by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2020

On January 30, 1649, Charles I, King of England was beheaded for treason and other high crimes at the Palace of Whitehall in London, England where a scaffold had been built outside the Banqueting House.

Charles I, King of England

Born at Dunfermline Palace in Fife, Scotland on November 19, 1600, Charles I, King of England was the second son and fourth of the seven children of James VI, King of Scots (later also King James I of England) and Anne of Denmark. At the time of Charles’ birth, his six-year-old elder brother Henry Frederick was the heir apparent to the throne of Scotland. On March 24, 1603, Queen Elizabeth I of England died and Charles’ father became King James I of England. Since none of the children of King Henry VIII of England had children, James was the senior heir of King Henry VII of England through his eldest daughter Margaret Tudor who had married James IV, King of Scots.

Charles overcame early physical problems, although he grew no taller than five feet four inches, and learned to ride, shoot, and fence. However, he was no physical match for his stronger and taller elder brother Henry, whom he adored. When 18-year-old Henry died in 1612 from typhoid, it was a loss that Charles felt greatly. Charles had automatically become Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay upon his brother’s death and was created Prince of Wales in 1616.

On March 27, 1625, King James I died and Charles succeeded him as King of England and King of Scots. Charles married Henrietta Maria of France, daughter of Henri IV, King of France, several months later. Charles’ coronation was held on February 2, 1626, at Westminster Abbey, but the Roman Catholic Henrietta Maria was not crowned because she refused to participate in a Church of England ceremony. Charles and Henrietta Maria had nine children including King Charles II, King James II, and Mary, the first Princess Royal, who married Willem II, Prince of Orange and had one child: Willem III, Prince of Orange, later King William III of England.

The Road to the English Civil War and Charles I’s Downfall

Charles had the same issues with Parliament as his father had, clashing with its members over financial, political, and religious issues. In the early years of Charles’ reign, Parliament was summoned and dissolved three times. Finally, in 1629, Charles, who believed in the divine right of kings, decided to govern without Parliament, beginning eleven years of personal rule. During his personal rule, William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury and Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford were Charles’ most influential advisers. Parliament was finally summoned again in 1640 and demanded the execution of Stafford. Charles signed the death warrant, but never forgave himself. After this incident, the reconciliation of the King and Parliament became impossible.

On January 4, 1642, a point of no return was reached. On that day, Charles committed the unprecedented act of entering the House of Commons with an armed guard and demanding the arrest of five Members of Parliament. There was a great public outcry, Charles fled London and civil war appeared inevitable. Since that day no British monarch has entered the House of Commons when it is sitting and a tradition recalling this is enacted at every State Opening of Parliament. When the monarch arrives in the House of Lords to read the speech from the throne, the Lord Great Chamberlain raises the wand of office to signal to the Gentleman/Lady Usher of the Black Rod (known as Black Rod), whose duty is to summon the House of Commons. On Black Rod’s approach, the doors to the House of Commons are slammed shut in Black Rod’s face, symbolizing the rights of the House of Commons and its independence from the monarch. Black Rod then strikes with the end of the ceremonial staff (the Black Rod) three times on the closed doors of the House of Commons and is then admitted. This is a show of the refusal by the House of Commons never again to be entered by force by the monarch or one of the monarch’s representatives when the House of Commons is sitting.

English Civil War

On August 22, 1642, at Nottingham, Charles raised the Royal Standard and called for his loyal subjects to support him, and the Civil War between the Royalists or Cavaliers (Charles’ supporters) and the Roundheads (Parliament’s supporters) had begun. The Battle of Edgehill, the first real battle, was fought on October 26, 1642, and proved indecisive. The Cavaliers were defeated at the Battle of Marston Moor on July 2, 1644, and at the Battle of Naseby on June 14, 1645. The balance was now permanently tipped to the parliamentary side. In April of 1646, Charles left Oxford, which had served as his capital city during the conflict, and surrendered to the Scottish Army expecting to be safe and well-treated. However, the Scots delivered Charles to Parliament in 1647. Except for one brief period in 1647, when he escaped, Charles was confined in several castles and great homes for the rest of his life.

The Trial

On January 20, 1649, Charles’ trial at Westminster Hall in London, England, began. He was accused of treason against England by using his power to pursue his personal interest rather than the good of England. A High Court of Justice was appointed to try Charles for high treason in the name of the people of England. There were 135 commissioners appointed but only 68 would sit in judgment.

As the trial opened, Solicitor General John Cook, standing immediately to Charles’ right, rose to read the indictment. Cook had just uttered only a few words when Charles tried to stop him by tapping him on the shoulder with his cane and ordering him to “Hold.” Cook ignored Charles and so he poked him again but Cook still continued. Angry at being ignored, Charles then hit Cook so forcefully across the shoulders that the silver tip of his cane broke off and fell to the floor between Cook and Charles. Charles waited for someone to pick up the silver tip. When no one did so, Charles had to bend down and pick it up himself. Perhaps Charles realized that this incident was a foreshadowing of things to come.

Charles refused to enter a plea saying that no court had jurisdiction over a monarch. He insisted that the trial was illegal and his authority to rule came from the divine rights of kings given by God. The court challenged Charles, saying “the King of England was not a person, but an office whose every occupant was entrusted with a limited power to govern by and according to the laws of the land and not otherwise.”

