Prayer book of priest who hid Charles II displayed at Staffordshire house

The 400-year-old book belonged to Father John Huddleston

A prayer book once owned by a Catholic priest who helped save the life of King Charles II is to go on public display at the place he sought refuge.

Father John Huddleston also had the book with him when the monarch converted to the Catholic faith.

The 400-year-old copy bears the signature of the priest, who concealed Charles in a Staffordshire property.

It tells the story of the king's "remarkable escape," said the National Trust, which now owns the book.

The Missale Romanum contains prayers offered by the priest

Father Huddleston hid Charles in a priest hole in Moseley Old Hall, near Wolverhampton, as he fled Parliamentarian troops after his defeat by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

The Missale Romanum, or the Roman Missal, contains prayers offered by the priest at the altar as well as everything that is read or sung in connection with the mass throughout the ecclesiastical year.

The book, published in 1623, was purchased by the National Trust at auction and will be put on display at the property near Wolverhampton, 363 years after it was first there.

The work was "crucial for our understanding of how Roman Catholic books were used and circulated at a time when it was dangerous to be anything other than Anglican", said Tim Pye, national curator at the charity.

The book will be displayed at Moseley Old Hall, near Wolverhampton

Following the monarch's restoration, Huddleston was made chaplain to the King's mother and later his wife.

As Charles lay dying in 1685, Huddleston heard the King's confession, administered the Eucharist and received him into the Catholic Church.

The book's previous owner paid a Liverpool bookshop sixpence for it in the late 1950s.

The missal was "central to the story of Moseley", said cultural heritage curator Sarah Kay.

"Displaying and interpreting the missal will provide a compelling focus and renewed impetus for telling the story of Charles II's remarkable escape," she added.