Killing the King

King Charles I ascended to the throne in 1625, and in the following years tensions between the king and Parliament built until they reached breaking point.

Civil war erupted in England in 1642, and after a series of defeats and imprisonment from 1647, Charles was executed on a scaffold outside Whitehall Palace on 30 January 1649. The execution of the king was an unprecedented upheaval in life and the constitutional history of the three kingdoms – England, Scotland and Ireland.

Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector for much of the following decade, before the revolution eventually failed, and Charles’s son, King Charles II, took up the throne in the restoration of the monarchy in May 1660.

The causes of the English Civil War and the issues at stake were many: philosophies of government, constitutional law, and principles of self-determination, religion and intellectual freedom. These debates and their energies are felt in the writing of the time, which circulated in manuscript and poured from the printing presses in London and beyond.

Historians have described the English Civil War as ‘a war of words and images as well as a war of swords and muskets’. It generated publications across diverse genres and media: pamphlets, broadsides, defences and vindications, martyrologies, sermons, speeches and poems. This story showcases John Emmerson’s collection of these materials, and reveals the role of words, images and texts as actors in historical events.

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John Nalson and John Phelps, <em>A true copy of the journal of the High Court of Justice, for the tryal of K. Charles I… Jan. 4. 1683...</em>, London, printed by H[enry] C[larke] for Thomas Dring, at the Harrow at the corner of Chancery-Lane in Fleet-street, 1684, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 136/3)

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John Nalson and John Phelps, A true copy of the journal of the High Court of Justice, for the tryal of K. Charles I… Jan. 4. 1683..., London, printed by H[enry] C[larke] for Thomas Dring, at the Harrow at the corner of Chancery-Lane in Fleet-street, 1684, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 136/3)

King Charles I was brought to trial in front of the High Court of Justice on Saturday 20 January 1649.

From the outset of the trial, Charles refused to recognise the legitimacy of the court.

The court was presided over by John Bradshaw, who is said to have worn a bullet-proof hat during proceedings.

Of the 135 Commissioners nominated to sit in judgement, less than seventy were present – others stayed away, refusing to sit in judgement of a king.

(left–right) <em>The charge of the Commons of England, against Charls Stuart, King of England : of high treason, and other high crimes, exhibited to the High Court of Justice, by John Cook Esquire, Solicitor General, appointed by the said Court, for, and on the behalf of the people of England. As it was read to him by the clerk in the said court, as soon as Mr. Solicitor General for the Kingdom had impeached him, in the name of the Commons of England, at his first araignment, Saturday, Ian. 20. 1648. Examined by the original copy. Imprimatur, Gilbert Mabbot.</em> 1649, printed for Rapha Harford, at the Gilt Bible in Queens-Head-Alley in Pater-noster-Row : London; <em>A perfect narrative of the whole proceedings of the High court of iustice in the tryal of the King in Westminster Hall, on Saturday the 20, and Monday the 22 of this instant January ...-[27] of ... January : With the several speeches of the King, lord president, and solicitor general. Published by authority to prevent false and impertinent relations.</em> 1649, printed for John Playford, and are to be sold at his shop in the Inner temple : London; <em>A continuation of the Narrative being The last and final daues Proceedsings of the High Court of Justice Sitting in Westminster on Saturday, Jan. 27, Concerning the Tryal of the King…. Together with a copy of the Sentence of Death….</em> 1649, printed for John Playford, and are to be sold at his shop in the Inner temple : London; <em>King Charls his speech made upon the scaffold at Whitehall-Gate, immediately before his execution, on Tuesday the 30 of Ian. 1648. VVith a relation of the maner of his going to execution. Published by special authority.</em> 1649, printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil, near the Royal-Exchange : London, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 134/22).

