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 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE which the Royalists had the advantage ; 816 but on 24 September Charles saw from the walls of Chester the defeat of his last army at Rowton Heath. The castle of Tutbury was one of the last places in the county that held out for Charles ; the strength of its position and the bravery of its garrison had defeated numerous attempts of the Roundheads to take it. But larger forces were concentrated upon it, and on 30 March, 1646, Sir William Brereton closely invested it, and after three weeks' gallant resistance Kniveton surrendered on 20 April, i646, 817 and next year the castle was dismantled. In May Charles took refuge with the Scottish army at Newark ; on 24 June Oxford capitulated, but it was not till 10 July that Lichfield's gallant resistance came to an end. In 1648 Staffordshire saw the closing scene of the second civil war. Charles's chief hope was in the Scottish army, which under Hamilton crossed the border, advanced through Lancashire, and was cut in two by Cromwell at Preston, and finally crushed at Wigan and Warrington. The incapable Hamilton, with the wreck of his army, reached Uttoxeter on 22 August, and there his worn-out soldiers refused to go any further. Three days after he offered to capitulate to the governor of Stafford, but before they came to terms, Lambert, who had been left by Cromwell to conduct the pursuit, came upon the scene, and Hamilton surrendered to him on the terms that all were to be prisoners of war, ' having their lives and safety of their persons assured to them.' 818 This put the finishing touch to the destruction of the last hopes of the Royalists. Three years later the connexion of the county with the Stuarts and their cause was again renewed. Charles was a fugitive from Worcester fight, and leaving behind him the small body of trusty adherents who had accompanied him at White Ladies, he took refuge in a wood called Spring Coppice on the Penderels' demesne, the family being tenants of the Giffards of Chillington. 319 After his stay in Spring Coppice Charles put on rustic disguise at Richard Penderel's house and intended to cross the Severn at Madeley to take refuge with the loyalists in Wales. At midnight they reached the house of Mr. Wolfe, a Royalist gentleman residing at Madeley, who was informed of the rank of his guest, and as the hiding-places of the house had on former occasions proved useless, the king was placed in a barn among some straw. In the meantime Lord Wilmot had arrived at Moseley Hall, the owner of which, Mr. Whitgreave, had fought for Charles I. From there, on 5 Sep- tember, Wilmot found means of communicating with Colonel Lane of Bentley, a staunch Royalist as we have seen, who waited on Wilmot that evening, and offered his house and services in the royal cause. Charles, unable to cross the Severn, came to Boscobel again and there sat in the famous oak all day on 6 September. The next day John Penderel and Mr. Whitgreave arranged 316 Mosley, Hist, of Tutbury, 228 ; Cal. S.P. Dam. 1645-7, pp. 70-1. 317 Mosley, Hist, of Tutbury, 229 et seq. In addition to the horrors of civil war Tutbury, Stafford, Lich- field, and other places in the county were ' grievously infected with the plague ' at this time ; Cal. S..P. Dom. 1645-7, p. 520. 318 Gardiner, Civ. War, iii, 448. On 22 Aug. the Committee of Both Houses told Cromwell they had written to Staffordshire and the neighbouring counties ' to send against the Scots all the force they can muster, and to endeavour to disperse and destroy them ' ; Cal, S./*. Dom. 1648-9, p. 252. 519 The above account is taken mainly from J. Hughes, Boscobel Tracts, Clarendon's narrative being inaccurate. 264