To Catch a King: Charles II’s Great Escape

How did the most wanted man in the country outwit the greatest manhunt in British history? King Charles I was beheaded in 1649, outside his palace of Whitehall. When his eldest son, Charles, returned in 1651 to fight for his throne, he was crushed by the might of Cromwell’s armies at the battle of Worcester. Expecting to meet the fate of his father, Charles fled for his life. From hiding in an oak tree to travelling as one half of an eloping couple and observing celebrations of his rumoured demise, he relied on grit, fortitude and good luck to survive.

In this gripping, action-packed, true adventure story, bestselling author Charles Spencer draws on extensive archive material, Pepys’s account and many others to retell the epic adventure of Charles II.

'A wonderful tale … Spencer tells it with journalistic flair.'
- The Times
'A book of quite exteraordinary period atmosphere, the most diligent research and an appropriately cracking pace.'
- Sunday Express