Charles in Charge

This past week has been all about Charles II as we delve deeper into the royal negotiations that will set Tom and 500 other Quakers free. It is a significant move toward our Bill of Rights and the man in charge requires a maze of research topics.

I have written much of what happens when Charles steps into the arena–at first to make life incredibly more difficult for dissenters and other dissidents with a Cold War type of lockdown that makes Putin seem friendly. These folks couldn’t even talk in the streets without being whipped and beaten by the locals who had been stirred into a frenzy by their clergy. Not unlike the frenzies stirred by our own media today, except theirs were far more vicious in terms of physicality. They watched bear-baiting for fun, remember.

The question is, what will it take to bring this king to the point where he makes a concession to the Quakers? Well I happened to see something interesting on a History Hit video last night. I have to tell you, it’s like God shows me things on this journey right when I need them.

So there is this oak that all British people know about but Americans do not, and that is the Royal Oak. It’s where young Charles–he would have been about 21 at the time–was being chased down by the “round heads” which were the Parliamentarian soldiers with their round helmets. He was running here and there, being hidden in this place and that, and finally he met William Careless (later called Carlos, the Spanish for Charles), a ranking officer who had escaped the routing of the Royalist army.

The story is that William gathered some food and told Charles to climb up a large oak tree. Together they spent the day up there watching as the Parliamentarians and their dogs hunted for them. When Charles napped, William supported him so he wouldn’t fall. At one point, according to Charles, a soldier passed directly beneath them.

Fast forward to the royal Restoration, and Careless/Carlos was made one of the Privy Council, the closest advisers to the king. He was also made a knight of the new Order of the Royal Oak and was given monies and favor and what-not. Which is to say, if Charles liked you, you were set. I will use this character trait to show how the very person who began by despising Quakers came to be a great help in whatever capacity he could muster.

On a separate note, Charles evidently loved telling everybody about hiding in the tree and being that close to detection, calling it a miracle and even having the narrative printed and distributed throughout the land. Evidently many pubs changed their name to The Royal Oak after that and even today it is the third most popular pub name in all of England. So now I have these new threads to weave into my story. I hope GPT5 will have some good suggestions.

Also…it goes without saying, we need another scene at the Green Fox, after it is renamed The Royal Oak.