What is Oak Apple Day? How a royal escape act inspired a forgotten tradition
The lost British tradition of Oak Apple Day started in the 17th century. Was it really inspired by the true story of Charles II hiding in an oak tree?
Image: Charles II reportedly hid in a tree for hours to evade Parliamentarians | Public Domain
In the 1640s, the English Civil War raged, eventually culminating in Parliamentarian forces overcoming the tyrannical Charles I. The king was executed in January 1649, and his son, imaginatively also named Charles, potentially could have met this same fate.
The young Charles’ situation looked especially perilous after his army’s defeat to Oliver Cromwell’s ‘Roundhead’ troops at the Battle of Worcester in September 1651. By then, the English monarchy had been abolished, and the new republican regime was baying for Charles’ blood.
Somehow, though, Charles managed to elude his Parliamentarian pursuers…by hiding in an oak tree. This extraordinary story went on to inspire a new tradition, Oak Apple Day, after Charles eventually did become king of England. As we at Sky HISTORY have found, it wasn’t all just about wearing sprigs of oak leaves.
Charles II tastes military defeat…but flees
Charles was crowned by the Scots in January 1651 under the regnal title Charles II, but still needed to recover the English throne. In pursuit of this goal, he led a largely Scottish army into England but came a cropper at Worcester on 3rd September 1651.
Charles was now down, but far from out. The Parliamentarians diligently endeavoured to track him down, but Royalist sympathisers covertly escorted Charles between various safe houses, including Boscobel House. As Roundhead forces closed in on this Shropshire residence, Charles secreted himself in an oak tree just outside it.
The trick worked – the tree’s foliage was bushy enough to completely conceal Charles from the prying eyes of passing Roundheads. Within weeks, Charles had escaped to France, enabling him to return to England when its monarchy was finally restored on 29th May 1660.
The tale of Charles’ death-defying escape, complete with the endearing symbolism of the oak tree, now took on renewed significance. The English Parliament enacted the Observance of 29th May Act 1660, enshrining Oak Apple Day as a public holiday commemorating Charles’ triumphant comeback.
The exuberant mood of the Restoration
Though the public holiday of Oak Apple Day had been introduced by statute, it should not be merely dismissed as government propaganda. Many of the king’s subjects had genuinely good reason to be grateful for his rise to power.
The public was weary of the cripplingly frigid atmosphere that had taken hold in the Commonwealth of England, as the English Republic was officially called. Oliver Cromwell’s staunch Puritanism led him to ban or limit what had long been considered innocent joys, like horse racing, the theatre and alcohol consumption.
Such stifling restrictions were lifted en masse in the Restoration era. Fountains reportedly now flowed with wine after the abstinence of the republican years. Charles also brought an end to the long-customary theatrical practice of male actors playing female roles, which would now go to actual women.
How is Oak Apple Day traditionally marked?
Befitting the name ‘Oak Apple Day’, celebrations traditionally associated with 29th May include the wearing of ‘oak apples’. No, this isn’t quite a reference to fruit, but instead plant galls. These abnormal growths emerge on plant tissues, and would have been specially picked for Oak Apple Day.
Revellers would also wear sprigs of oak leaves. Those that didn’t could find themselves playfully assaulted with birds’ eggs or nettles – or, in Sussex, getting pinched. Hence, Oak Apple Day came to also be humorously dubbed ‘Pinch-bum Day’. Easily the more familiar alternative name, though, is ‘Royal Oak Day’.
Is Oak Apple Day still celebrated today?
Yes, if not as widely as it once was – Oak Apple Day’s status as a public holiday was abolished in 1859. It continues to be marked in some pockets of the country, still owing a special degree of gratitude to Charles for one reason or another.
For example, the Royal Hospital Chelsea celebrates Oak Apple Day as its ‘Founder’s Day’, as Charles was the monarch responsible for establishing this nursing home. Charles was also instrumental in rebuilding Northampton’s All Saints’ Church, where a statue of him is garlanded with oak leaves every 29th May.
Oak Apple Day is also observed in the Wiltshire village of Great Wishford. Here, a medieval custom permits locals to gather firewood in Grovely Wood whenever the big day comes around. It’s one example of how Oak Apple Day has somewhat lost its original purpose but remains meaningful in a different way to 21st-century observers.
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