Royal Moments in History - January 30

1649 - Execution of Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland

A German depiction of the execution.

     Four days earlier, the High Court of Justice in England had declared Charles I guilty of treason and sentenced him to death, and the King was informed of his fate at a public session the following day. His death warrant, signed and sealed by 59 of the tribunal commissioners, listed him as Charles Steuart, King of England, and it required that he be beheaded in the "open street before Whitehall [Palace]" on the 30th of January.

     On the day in question, Charles walked under guard from St. James's Palace to the Palace of Whitehall. His only children still living in the country, Elizabeth and Henry, had visited him the day before, and his last meal on the morning of the execution consisted of a glass of claret (red Bordeaux wine) and some bread. It was a bitterly cold day, and Charles wore two shirts to prevent him from shivering, lest it taken be as a sign of fear.

     Upon arriving at Whitehall, he was led to a specially constructed balcony outside of the Banqueting House, the building that been erected by his father, James VI & I. There, he gave his final speech before the crowds on the street below, but since a rank of soldiers kept a distance between the King and the spectators, this farewell address was only heard by those on the platform. "I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be," said the King. He defended his actions - stating that by attempting to protect his own rights and liberties, he was also protecting the rights and liberties of his people, and this fitted well with Charles's belief in the divine right of kings, under which he was appointed by God and answered only to God (on behalf of his people) and to no other authority, not even Parliament.

     Charles then removed the Garter Jewel of St. George from his neck, and handed to his chaplain, Bishop William Juxon, with the instruction that it be handed to his son Charles Stuart, Prince of Wales (the future Charles II), and with the one word: "Remember."

     At around 2:00 PM, the King said a small prayer, placed his head on the block, and signaled that he was ready. Charles was executed with a single clean stroke, and his head was raised before the crowd by the executioner, whose identity has never been positively identified because his face was masked.

     The head was sewn back onto the body, which was embalmed and placed in a lead coffin, which was then hastily deposited into the vault containing the coffins of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour under the choir at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on February 9th.

     Charles I remains to this day, the only British monarch to be tried, convicted, and executed by his people.

1661 - Execution of Oliver Cromwell

The scene of the execution of Cromwell and other regicides.

     Cromwell was a leading general of the New Model Army that had defeated Charles I in the 1640's, and he was the third man to sign the King's death warrant in 1649. He later went on to become Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland - the republic that had been set up after the execution of Charles I, and which Cromwell ruled as a dictator, with all of the trappings of kingship except the title. Upon his death in 1658, the Commonwealth failed and the monarchy was eventually restored under Charles II in 1660.

     12 years to the day after the execution of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell's body - which had been exhumed from its burial place in Westminster Abbey - was posthumously hanged and beheaded at Tyburn in London. His head was placed on a pike at Westminster Hall (the site of the Charles I's trial) until 1685, and is now buried on the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. The body was supposed to have been thrown into a pit at Tyburn, but conspiracy theories still abound as to its true location.