A 400-year-old prayer book that once belonged to a priest who helped save the life of King Charles II has gone on public display after being bought for the nation by the National Trust.
Father John Huddleston’s personal missal can now be viewed at Moseley Old Hall in Featherstone, near Wolverhampton, the house where he was Chaplain when Charles sought refuge after escaping Cromwell’s troops following the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
Following defeat to the Roundheads at Worcester, Charles fled to Boscobel House in Shropshire, where he hid in an oak tree, before arriving at Moseley Old Hall the following night. The king is understood to have consulted books in Huddleston’s library and it is likely that the missal – now complete with evocative drops of candle wax on some pages – would have been one of them.
The Duke of York is believed to have said that Huddleston saved the king’s life twice: first his body, then his soul.
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