29^th May Oak Apple Day

On 1 June 1660 Samuel Pepys wrote in his famous Diary: “At night Mr. Cooke comes from London with letters, leaving all things there very gallant and joyful. And brought us word that parliament had ordered the 29th of May, the King’s birthday, to be for ever kept as a day of thanksgiving for our redemption from tyranny, and the King’s return to his Government, he entering London that day.”

Celebration of the restoration of the monarchy as a public holiday known as Oak Apple Day continued until it was abolished in 1859. It became a tradition to wear oak apples and a sprig of oak leaves. Those that failed to risked being whipped with stinging nettles. Although the custom has largely dropped by the wayside, some monarchists continue to decorate their houses with oak leaves on 29 May. The occasion is important elsewhere such as kept as Founder’s Day in the Royal Hospital Chelsea, founded by Charles II in 1681, and home the same month to the annual Chelsea Flower Show. The association oaks and royalty extended back almost a decade. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) declared Britain a republic. The same year Charles I was beheaded leaving his son to contest the country. He was forced to relinquished it two years later after defeat at the Battle of Worcester in September 1651. Fleeing Cromwell’s vengeful troops, he hid in an oak near Boscobel House before exiting into exile.

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Cromwell’s death in 1658 ended republican experimentations. The Boscobel Oak lasted considerably longer, not succumbing to old age until well into the last century. The now-crowned Charles II considered establishing up a new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Royal Oak. Some memories he decided however should best be forgotten and so dropped the subject. Perhaps it was just as well. Oak apples are in fact galls caused by the larvae of Cynipinae wasps. These form on Quercus robur, misleadingly called English oak, which is to be found in its 25-metre majesty from the British Isles to Caucasus Mountains and into northern Africa. Held to be sacred at least as far back as the time of the Druids it was under such branches in Sherwood Forest that Robin Hood provoked the wrath of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Later oak was to be incorporated into many an English naval ship, such as the still existing HMS Victory. Gall wasps are common, if overlooked insects, six to eight millimetres in length with shiny black abdomens. The gall is a severely mutated leaf. The female wasp lays an egg in a developing leaf bud during early spring. Secretions of the wasp larva cause the formation of the familiar galls, providing nourishment for them. Rich in tannins, oak galls were historically important constituent of inks, used to make the Magna Carta. Such use dated back to the Roman Empire. Ground fine and mixed with gum, green sulphate of iron and water this ink continued in use until the early 20th century. Oak galls were also once widely utilized in medicine, tanning and dyeing. A strongly astringent ointment was prescribed for piles and bleeding gums into the 20th century, records Pamela Michaels in All Good Things Around Us (1980). Oak apples mixed with oak sawdust yielded shades of brown to the dyers art. English oak (Quercus robur), is known elsewhere as truffle oak, pollardo, or common oak, chêne commun or chêne pédonculé. Hardy into southern Canada, it is more often encountered as one of its many varieties, for example the narrow-growing oak (Q. r. fastigata) so suitable for constricted urban spaces. However, wherever an oak is grown, it will be targeted by gall wasps, some of which are also native to North America. Whether a descendant of Charles II of the same moniker but eve more horticulturally inclined chooses to revive Oak Apple Day or even a new order of chivalry remains to be seen.