IF ATTILA the Stockbroker had his way, the fate of Charles II following his defeat at the battle of Worcester in 1651 — the last of the English civil war — would have been sealed. His escape would have been foiled and the restoration of the monarchy postponed indefinitely.

The ranting radical poet from Southwick on the Sussex coast has a special interest in the escape of the future king because it took place a few hundred yards from where he has lived — and fished — most of his life.

“It’s a big story around here. The Great Escape festival, the yacht race — it’s all a celebration of him getting away. I wish he’d been caught and strung up. It would have ended the monarchy once and for all and left a lot more money for the NHS — if they’d had one in 1649.”