The Trial of Charles I
>> note 1
Saturday, 20 January 1649.
The court being thus seated and silence
made, the great gate of the said hall was
set open to the end that all persons (without
exception) desirous to see or hear might
come into it, upon which the hall was presently
filled and silence again ordered.
This done, Colonel Thomlinson, who had
the charge of the Prisoner, was commanded
to bring him to the court, who within a
quarter of an hour's space brought
him, attended with about twenty officers
with partizans
>> note 2 marching
before him, there being other gentlemen to whose care and custody he was
likewise committed marching in his rear.
Being thus brought up within the face
of the court, the Sergeant at Arms with
his Mace receives and conducts him straight
to the Bar, having a crimson velvet chair
set before him. After a stern looking upon
the court and the people in the galleries
on each side of him, he places himself,
not at all moving his hat or otherwise
showing the least respect to the court,
but presently rises up again and turns
about, looking downwards upon the guards
placed on the left side and on the multitude
of spectators on the right side of the
said Great Hall.
After silence made among the people, the
act of Parliament for the trying of Charles
Stuart, King of England, was read over
by the Clerk of the Court, who sat on one
side of a table covered with a rich Turkey
carpet and placed at the feet of the said
Lord President, upon which table was also
laid the Sword and Mace. After reading
the said act, the several names of the
commissioners were called over, every one
who was present rising up and answering
his call.
[The Prisoner] having again placed himself
in his chair with his face towards the
court, silence being again ordered, the
Lord President stood up and said: "Charles
Stuart, King of England, the Commons of
England being deeply sensible
>> note 3 of
the calamities that have been brought upon this nation (which is fixed upon
you as the principal author of it) have resolved to make inquisition for
blood, and according to that debt and duty they owe to justice, to God, the
kingdom, and themselves, and according to the fundamental power that rests
in themselves, they have resolved to bring you to trial and judgment, and
for that purpose have constituted this High Court of Justice before which
you are brought."
This said, Mr. Cook, Attorney for the
Commonwealth, standing within the Bar on
the right hand of the Prisoner, offered
to speak, but the King, having a staff
in his hand, held it up and laid it upon
the said Mr. Cook's shoulder two or
three times, bidding him hold. Nevertheless,
the Lord President ordering him to go on,
Mr. Cook said: "My Lord, I am commanded
to charge Charles Stuart, King of England,
in the name of the Commons of England,
with treason and high misdemeanors. I desire
the said charge may be read."
The said charge being delivered to the
Clerk of the Court, the Lord President
ordered it should be read, but the King
bid him hold. Nevertheless, being commanded
by the Lord President to read it, the Clerk
began:
The Charge of the Commons of England
against Charles Stuart, King of England,
of High Treason and other high crimes,
exhibited to the High Court of Justice.
That [he] the said Charles Stuart,
being admitted King of England and therein
trusted with a limited power to govern
by and according to the laws of the land
and not otherwise, and by his trust,
oath, and office being obliged to use
the power committed to him for the good
and benefit of the people and for the
preservation of their rights and liberties,
yet nevertheless out of a wicked design
to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited
and tyrannical power to rule according
to his will, and to overthrow the rights
and liberties of the people, yea to take
away and make void the foundations thereof
and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment,
which by the fundamental constitutions
of this kingdom were reserved on the
people's behalf in the right and
power of frequent and successive Parliaments
or National Meetings in Council, he (the
said Charles Stuart) for accomplishment
of such his designs and for the protecting
of himself and his adherents in his and
their wicked practices to the same ends,
hath traitorously and maliciously levied
war against the present Parliament and
the people therein represented. * * *
The charge being read, the Lord President
replied: "Sir, you have now heard
your charge read, containing such matter
as appears in it. You find that in the
close of it, it is prayed to the court
in the behalf of the Commons of England
that you answer to your charge. The court
expects your answer."
The King: I would know by what
power I am called hither. * * * And when
I know what lawful authority, I shall answer.
Remember, I am your King — your lawful
King — and what sins you bring upon
your heads and the judgment of God upon
this land, think well upon it — I
say think well upon it — before you
go further from one sin to a greater. Therefore
let me know by what lawful authority I
am seated here and I shall not be unwilling
to answer. In the meantime, I shall not
betray my trust. I have a trust committed
to me by God, by old and lawful descent.
>> note 4 I
will not betray it to answer to a new unlawful authority. Therefore, resolve
me that, and you shall hear more of me.
Lord President: If you had been
pleased to have observed what was hinted
to you by the court at your first coming
hither, you would have known by what authority.
