CHARLES I
The Trial of Charles I (1649)
A king is put on trial and charged with treason against his own nation. Shockwaves eminate from the challenge to the institution of the monarchy, the pervading form of government for centuries.
Introduction
Background
Further Reading
Charles I
- http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-5143?rskey=9ndZoN&result=3
- Kelsey, Sean. “The Death of Charles I.” The Historical Journal 45, no. 4 (2002): 727-54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3133526
- Kelsey, Sean. “The Trial of Charles I.” The English Historical Review 118, no. 477 (2003): 583-616. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3489287
- HOLMES, CLIVE. “THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF CHARLES I.” The Historical Journal 53, no. 2 (2010): 289-316. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40865689
The “Rump” Parliament
- http://bcw-project.org/church-and-state/the-commonwealth/rump-parliament
- Worden, Blair. The Rump Parliament, 1648-1653. Cambridge England: University Press, 1974.
The English Civil Wars
- Cust, Richard, and Ann Hughes. The English Civil War. Arnold Readers in History. London: Arnold, 1997.
- Ashley, Maurice. The English Civil War. Rev. and Reillustrated ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
- Ashton, Robert, and Raymond Howard Parry. The English Civil War and After, 1642-1658. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970.
- Hibbert, Christopher. Cavaliers & Roundheads: The English Civil War, 1642-1649. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1993.
Citations
Extract from a report of the trial of Charles I, January 1649
(Catalogue ref: SP 16/517)
Then the Clerk reads.
Clerk
Charles Stuart King of England, you are accused, on the behalf of the people of England, of divers high crimes and treasons, which charge hath been read unto you. The Court now requires you to give your final and positive answer by way of confession or denial of the charge.
King
Sir, I say again, that so I might give satisfaction to the people of England of the clearness of my proceedings, not by way of answer, not in this way but to satisfy them that I have done nothing against the trust that hath been committed to me, I will do it; but to acknowledge a new Court against their privileges to alter all the fundamental laws of the Kingdom in their behalf, Sir, you must excuse me.
Lord President Bradshaw
This is the third time that you have publicly disowned this Court and put an affront upon it. How far you have preserved the fundamental laws and the freedom of the subject your actions have spoken it, for truly, Sir, men’s intentions are used to be shown by their actions; you have written your meaning in bloody characters throughout the whole kingdom. But, Sir, the Court understands your meaning. Clerk record the default, and gentlemen you that brought the prisoner, take him back again.
King
I have one word to you; if it were only my particular indeed I would not.
Lord President
Sir you have heard the pleasure of the Court, and you are, though you will not understand it, to find that you are before a court of justice.
King
Well, Sir, I find I am before a power and went away. These words he spake with a low voice as he was going away.
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