King Charles & the Hidden Dorset Trousers

With a large bounty for his head and after the execution of his father, King Charles II was prepared to pay virtually any price for help to flee the country.

The King was hiding away from his pursuers in the home of Francis Wyndham at Trent on the Dorset/Somerset border. Wyndham was given the task of finding a vessel to convey the Monarch across the English Channel to safety. Mariner Stephen Limbry from Charmouth was due to take a cargo from Charmouth to St Malo in France on 22 September 1651. After some tough negotiating, a consideration of £60 was agreed to secure a crossing for the King’s party. (This would be around £25,000 in today’s money!)

Disguised as a servant to a married couple, the King arrived at the Queen’s Arms Inn at Charmouth. The building gained its name, it is said, from it housing Catherine of Aragon for a night soon after she arrived in England. So as not to be recognised because the Inn was busy, Charles remained in the stables. Francis Wyndham and his servant waited throughout the night on Charmouth Beach but Stephen Limbry’s vessel failed to arrive..

Limbry’s non-appearance was due to his wife. She had heard a Proclamation that being found guilty of aiding the King’s escape would result in execution. So she locked her husband away in their bedroom and hid the mariner’s trousers.

Fearing they would be discovered, the King’s party quickly left Charmouth for Bridport.

(Source: Highways and Byways in Dorset by Frederick Treves.)

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