Royal Escape reads a bit like an advertisement for monarchy. This said, it’s certainly an entertaining one. I shall not regret my first Georgette Heyer read; indeed, I rather enjoyed the journey. Who wouldn’t want to abandon her cynicism (and occasionally her good sense) and, like Jane, join Charles and company on a merry adventure?

Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society Ida Vega-Landlow
08/05/2008 Entry: "Novel review: Royal Escape"

Royal Escape
By Georgette Heyer
First published in 1938 in the United Kingdom by William Heinemann, reissued in 2008 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 9781402210761

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

Here is another of Georgette Heyer’s "serious" books, about a real person and/or an historic event. Every now and then, the Queen of Fantasy dug deep into the history of her sceptered isle to prove that she was capable of writing more than just the frothy Regency romances she was known for. Having previously read her account of the Battle of Waterloo (see my review for "An Infamous Army"), which I found as wordy as "Gone With The Wind" but only half as entertaining, I was a bit leery about this book, which is about Charles Stuart, who became King Charles II of England on January 30, 1649 and reigned until September 3, 1685 (not Bonny Prince Charlie, who came along much later in the 1700’s).

But it didn’t take long for me to find out that Ms. Heyer’s account of King Charles’ escape from England after the disastrous Battle of Worcester was much more interesting than her account of Wellington’s battle against Bonaparte. This book was written very much in the spirit of her romances, portraying the king as a dashing young man, full of high spirits despite his defeat, surrounded by a small circle of loyal friends who daily risked arrest by Cromwell’s Roundheads as they try to help the true king escape his father’s fate.

Oliver Cromwell led a Puritan uprising which resulted in the beheading of King Charles I at Whitehall on January 30, 1649. He then became Lord Protector of England and convinced Parliament to outlaw kings. Charles II, already living in exile in Holland, was forced to turn to Scotland for help in claiming his rightful throne. The Scots agreed to crown him king, but only if he signed agreements with their parliament supporting the Solemn League and Covenant, which would make the Scottish Presbyterian church the dominant faith in Britain. After signing the agreements he had to live among them for a year to drum up support for his cause, during which he was forced to endure their joyless Presbyterianism, their lack of respect for his rank and their disapproval of his youthful exuberance. He had to listen to endless sermons from long-winded Bible thumpers and do penance not only for his own sins, but that of his Anglican father and Catholic mother as well, causing him to remark bitterly "I think I must repent too that ever I was born!" When he was finally allowed to lead the Scottish army into the south of England, they were soundly defeated at the Battle of Worcester on September 3, 1651. The Scots ran away like scared rabbits before the Roundheads’ superior numbers, abandoning the young king and his small circle of friends to their fate.

So, after burning his papers to keep from implicating his friends and supporters, Charles disguised himself as a commoner, cut his long, black curls and darkened his skin with walnut dye, then proceeded across the hostile countryside from one Royalist household to another, trying to find a ship that would take him to France and safety. He had very little money, but a large supply of charm, which he used to great effect on everyone he met, especially the ladies. Few of them could resist his smiles and sweet words, despite his ugly face(he was tall and dark, but far from handsome; Heyer describes him as having "a mass of dark curls falling about a sallow face with great melancholy dark eyes, a jutting nose, and deep lines running down to a large curling mouth").

Two ladies in particular assisted him in his royal escape, Jane Lane and Julianne Cothingsby. Both of these ladies rode behind him on his saddle, Jane on the first part of his journey and Julianne on the second part, as he pretended to be a servant escorting his wellborn mistress, this sort of arrangement being common among ladies of that era, who seldom rode abroad unescorted. Even though he became a notorious ladies man later in life (He died leaving twelve illegitimate children by seven mistresses! One of them, Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond [1672-1723], is the common ancestor of both Princess Diana of Wales and her rival Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles’ second wife, which means young Prince William of Wales, Charles and Diana’s son, will be the first monarch to be descended from Charles II in the direct male line), his relationship with both ladies was chaste. He called Jane "My Life" because she held his life in her pretty hands while he posed as her servant. He had more respect for her than for Juliana, who treated the journey as if it were a great adventure arranged for her amusement, rather than the risky venture it was, with death the likeliest outcome for both the king and whoever aided him.

The journey across country to the little fishing village of Brighthelmstone, where Charles finally finds a ship to take him to France, is filled with danger, made easier and harder by the king’s easygoing manner to noble and commoner alike. To the despair of his friends and the delight of his subjects, Charles insisted upon treating everybody with the same good humored geniality. Even the rude Scots he was forced to dwell among for a year never heard him say a bad word about them or their fanatical religious beliefs (though not surprisingly he refused to abide by the contract he had signed with them once he was back on his throne; being abandoned in battle does make one distrustful of an ally). This king definitely had the common touch; he wasn’t all stuffy and stuck-up, insisting upon being treated with the respect due to his rank. When offered a meal in a poor man’s house, he would eat just enough to satisfy his hunger and share the rest with whichever friend was escorting him. He did not protest over having to sleep in barns, priest’s holes (the hidden rooms where Catholic priests were kept to prevent them being arrested, it being illegal to practice Catholicism openly in Cromwell’s England), even up in a tree once, to avoid a party of Cromwell’s soldiers searching the grounds of a house where he was hidden.

In short, "Royal Escape" is just the thing for you if you’re into royalty, romance, and adventure. There’s also a bibliography in back listing all of Ms. Heyer’s research sources, in case you want to learn more about King Charles II without all the romantic embroidery, along with a helpful list of questions for reading groups to aid in your discussion of the book. A satisfying read; I’d give it an A+, because it didn’t drag itself out with unnecessary detail like "An Infamous Army" and the author didn’t find it necessary to entangle the king in a romance while he was running for his life, which I’m sure a modern scriptwriter would do just to liven things up. Though I wouldn’t mind finding out what became of Jane Lane after the King was restored to his throne. He did promise to remember everyone who helped him during his flight from Worcester. I’m sure he rewarded every one of those loyal subjects in a suitable fashion. I just hope he didn’t make Jane one of his mistresses!

Customer Reviews:

Specs / Support

Trade Paper Specfications

• Length: 8.00 in
• Width: 5.25 in
• Height: 0.00 in
• Weight: 17.00 oz
• Page Count: 464 pages