KING WITHOUT A CROWN

Posted on April 2, 2010 by Dave

Kings had been killed before, had been murdered openly and in secret; but Charles I was the first ruling sovereign to be brought to trial by his own people, condemned, and executed while still being King. The trial of Charles I is perhaps the most dramatic event in British history, and a great deal is known about it from eye and ear witnesses. Defeated in a civil war, the King was brought to trial by an armed minority of his subjects, arraigned as a  ”tyrant, traitor and murderer,” sentenced to death, and beheaded in January, 1649.

The King Seated at His trial. Edward Bower. The last konwn painting of Charles I. This painting may be a copy. In the original the left hand of the subject was tucked into his vest and the paper in his right hand was pointed downward among other details.

The King Seated at His trial. Edward Bower. The last konwn painting of Charles I. This painting may be a copy. In the original the left hand of the subject was tucked into his vest and the paper in his right hand was pointed downward among other details.

The Regicides, of whom Oliver Cromwell is the most famous, tried the King with maximum publicity in Westminster Hall because they gloried in their deed. The elements of showmanship and its effect on the reporting of the trail are the crucial considerations in the trial.Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Newspapers were in their infancy, but they existed, and the party in power had already established a censorship. Nine newspapers carried reports of the trial, some of them verbatim.

“I do stand more for the liberty of my people, than any here that come to be my pretended judges … I do not come here as submitting to the Court. I will stand as much for the privilege of the House of Commons, rightly understood, as any man here whatsoever: I see no House of Lords here, that may constitute a Parliament … Let me see a legal authority warranted by the Word of God, the Scriptures, or warranted by the constitutions of the Kingdom, and I will answer. ( Charles I, Trial )

King's trial. Illustration John Nalson, published after the Restoration. Commenting that His Majesty wore his hat during the trial, Nalso says, ''they who thought it not manners to take off his hat, yet thought it no sin to take off His Sacred Head''.

King's trial. Illustration John Nalson, published after the Restoration. Commenting that His Majesty wore his hat during the trial, Nalso says, ''they who thought it not manners to take off his hat, yet thought it no sin to take off His Sacred Head''.

After the King’s death, the fullest press account was reissued to meet public demand. But before the end of the year, further printing of this or any account in England was forbidden. The reason may be that the republican government had miscalculated the effect. Convinced that they were right in what they did, they forgot how easily public sympathy is aroused by the sight of a man courageously facing the worst. And Charles was apparently no fool either. He had said many things during his trial which impugned the legal position of the new government. Publication of the text of the trial was thus, belatedly, seen to be dangerous.


“It is not a slight thing you are about. I am sworn to keep the peace, by that duty I owe to God and my country; and I will do it to the last breath of my body. And therefore ye shall do well to satisfy, first, God, and then the country, by what authority you do it. If you do it by an usurped authority, you cannot answer it; there is a God in Heaven, that will call you, and all that give you power, to account. ( Charles I, Trial 1649 )

Trial of King Charles I Engraved by John Burnet after a picture by John Burnet.

Trial of King Charles I Engraved by John Burnet after a picture by John Burnet.

The King’s words, as reported, are an effective statement of his case, and so sharp an attack upon his accusers, to nullify the claims of censorship on the court transcriptions. Those in charge of the proceedings were too proud to garble his words. They believed him to be a wicked man who would condemn himself out of his own mouth, and did not realize that he made a quite different effect.

“If it were only my own particular case, I would have satisfied myself with the protestation I made the last time I was here, against the legality of the Court, and that a King cannot be tried by any superior jurisdiction on earth: but 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 stand more for their liberties. For if power without law, may make laws, may alter the fundamental laws of the Kingdom, I do not know what subject he is in England that can be sure of his life, or any thing that he calls his own. ( Charles I, Trial 1649 )


7&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtrial%2Bof%2Bcharles%2BI%26start%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26tbo%3D1%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1">Alexandre-Marie Colin. Charles I awaiting trial

Alexandre-Marie Colin. Charles I awaiting trial

But there was a censorship of a different kind in the licensed reports, designed to conceal the disunity in their own ranks. A hysterical plea for adjournment from one of the judges is not reported and when Lady Fairfax, wife of Cromwell’s own Commander in Chief, called out ”Oliver Cromwell is a traitor,” no journalist mentioned it. These incidents are known, because eleven years later, the surviving members of the court were tried for treason after the Restoration of Charles II. Witnesses then came forward with all manner of details, some credible, some incredible and some not.

Thus, there were two kinds of evidence about the trial of King Charles; immediate contemporary reports and the events as remembered eleven years later; a fascinating problem of evidence, for if neither kind of evidence is absolutely reliable in every point, both contain much that is vivid and has the stamp of truth.

The faith of Cromwell and the Regicides in their cause was reflected in the decision to hold the trial in public; their underlying fears found expression in the arrangement by which the proceedings were sited at the west end of Westminster Hall so that the greater part of the audience would see little and hear less. One hundred and thirty-five men had been named to serve as Commissioners of this special court, but since not all had ben asked whether they wished to serve, a wide margin had been allowed for absentees, and the quorum had been fixed at twenty. There were never fewer than fifty-four, nor more than seventy-one.

The King was dressed in black, wearing round his neck the blue ribbon and jeweled George, and on his black coat the great irradiating silver star of the Garter. He walked quickly without looking left or right and sat down in a red velvet chair that had been set for him. He now had his back to the people gathered in the Hall. All that any of them could see was his tall black hat, and his gray hair falling onto his shoulders. Only those in the gallery had any view of his face. He was impassive, showing no flicker of recognition or curiosity.

Charles remained silent, and John Cook, one of the prosecutors, unravelled a heavy scroll of parchment and launched into the charge with evident enjoyment. It was the first time that the King knew precisely what the accusations against him were, beyond the general drift of high treason and high misdemeanors. He must have listened attentively, though he acted a contemptuous indifference.

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