Which authority requires you — in
the name of the people of England, of which
you are the elected King — to answer
them.
The King: No, sir, I deny that.
Lord President: If you acknowledge
not the authority of the court, they must
proceed.
The King: I do tell them so — England
was never an elective kingdom but an hereditary
kingdom for near these thousand years.
Therefore, let me know by what authority
I am called hither. I do stand more for
the liberty of my people than any here
that come to be my pretended judges. And
therefore let me know by what lawful authority
I am seated here, and I will answer it.
Otherwise, I will not answer it.
Lord President: Sir, how really
you have managed your trust is known. Your
way of answer is to interrogate the court,
which beseems not you in this condition.
You have been told of it twice or thrice.
Monday, 22 January 1649.
Lord President: Sir, you may remember,
at the last court you were told the occasion
of your being brought hither and you heard
a charge against you containing a charge
of High Treason and other high crimes against
this realm of England. You heard likewise
that it was prayed in behalf of the people
that you should give an answer to that
charge, that thereupon such proceedings
might be had as should be agreeable to
justice. You were then pleased to make
some scruples concerning the authority
of the court, and knew not by what authority
you were brought hither. You did divers
times propound your question and were as
often answered that it was by the authority
of the Commons of England assembled in
Parliament that did think fit to call you
to account for those high and capital misdemeanors
wherewith you were then charged. Since
that, the court hath taken into consideration
what you then said. They are fully satisfied
with their own authority and they hold
it fit you should stand satisfied with
it too, and they do require it that you
do give a positive and particular answer
to this charge that is exhibited against
you. Their authority they do avow to the
whole world that the whole kingdom are
to rest satisfied with it. And thereunto
you are to lose no more time, but give
a positive answer thereunto.
The King: When I was here last, 'tis
very true I made that question. And truly,
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 this 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 the 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 anything
that he calls his own. Therefore, when
that I came here I did expect particular
reasons to know by what law, what authority,
you did proceed against me here. * * *
Lord President: Sir, you have offered
something to the court. I shall speak something
unto you — the sense of the court.
Sir, neither you nor any man are permitted
to dispute that point. You are concluded.
You may not demur [to] the jurisdiction
of the court — if you do, I must
let you know that they overrule your demurrer.
>> note 5 They
sit here by the authority of the Commons of England, and all your predecessors
and you are responsible to them —
The King: I deny that. Show me
one precedent.
Lord President: Sir, you ought
not to interrupt while the court is speaking
to you. This point is not to be debated
by you, neither will the court permit you
to do it. If you offer it by way of demurrer
to the jurisdiction of the court, they
have considered of their jurisdiction.
They do affirm their own jurisdiction.
Tuesday, 23 January 1649.
* * * This court took into consideration
the managing of the business of the court
this day in the hall and the King's
refusal to answer (notwithstanding he had
been three several times demanded and required
thereunto) and have thereupon fully approved
of what on the court's part had then
passed, and resolved that notwithstanding
the said contumacy of the King and refusal
to plead (which in law amounts to a standing
mute and tacit confession of the charge)
and notwithstanding the notoriety of the
fact charged, the court would nevertheless,
however, examine witnesses for the further
and clearer satisfaction of their own judgments
and consciences, the manner of whose examination
was referred to further consideration [at]
the next sitting, and warrants were accordingly
issued forth for summoning of witnesses.
Saturday, 27 January 1649.
* * * The Prisoner is brought to the Bar,
and proclamation is again (as formerly)
made for silence, and the Captain of the
Guard ordered to take into his custody
all such as should disturb the court. * * *
Some discourse [was] used by the President
for vindicating the Parliament's justice,
explaining the nature of the crimes of
which the Prisoner stood charged, and for
which he was to be condemned, and by way
of exhortation of the Prisoner for serious
repentance of his high transgressions against
God and the people and to prepare for his
eternal condition.
Lord President: The court then,
sir, hath something else to say unto you,
which, although I know it will be very
unacceptable, yet notwithstanding they
are willing and are resolved to discharge
their duty. * * *
Sir, the difference has been: who shall
be the expositors of this law, sir? Whether
you and your party, out of courts of justice,
shall take upon them to expound the law,
or the courts of justice who are the expounders — nay,
the sovereign and highest court of justice,
the Parliament of England, that is not
only the highest expounder but the sole
maker of the law. Sir, for you to set yourself
with your single judgment, and those that
adhere unto you to set themselves against
the resolution of the highest court of
justice — that is not law. Sir, as
the law is your superior, so truly, sir,
there is something that is superior to
the law and that is indeed the parent or
author of the law — and that is the
people of England. For, sir, as they are
those that at the first (as other countries
have done) did choose to themselves this
form of government, even for justice's
sake, that justice might be administered,
that peace might be preserved, so, sir,
they gave laws to their governors, according
to which they should govern. And if those
laws should have proved inconvenient or
prejudicial to the public, they had a power
in them, a power reserved and innate to
alter them as they should see cause. * * *
Sir, the term traitor cannot be spared.
