Did Charles I Have to Die?
King Charles I’s execution in 1649 turned the world upside down – were other outcomes possible?
‘The king’s guilt was not in doubt’
Alice Hunt is Professor of Early Modern Literature and History at the University of Southampton and author of Republic: Britain’s Revolutionary Decade, 1649-1660 (Faber and Faber)
The technical answer is ‘yes’. Charles was charged with, and found guilty of, levying war against his Parliament (which represented the people) and of a ‘wicked’ design to rule according to his own will. Treason had been redefined to encompass a king waging war on Parliament. Accordingly, the trial’s commissioners – who acted as both jury and judges – sentenced this ‘tyrant, traitor and murderer’ to death ‘by the severing of his head from his body’.
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