Enlightenment · Europe · War
1651
Battle of Worcester
September 3, 1651
Charles II, the son of the executed king, led a Scottish army into England and was annihilated by Cromwell at Worcester. Charles famously hid in an oak tree at Boscobel and escaped to France in disguise. Cromwell called it his crowning mercy. The civil wars were over, and the young pretender began nine years of penniless continental exile.