Naseby Battlefield Trail - King Charles' Oak - Sibbertoft, Northamptonshire
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SMacB
N 52° 25.604 W 001° 00.291
30U E 635654 N 5810374
An enclosure created as a wildlife area with information boards near the site King Charles' Oak set in the middle of the Northamptonshire countryside, commemorating the Battle of Naseby of 1645.
Waymark Code: WM10955
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/24/2019
Views: 1
An enclosure created as a wildlife area with information boards near the site King Charles' Oak set in the middle of the Northamptonshire countryside, commemorating the Battle of Naseby of 1645.
"An ancient oak close to this site marked the place where King Charles was seen by Colonel John Okey from his position behind Sulby Hedges. There are views to the New Model Army position and to Sulby Hedges."
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The board tells us:
"A traditional belief is that an oak tree planted in this field, Little Old Close, marked the place at which the king came under attack during the battle or that it was a tree in which he hid. It used to stand about 50m. north of this place, not in the hedgerow, but out in the field itself, suggesting it was either a delibetate commemorative planting or that it was here before the enclosure of the land and the battle. itself. Just before battle commenced, Colonel John Okey’s regiment of dragoons of the New Model Army was ordered to a position west of Sulby Hedges, south of this place, to engage the right wing of the royalist army. Okey’s own account of what took place says:
'...the Lieutenant Gen. [i.e. Oliver Cromwell] ...caused me with all speed to mount my men & flank ...the King's right Wing of horse; where was Prince Maurice, who charged at the head of his Regiment, and the King himself in the next reserve charged at the head of his men...'In the confusion of battle Colonel Okey may not have formed an entirely accurate impression, but this is an eye-witness report of the king being sean from a position behind Sulby Hedges, near the flag-pole you can see from her, a little to your right. This suggests that local tradition is based on fact and that, on the outbreak of musket fire, the king, and possibly Prince Rupert as well, rode the 450m west from the original command position in the rear of the centre of the royalist line."
The association of Charles’s Oak in Sibbertoft is probably spurious, though it may be more than coincidence that this tree stood on an ancient enclosure boundary in an area that was otherwise extensive open field in 1645 and is close to a bullet scatter indicating an intense fire-fight.