On Saturday, January 27, 1649, Charles was declared guilty and sentenced to death. His sentence read: “That the court being satisfied that he, Charles Stuart, was guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused, did judge him tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of the nation, to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body.” To show their agreement with the sentence, all of the commissioners who were present rose to their feet.

The Execution

On January 29, 1649, the day before his execution, Charles burned his personal papers. He was allowed to see the two of his children who were still in England, 13-year-old Elizabeth and 8-year-old Henry. He told Elizabeth to be faithful to the “true Protestant religion” and to tell her mother that “his thoughts had never strayed from her.” He warned Henry to “not be made a king” by the Parliamentarians because he suspected they would make the boy a puppet king. Charles divided his jewels among the two children, keeping only his George, an enameled figure of St. George, worn as a part of the ceremonial dress of the Order of the Garter. Charles spent a restless last night, only going to sleep at 2:00 AM.

Charles awoke early on January 30, 1649, the day of his execution, and dressed all black and wore a blue sash. He requested one extra shirt from Thomas Herbert, his Gentleman of the Bedchamber so that the crowd gathered would not see him shiver from the cold and mistake it for fear. Charles walked the short distance from St. James’ Palace to the Palace of Whitehall where a scaffold had been built outside the Banqueting House.

From the first floor of the Banqueting House, Charles stepped onto the scaffold from a window. Before his execution, Charles delivered a speech that can be read at this link: Execution Speech of Charles I.

In the speech, Charles declared his innocence and said he was a “martyr of the people”. The crowd could not hear the speech because of the many parliamentarian guards blocking the scaffold but Charles’ supporter on the scaffold, William Juxon, then Bishop of London, later Archbishop of Canterbury, recorded the speech in shorthand.

Charles then had a conversation with the executioner which was recorded by an eyewitness:

Charles: Is my hair well? (Charles had let his beard and hair grow long because Parliament had dismissed his barber and he refused to let anyone else near him with a razor. The executioner put some of Charles’ hair under his cap.)

Then Charles took off his cloak and his George, the enameled figure of St. George, which he gave to Bishop Juxon, saying: “Remember.”

Charles took off his doublet and put his cloak on again. Then looking upon the block, Charles said to the executioner: “You must set it fast.”

Executioner: It is fast, sir.

Charles: It might have been a little higher. (About the block)

Executioner: It can be no higher, sir.

Charles: When I put out my hands this way, then.

Charles then said a few words to himself with his hands lifted up and his eyes looking upward. He then immediately stooped down and laid his neck on the block. The executioner again put some of Charles’ hair under his cap.

Charles: Stay for the sign.

Executioner: Yes, I will, and it please Your Majesty.

After a short pause, Charles stretched out his hands, and the executioner, with one blow, severed his head from his body.

The Aftermath

Following the reattachment of the head and the embalming of the body, Charles I’s remains were placed in a simple wooden coffin which was then placed in a leaden coffin.  The coffin was taken to St. James’ Palace in London while Parliament decided where to inter Charles’ remains. No state funeral or public mourning would be allowed and Charles would not be permitted to be buried at Westminster Abbey.  Instead, Charles would be buried at the more private St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle to avoid Charles’ burial site from becoming a place of pilgrimage. A week after the execution Charles’ coffin was transported to Windsor Castle in Windsor, England.

On February 9, 1649, in a snowstorm, the body of Charles I was taken from Windsor Castle to St. George’s Chapel. The coffin was carried by James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond (Charles’s 3rd cousin), William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset (grandson of Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford and Lady Katherine Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey), Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton and Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey. However, Bishop Juxon was barred by a Parliamentary officer from entering St. George’s Chapel as seen in the picture above. Charles I’s coffin was lowered into the vault in the choir aisle where King Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour were buried.

England was a republic (Commonwealth of England) for eleven years until the monarchy was restored and Charles I’s eldest son Charles II became king in 1660.

Charles I’s eldest son Charles, Prince of Wales (the future King Charles II) and his second son James, Duke of York (the future King James II) spent their exile in France, where their mother Henrietta Maria also lived in exile with their sister Henriette, and where their first cousin King Louis XIV was on the throne. Henriette married her first cousin Philippe, Duke of Orléans, King Louis XIV’s younger brother. Charles and James also lived some of the time with their sister Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange in the Dutch Republic, now the Netherlands.

Charles I’s two children Elizabeth and Henry, whom he was able to see before his execution, both died young. Elizabeth was never reunited with her family after her father’s execution. She died in 1650, a year after her father’s execution, at the age of 14, from pneumonia at Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight, England. In 1660, soon after his eldest brother Charles II was restored to the throne, Henry died at age 20 from smallpox.

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Works Cited

• Ashley, M. and Lock, J. (1998). The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.
• Dodson, A. (2004). The Royal Tombs of Great Britain. London, p.Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd.
• Emersonkent.com. (2020). Execution Speech – Charles I 1649. [online] Available at: http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/execution_speech_charles_i.htm [Accessed 4 Jan. 2020].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Charles I of England. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England [Accessed 4 Jan. 2020].
• Flantzer, Susan. (2016). King Charles I of England. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-charles-i-of-england/ [Accessed 4 Jan. 2020].
• Fraser, Antonia. (2007). King Charles II. London: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd).
• Williamson, D. (1996). Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.