TOP 10 GREAT ESCAPES

1 EMPRESS MATILDA

DECEMBER 1142

Caught in a lengthy civil war with her cousin Stephen of Blois – a period known as ‘The Anarchy’ – Empress Matilda was not one to give up her right to the English throne easily. During a bitterly cold night in December 1142 she fled the besieged Oxford Castle, where she’d been trapped for three months, wearing a white cape and evading enemy troops by blending in with the snow. Matilda and her knights then skated across the frozen River Thames and reached the safety of Wallingford Castle. The Anarchy would rage on for another decade and Matilda would never be crowned queen, but she succeeded in ensuring her son’s place as the future Henry II.

2 GIACOMO CASANOVA

OCTOBER 1756

Famed Italian adventurer and renowned womaniser Giacomo Casanova spent much of his time escaping the wrath of furious husbands and scorned lovers, but it was an affront to common decency