Keeping your head when all around are losing theirs

Jul 31 2008 By Chris Upton

Come over here, Bill. The King of England's climbing out of the window !" I have to take you back three centuries and more to put this remark in context.

Most people, I imagine, know that Queen Victoria went to her eternal rest at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, where, surrounded first by her family and then by sweet-scented lilies, she passed gently away. This is obviously the preferred royal exit, but plenty of them went out very differently. Take the case of an earlier holiday-maker, who found the island an attractive alternative to the court.

When Charles I was finally defeated by the parliamentary forces in 1646 he graciously agreed to be their guest at Hampton Court, while both sides figured out what to do in unprecedented and exceptional circumstances.

For Charles it was not a wait he was prepared to make, and in November 1647 he escaped to Titchfield House in Hampshire, where he opened negotiations with the parliamentary governor of the Isle of Wight to move there instead. The man in question - Colonel Hammond - also happened to be the brother of the king's chaplain, so dealings were quite amicable.

Later the same month Charles arrived at Carisbrooke Castle, the principal fortress on the island, and took up spacious lodgings there. The king was even allowed the freedom of the whole island, until an uprising to reinstate him on the throne brought the authorities down in force. From then on the castle alone was to be his place of entertainment.

Nevertheless, as bed and breakfast went, it was not an uncomfortable situation, and the commander of the castle even laid out an enormous bowling green for the king to wile away his spare hours, of which there were many.

But Charles I was not the grandson of Mary Queen of Scots for nothing, and escape was in his blood. Given what had happened to her, it was not an unreasonable idea. Losing one's head was soon to become a careless family tradition.

On March 22 1648, Charles made his move. Having made contact with sympathisers outside the castle walls, Charles arranged to climb out of his bedroom window, lower himself down by means of a cord to the courtyard below and ride off into the sunset.

When making plans like this it's advisable to check how far apart the bars on the window are. Too narrow they were for anyone, let alone a king, and Charles Stewart, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Defender of the Faith etc, got stuck like some incompetent burglar.

At this point Charles was transferred to more secure accommodation, but this did not prevent one more escape attempt. This time, having learned his lesson, he loosened the bars of the window with nitric acid and climbed out. Looking down from the ledge, Charles found the courtyard full of people gazing up at him: clearly his plot had been revealed. On mature reflection, then, he climbed back inside. Disappointing to the onlookers, but probably the best course of action.

When Charles I did leave Carisbrooke in September 1648 it was under armed guard and through the main gate on his way to Newport and then to London, where trial and execution awaited him.

One wonders, as he stepped out onto that scaffold at Whitehall on January 30 1649, whether the king reflected on the incident at Carisbrooke. "Iron bars," as one of his predecessors said, "do not a prison make", but they go some way towards it.

* Dr Chris Upton is Senior Lecturer in History at Newman University College in Birmingham.