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(left–right) The charge of the Commons of England, against Charls Stuart, King of England : of high treason, and other high crimes, exhibited to the High Court of Justice, by John Cook Esquire, Solicitor General, appointed by the said Court, for, and on the behalf of the people of England. As it was read to him by the clerk in the said court, as soon as Mr. Solicitor General for the Kingdom had impeached him, in the name of the Commons of England, at his first araignment, Saturday, Ian. 20. 1648. Examined by the original copy. Imprimatur, Gilbert Mabbot. 1649, printed for Rapha Harford, at the Gilt Bible in Queens-Head-Alley in Pater-noster-Row : London; A perfect narrative of the whole proceedings of the High court of iustice in the tryal of the King in Westminster Hall, on Saturday the 20, and Monday the 22 of this instant January ...-[27] of ... January : With the several speeches of the King, lord president, and solicitor general. Published by authority to prevent false and impertinent relations. 1649, printed for John Playford, and are to be sold at his shop in the Inner temple : London; A continuation of the Narrative being The last and final daues Proceedsings of the High Court of Justice Sitting in Westminster on Saturday, Jan. 27, Concerning the Tryal of the King…. Together with a copy of the Sentence of Death…. 1649, printed for John Playford, and are to be sold at his shop in the Inner temple : London; King Charls his speech made upon the scaffold at Whitehall-Gate, immediately before his execution, on Tuesday the 30 of Ian. 1648. VVith a relation of the maner of his going to execution. Published by special authority. 1649, printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil, near the Royal-Exchange : London, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 134/22).

Proceedings ran for a week, and news of the trial was published in cheap pamphlets that circulated throughout London.

These pamphlets included the charges against the king, the speeches delivered in court and the events of the trial.

At one point in the trial, the silver tip of Charles’s cane came off and rolled to the floor.

That as the Charge was reading against the King, the head of his staff fell off, which he wondered at, and seeing none to take it up, he stoops for it himself.

Contemporary commentators suggested that this incident marked a turning point in Charles’s fortunes. A king of England, after all, had never before been required to pick anything up – that’s what subjects were for.

At the end of the five-day trial, Charles was declared guilty, and on 27 January 1649, he was present in the courtroom when the sentence of death was read out:

This Court doth adjudge, that he the said Charles Stuart, as a Tyrant, Traitor, Murtherer and a publike Enemy, shall be put to death, by the severing of his Head from his Body.

The last pamphlet to document the trial and execution was King Charles I’s own speech delivered from the scaffold immediately before his execution on Tuesday 30 January.

I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown; where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the World.

<em>King Charls his speech made upon the scaffold at Whitehall-Gate, immediately before his execution, on Tuesday the 30 of Ian. 1648..</em>, London, printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil, near the Royal-Exchange, 1649, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 134/26)

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King Charls his speech made upon the scaffold at Whitehall-Gate, immediately before his execution, on Tuesday the 30 of Ian. 1648.., London, printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil, near the Royal-Exchange, 1649, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 134/26)

In one Emmerson volume, the pamphlets are collected and bound together to tell the complete narrative of the king’s trial, execution and death. The king’s speech from the scaffold is augmented here with an image, a ‘lively representation’ of the king going to his execution.

William Winstanley, <em>The loyall martyrology; or Brief catalogues and characters of the most eminent persons who suffered for their conscience during the late times of rebellion, either by death, imprisonment, banishment, or sequestration; together with those who were slain in the Kings service...</em>, London, printed by Thomas Mabb, for Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Brittain, 1665, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 2020/2)

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William Winstanley, The loyall martyrology; or Brief catalogues and characters of the most eminent persons who suffered for their conscience during the late times of rebellion, either by death, imprisonment, banishment, or sequestration; together with those who were slain in the Kings service..., London, printed by Thomas Mabb, for Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Brittain, 1665, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 2020/2)

The illustration was not originally in King Charls his speech made upon the scaffold. It has been cut and pasted by a later reader from a Royalist book published in 1665.

