Charles I is secured for the army by Cornet Joyce

Historical Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Domains

Politics

Dates

Date of occurrence 1647-06-04

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

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In June 1647, King Charles I was being kept under house arrest at Holdenby (Holmby) House, in Northamptonshire. By this time, the Long Parliament and the New Model Army, which had worked so tightly together during the civil war, were expressing divergent aims. Responding to a rumour that the Presbyterian faction in Parliament was planning to remove the King from Northamptonshire to take him to London, a lowly officer of the rank of Cornet, George Joyce, took 500 cavalry to Holmby House, and escorted the King away to Newmarket, where the army was based. Although General Fairfax threatened to court-martial Joyce for this action, it never took place, perhaps because his actions were tacitly endorsed by Cromwell and his right-hand man, Henry Ireton.

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