We shall easily agree it must denote and
suppose a breach of trust, and it must
suppose it to be done by a superior. And
therefore, sir, as the people of England
might have incurred that respecting you,
if they had been truly guilty of it as
to the definition of law, so on the other
side when you did break your trust to the
kingdom, you did break your trust to your
superior. For the kingdom is that for which
you were trusted. And therefore, sir, for
this breach of trust when you are called
to account, you are called to account by
your superiors — "when a king
is summoned to judgment by the people,
the lesser is summoned by the greater." And,
sir, the people of England cannot be so
far wanting to themselves, God having dealt
so miraculously and gloriously for them,
they having power in their hands and their
great enemy, they must proceed to do justice
to themselves and to you. For, sir, the
court could heartily desire that you would
lay your hand upon your heart and consider
what you have done amiss, that you would
endeavor to make your peace with God.
Truly, sir, these are your high crimes — tyranny
and treason. And there is a third thing
too, if those had not been, and that is
murder, which is laid to your charge. All
the bloody murders that have been committed
since the time that the division was betwixt
you and your people must be laid to your
charge that have been acted or committed
in these late wars. * * * Sir, all I shall
say before the reading of your sentence
it is but this — the court does heartily
desire that you will seriously think of
those evils that you stand guilty of. Sir,
you said well to us the other day, you
wished us to have God before our eyes.
Truly, sir, I hope all of us have so. That
God that we know is a King of Kings and
Lord of Lords, that God with whom there
is no respect of persons, that God that
is the avenger of innocent blood — we
have that God before us, that God that
does bestow a curse upon them that withhold
their hands from shedding of blood, which
is in the case of guilty malefactors and
those that do deserve death.
The sentence formerly agreed upon and
put down in parchment writing (oyez
>> note 6 being
first made for silence) was by the court's
command solemnly pronounced and given,
the tenor whereof followeth:
Now, therefore, upon serious and mature
deliberation of the premises and consideration
had of the notoriety of the matters of
fact charged upon him as aforesaid, this
court is in judgment and conscience satisfied
that he (the said Charles Stuart) is
guilty of levying war against the said
Parliament and people, and [of] maintaining
and continuing the same, for which in
the said charge he stands accused. And
by the general course of his government,
counsels, and practices, before and since
this Parliament began (which have been
and are notorious and public, and the
effects whereof remain abundantly upon
record), this court is fully satisfied
in their judgments and consciences that
he hath been and is guilty of the wicked
designs and endeavors in the said charge
set forth; and that the said war hath
been levied, maintained, and continued
by him as aforesaid, in the prosecution
and for the accomplishment of the said
designs; and that he hath been and is
the occasioner, author, and continuer
of the said unnatural, cruel, and bloody
wars, and therein guilty of High Treason
and of the murders, rapines, burnings,
spoils, desolations, damage, and mischief
to this nation acted and committed in
the said war and occasioned thereby.
For all which treasons and crimes this
court doth adjudge that he, the said
Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor,
murderer, and public enemy to the good
people of this nation, shall be put to
death by the severing of his head from
his body.
This sentence being read, the President
spake as followeth: "The sentence
now read and published is the act, sentence,
judgment and resolution of the whole court," whereupon
the whole court stood up and owned
>> note 7 it.
Monday, 29 January 1649.
At the High Court of Justice for the trying
and judging of Charles Stuart, King of
England, January 29, 1649.
Whereas Charles Stuart, King of England,
is and standeth convicted, attainted, and
condemned of High Treason and other high
crimes, and sentence upon Saturday last
was pronounced against him by this court
to be put to death by the severing of his
head from his body, of which sentence execution
yet remaineth to be done, these are therefore
to will and require you to see the said
sentence executed in the open street before
Whitehall, upon the morrow, being the thirtieth
day of this instant month of January, between
the hours of ten in the morning and five
in the afternoon of the same day, with
full effect. And for so doing, this shall
be your sufficient warrant. And these are
to require all officers, soldiers, and
others, the good people of this nation
of England, to be assisting unto you in
this service.
Given under our hands and seals. (Signed
by John Bradshaw, Oliver Cromwell, and
57 other commissioners.)