The Loyall Martyrology described the characters and actions of the most eminent Royalist heroes…

Charles the I. of Blessed Memory, the most Glorious Martyr of this late Age, the exact pattern of Piety, Patience and Prudence, who in the manner of his Sufferings, came the nearest to our Saviour of any we have read or heard of…

John Milton, <em>Eikonoklastes: in answer to a book intitl'd Eikon Basilike, the portrature of his Sacred Majesty in his solitudes and suffering</em>, London, printed by Matthew Simmons, next dore to the Gilded Lion in Aldersgate street, 1649, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 123/9)

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John Milton, Eikonoklastes: in answer to a book intitl'd Eikon Basilike, the portrature of his Sacred Majesty in his solitudes and suffering, London, printed by Matthew Simmons, next dore to the Gilded Lion in Aldersgate street, 1649, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 123/9)

Republicans also had much to say about the dramatic events of the Civil War.

The republican writer and poet John Milton was commissioned to write a response to Eikon Basilike, and he published Eikonoklastes (‘the icon breaker’) in October 1649.

Portrait of the bust of a young man against a dark background. He has mid-lenght, chestnut-coloured hair and is wearing a large, white, frilly collar and black top. — Anonymous artist, John Milton, c. 1629, National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 4222)

The bare presentation of the book, without elaborate images, reflects the puritan aesthetic of republican culture.

<em>The Remains of the real embalmed head of the powerful and renowned usurper Oliver Cromwell, styled protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c. is now exhibiting at no. 5 Mead Court, Old Bond Street... </em>, London, 1799, in an extra-illustrated copy of <em>Cromwelliana: a chronological detail of events in which Oliver Cromwell was engaged …</em>, London, 1810, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 2016/15)

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The Remains of the real embalmed head of the powerful and renowned usurper Oliver Cromwell, styled protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c. is now exhibiting at no. 5 Mead Court, Old Bond Street... , London, 1799, in an extra-illustrated copy of Cromwelliana: a chronological detail of events in which Oliver Cromwell was engaged …, London, 1810, State Library Victoria, Melbourne (RAREEMM 2016/15)

Images of the Civil War, and the remains of those who fought in them, attracted public interest for decades to come.

This broadside advertises admission to view the embalmed remains of Oliver Cromwell’s head, at Mead Court, Old Bond Street, in February 1799.

It has been inserted into a copy of Cromwelliana: a chronological detail of events in which Oliver Cromwell was engaged …, 1810.

In 1654, John Milton praised Oliver Cromwell in his In Defense of the English People. At the time of writing, Milton was part of Cromwell’s civil service as ‘Secretary of Foreign Tongues’. In this position he drafted foreign correspondences in Latin.

Connections

1625

When Charles I ascended the throne in March 1625, an outbreak of the plague was ripping through England. While it is believed that the disease had arrived from Holland earlier that year, it went undetected until March. The English poet George Wither wrote:

Infection unperceiv’d, in many a place
Before the bleare-ey’d Searchers, knew her face.

Find out more about Wither, the plague and other seventeenth-century crises.>

John Milton and the pamphleteer

While best-known as the author of Paradise Lost, John Milton was also an active pamphleteer and forged a friendship with the controversial figure Marchamont Nedham. Nedham oversaw the weekly newsbook Mercurius Britanicus, which supported the parliamentary cause.

Learn more about Nedham and seventeenth-century propaganda.>

A legacy of beheading

Charles I was not the first English royal to be tried and executed. In 1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, was tried and beheaded on orders of her first cousin once removed, Elizabeth I of England.

Learn more about Mary and Elizabeth and the books that commemorate their lives.>

Cromwell’s Royalist relatives

Oliver Cromwell’s uncle and namesake, Sir Oliver Cromwell, was a landowner, lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons. He entertained Charles I’s father, King James, and was attorney to his mother, Anne of Denmark. Both Cromwells were distantly related to Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to King Henry VIII.

Learn more about the descendants of Henry VIII and their troublesome family dynamics.>

John Bradshaw – prosecutor and defender

George Wither, an English poet and pamphleteer, was a committee member for the disposal of royal regalia and had lawsuits to hold on to royal property. His lawyer was John Bradshaw. Wither dedicated a poem to Bradshaw commemorating Charles’s execution.

Find out more about Wither and his poetry.>

Index

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