Charles II.

writing with remarkable ease and intimacy to his saviour after the Battle of Worcester ("...I hope you doe not beleeve that hearing from a persone that I am so much beholding to, can be in the least degree troublesome to me..."), and assuring her that Mr Boswell's gossip that a letter from her to him "giving me good councell" had been read aloud and discussed in his bedchamber "is not the first lie that he has made, nor will not be the last", also informing her that he is sending her his portrait, 1 page, 4to, Paris, 20 March 1654, integral address leaf with complete red wax seal impression, damp stained and spotted, wear at folds, laid down on card

A rare letter to the royalist heroine Jane Lane, who accompanied the disguised Charles II in his escape following the crushing defeat of the royalist army at the Battle of Worcester. Their extraordinary escape in September 1650, during which the King pretended to be Jane Lane's servant as they travelled south to Somerset, narrowly avoiding capture by Cromwell's army, became the stuff of Royalist legend. This letter reveals the powerful bond this adventure established between the two, and is one of only three known letters by Charles to Jane.