The Battle of Worcester: A Tale of Valor & the Last Field Knighting

By By J.W. McKinney, TN Commissioner

This article was taken from the Fall 2025 Shank Bone e-newsletter, which members receive quarterly. To read all articles in newsletters going back to the early 1980s, JOIN Clan MacKinnon Society today!

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On September 3, 1651, the ancient city of Worcester became the stage for the final major battle of the English Civil War. Young King Charles II, barely 21 years old, led his outnumbered Royalist forces against Oliver Cromwell’s formidable New Model Army. Lachlan Mor MacKinnon, the 28th chief of Clan MacKinnon, had answered the call of his king, raising a regiment from his lands in Skye to fight for the Stuart cause. As the battle raged, Cromwell’s forces pressed their advantage, threatening to overwhelm the Royalist position.

In a critical moment, Charles II found himself in grave peril. Lachlan, seeing his monarch’s distress, fought valiantly to protect the king. His actions were crucial in saving Charles II’s life on the battlefield. As the tide of battle turned against them, Charles recognized Lachlan’s extraordinary bravery. In a rare and historic moment, the king created Lachlan a knight banneret on the field of battle. This act of field knighting by Charles II at Worcester is believed to be either the last or second-to-last such investiture ever made. With defeat imminent, Charles and his most trusted men, including the newly knighted Sir Lachlan, fled the field. They sought refuge in a boarding house on the outskirts of Worcester. There, as Parliamentarian troops closed in, Sir Lachlan took charge of the house’s defense, organizing the few remaining Royalist soldiers.

Sir Lachlan led a fierce resistance, holding off the attackers long enough for King Charles to slip away through a back exit, beginning his famous six-week journey in hiding. The aftermath was harsh for Sir Lachlan and his clan. He was captured the next day and, after a year’s confinement in Tilbury Fort, was tried for his life. Despite being attainted and excepted from the Act of Indemnity in 1747, he was ultimately pardoned due to his advanced age and the court’s recognition that he had acted more from a spirit of chivalry than rebellion.

Sir Lachlan’s knighthood, bestowed in those desperate hours at Worcester, stood as a testament to the unwavering loyalty of the Highland clans to the House of Stuart. Though the Royalist cause was lost that day, the story of Sir Lachlan’s bravery and his crucial role in ensuring the king’s escape would be recounted for generations to come. This event marked not only a pivotal moment in the English Civil War but also the end of an era, as the practice of field knighting faded into history, with Sir Lachlan Mor MacKinnon’s investiture being one of the very last of its kind.