Regicide: Encyclopedia II - Regicide - The Regicide of Charles I of England

Regicide - The Regicide of Charles I of England

After The First English Civil War King Charles I was a prisoner of the Parliamentarians. They tried to negotiate a compromise with him but he stuck steadfastly to his view that he was King by Divine Right and attempted in secret to raise an army to fight against them. When it became obvious to the leaders of the Palimentarians that they could not negotiate a settlement with him and they could not trust him not to raise an army to attack them, they reluctantly came to the conclusion that they would have to kill him. The House of Commons on 13 December 1648 broke off negotiations with the King. Two days later, the Council of Officers of the New Model Army voted that the King be moved from the Isle of Wight, where he was prisoner, to Windsor "in order to the bringing of him speedily to justice". In the middle of December the king was moved from Windsor to London. The Rump Parliament set up a High Court of Justice in order to try Charles I for high treason in the name of the people of England. But this bill of Parliament was not passed by the House of Lords and it did not get royal consent, so it was not lawful.

At his trial in front of The High Court of Justice on Saturday 20 January 1649 in Westminster Hall Charles asked "would know by what power I am called hither. I would know by what authority, I mean lawful [authority]". In view of the historic issues involved, both sides based themselves on surprisingly technical legal grounds. Charles did not dispute that Parliament as a whole did have some judicial powers, but the House of Commons on its own could not try anybody, and so he refused to plead. At that time under English law if a prisoner refused to plead then this was treated as a plea of guilty, although this has been changed to treat it as a plea of not guilty.

He was found guilty on Saturday 27 January 1649 and his death warrant was signed by 59 Commissioners. To show their agreement with the sentence of death all of the Commissioners who were present rose to their feet.

On the day of his execution, 30 January 1649, Charles dressed in two shirts so that he would not shiver from the cold, in case it was said that he was shivering from fear. His execution was delayed by several hours so that the House of Commons could pass an emergency bill to make it an offence to proclaim a new King and to declare the representatives of the people, the House of Commons, as the source of all just power. Charles was then escorted through the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall with its ceiling painted by Peter Paul Rubens, as commissioned by the king some years earlier, to a scaffold. He forgave those who had passed sentence on him and gave instructions to his enemies that they should learn to "know their duty to God, the King - that is my successors and the people". He then gave a brief speech outlining his unchanged views of the relationship between the monarchy and the monarch's subjects ending with the words "I am the martyr of the people". His head was severed from his body with one blow and a groan went up from the crowd that witnessed the execution.

One week later the Rump, sitting in the House of Commons, passed a bill abolishing the monarchy. Ardent Royalists refused to accept it on the basis that there could never be a vacancy of the Crown. Others refused, because as the bill had not passed the House of Lords and did not have royal consent, it could not become an Act of Parliament.

The Declaration of Breda 11 years later paved the way for the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. At the restoration thirty one of the fifty nine Commissioners who had signed the death warrant were living. A pardon was given by Charles II to his opponents, but they were excluded. A number fled the country, either to the continent such as Daniel Blagrave, others like John Dixwell, Edward Whalley, and William Goffe fled to New Haven, Connecticut, but those who were still available were put on trial. Six Commissioners were found guilty and suffered the fate of being hanged, drawn and quartered: Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scroope, John Carew, Thomas Scot, and Gregory Clement. The captain of the guard at the trial, Daniel Axtel who encouraged his men to barrack the King when he tried to speak in his own defence; an influential preacher Hugh Peters; and the leading prosecutor at the trial John Cook were executed in a similar manner. Colonel Francis Hacker who signed the order to the executioner of the king and commanded the guard around the scaffold and at the trial was hanged. Some regicides were pardoned, while a further nineteen served life imprisonment. The bodies of the regicides Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton which had been buried in Westminster Abbey were disinterred and hanged drawn and quartered. In 1662, three more more regicides John Okey, John Barkstead and Miles Corbet were hanged, drawn and quartered. The officers of the court that tried Charles I, those who prosecuted him and those who signed his death warrant, have been known ever since the restoration as regicides.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Regicide of Charles I of England", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki