King Charles I

Lesson 4: Fatal Year - 1649

Tragedy - experience the last days of the King, how his show trial went and the final sorrowful execution. Murderer or Martyr?

Show Trial

‘That I may die as a man, is certain, that I may die a king, by the hands of my own subjects, a violent, sudden, and barbarous death, in the strength of my years, in the midst of my kingdoms, my friends and loving subjects being helpless spectators, my enemies insolent revilers and triumphers over mee … is not so probable in humane reason, that God hath taught mee not to hope otherwise.’ King Charles I.

After Charles surrendered in 1646 and the Royalist cause disintegrated, he looked around for any way to save his crown and the things he was bound by God to uphold. In his view, he would look to anyone or anything, therefore he would not shun the support of Catholics, although he had no intention of bringing Catholicism back.

He also made an agreement with the Scots for them to support him in another civil war and this cut him off from a lot of people, who blamed him for further bloodshed. It can be argued either way, but to Charles, again, he could see this power swallowing up everything that was England and which he was bound to protect.

After a second civil war which Charles and his Scottish supporters lost, he was imprisoned further and he began negotiating with Parliament for a good settlement, but Parliament’s army had other ideas. Led by Cromwell and his friends, they began trying to cajole Charles out of Parliament’s hands and into their own.

Charles was happy to play one off against the other, but he continued discussions with Parliament and they agreed on a settlement which would bring stability and peace to the land and one which would address both King and Parliament’s wishes.

Before this was allowed a chance to succeed, the army excluded around 150 members from Parliament who were sympathetic to the King and then asked the remainder, who were against Charles and a settlement, to abolish any settlement to which Parliament had previously agreed.

Charles was brought to London to face a trial and Cromwell told his friend he would cut off the king’s head with the crown upon it.

The outcome of any trial was forgone. Parliament appointed 135 commissioners to try the king. A letter then arrived from the Queen, pleading to see her husband, but they decided to brush this aside.

Lawyers and the most eminent legal experts shrank away from London; others refused the legality of trying their own King, who was the law itself, especially as the king was divine. There was no precedent of trial for a Monarch as there was no higher authority to do this. Men argued God may send them so many miseries if they murdered one of his kings.

This extreme act of bloodthirstiness put many Parliamentarians off, even some who were quite opposed to the king. Only 52 of the 135 commissioners turned up at the first meeting, which proves the point. The country had not been consulted about the king’s trial. The meeting of Parliament which had approved it was not legal as a large portion of members had been excluded.

A minor lawyer was chosen from those who were radical enough to take the position of President of the Court. By now it was getting dangerous to show your support of the king and a man and his horse were thrown into a ditch when they dared salute the king as he passed in his carriage, on the way to London.

In the court, which was held in Westminster Hall, Charles betrayed no fear. The clerk of the court read the charge, ‘I do in the name and on the behalf of the people of England exhibit and bring into this court a charge of high treason and other high crimes whereof I do accuse Charles Stuart, King of England.’

Charles tried to interrupt but the clerk ignored him and continued, ‘Charles Stuart, King of England, trusted with a limited power to govern by and according to the laws of the land … obliged to use the power committed to him for the good and benefit of the people for the preservation of their rights and liberties had out of a wicked design to uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power.’

Charles, he summarised rather widely, was, ‘guilty of all the treasons, murders, rapines, burnings, spoils, desolations, damages and mischief’s to this nation…’

During this long interlude, Charles looked around the court to assess who was trying him, who was watching and how they were expressing themselves. He stood up, looked about and smiled at one part of the charge.

Aged 48, Charles was a surprise to most people. He had a full beard which was flecked with grey, his hair was turning grey and his face had physically aged, although his healthy lifestyle still kept him fit and healthy enough. He was dressed mainly in black, with just the garter ribbon breaking it up and a huge star of the garter on his cloak. He had refused to be shaven in case his throat was cut.

Charles’s quick observation had shown that there was only the dregs of the House of Commons left (after a lot of members were banned because they would not support the radical measures that were now happening) and he asked, ‘I will stand for the privilege of the commons,’ and having another look around, he continued, ‘I see no House of Lords (the second part of Parliament, the first being the House of commons) here that may constitute a Parliament.’

As Pauline Gregg observed, ‘without a king and a House of Lords, with an out of date and unrepresentative House of Commons, what authority remained to institute a court of justice to try a king?’

This was the main theme Charles seized on and Parliament could not answer his question without admitting they had no legal standing, no precedent and were not representative of the people of England. They skirted around Charles’s objection, ignoring it when they could and refusing to let him speak.

Charles was brilliant in his defence and his performance was the best of his life. No more was his stutter, which miraculously disappeared. Again he told the court, ‘I am your king, I have a trust committed to me by God, by old and lawful descent. I will not betray that trust to answer to a new unlawful authority.’

The court was humiliated and support for Charles in the galleries was growing, so much so that shouts of ‘God bless the king’ were heard, much to the court’s chagrin. Charles had a vital case against the court’s legality and he was right that he as king was more lawful and representative than the unelected and carefully selected body that tried him.

Charles’s answers got more to the point as they went on, ‘It is not my case alone, it is the freedom and the liberty of the people of England, and do you pretend what you will, I must justly stand for their liberties. For if power, without law, may make law, may altar the fundamental laws of the kingdom, I do not know what subject he is in England can be assured of his life or anything he can call his own.’

The last few words stirred most and made them sit up and listen. They were prophetic words and many must have realised at this last minute that Charles was the only institution left of the old and lawful ones.

The dual of words continued with occasional interruptions as when a guard ran forward and spat in Charles’s face and when a woman shouted out in reply to the courts claim that they acted in the name of the people, that ‘It is a lie, Oliver Cromwell is a tyrant!’

Well into the hearing, Charles then asked for an audience with the full Parliament (Commons and Lords) and this was a reasonable request to make, for both houses were still part of the constitution.

It would mean, however, allowing men who had not been hand picked for the court to listen to Charles. A commissioner stood up to agree with Charles, only to be shouted down by Cromwell. The court adjourned to rebuke him and reassembled and refused Charles’s request.

They came back and made ready to pronounce the verdict. Charles asked again to speak to Parliament as he had a plan for peace. It was brushed over and the sentence read as guilty. He was told his refusal to plead was taken to mean he was guilty and was sentenced to be beheaded.

Charles’s proposal for peace would never be known.

Charles seemed shocked that proceedings had ended so quickly and he was manhandled out before he could speak, while soldiers were paid to blow smoke in his face and spectators paid to shout ‘Justice!’

The end was all too quick, even the commander of Parliament’s army, Lord Fairfax, begged Cromwell to leave the King alive. Cromwell stuck to his earlier philosophy that he would cut off the king’s head with the crown upon it.

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