05/05/2026
On this day, 5 May 1646, King Charles I surrendered to the Scottish Covenanters at the Saracen’s Head Inn, Southwell, in Nottinghamshire — an inn originally known as The King’s Head.
Only the day before, Charles had slipped out of Oxford in disguise as the New Model Army closed in. For him, the Civil War was effectively over. But he still believed he had one last card to play. By placing himself in Scottish hands, he hoped to secure better terms than he might receive from the English Parliament, perhaps drive a wedge between the Scots and Parliament, and buy time for possible support from France or Ireland.
It was a desperate gamble — and it failed.
The Covenanter army, alongside Parliamentarian forces, was then besieging nearby Newark. When William Kerr, Earl of Lothian, heard that the King had arrived at Southwell, he hurried there and demanded Charles surrender. He also urged him to sign the Covenant, establish Presbyterianism in England and Ireland, and order the Marquis of Montrose to lay down arms in Scotland.
Charles refused.
He was taken instead to Kelham, the headquarters of General David Leslie, commander of the Covenanter army. There, the King’s captivity began — a captivity that would ultimately end on the scaffold. Guards were posted around him “lest he should communicate with his friends by letter.”
Before Charles left Southwell, the Scottish commissioners wrote urgently to the Houses at Westminster. They insisted that the King’s arrival had been entirely unexpected, leaving them astonished — like, in their own memorable phrase, “men that dream.”
Here is Lothian’s letter of 5 May 1646:
“The Earl of Lothian, by command of the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland to the Commissioners from the English Parliament. Right Honourable. The discharging of ourselves of the duty we owe to the kingdom of England and unto you as Commissioners from the same, move us to acquaint you with the King’s coming into our army this morning, which having overtaken us unexpectedly hath filled us with amazement and made us like men that dream.
We cannot think that he would have been so unadvised in his resolution [as] to have cast himself upon us without a real intention to give full satisfaction to both kingdoms in all their just and reasonable demands in all those things which concern religion and righteousness.
Whatsoever be his disposition, our resolution, you may be assured, is that we shall never entertain any thought, nor correspond with any purpose, nor countenance any endeavour that may, in any circumstance, encroach upon our League and Covenant or weaken the union and confidence between the kingdoms.
That union betwixt our kingdoms was the matter of many prayers; and as nothing was more joyful to us than to have it set on foot, so hitherto have we [counted] nothing too dear to maintain it.
And we trust to walk with such faithfulness and truth in this particular that as we have the testimony of a good conscience within ourselves, so you and all the world shall see that we mind your interest with as much integrity and care as our own, being confident that you will entertain no other thought of us.”
