Presenter: I’m standing outside Parliament, where the country is ruled from today. But we should remember that it took brutal civil war, fought by men here like Oliver Cromwell, to establish the power of Parliament and to make sure that monarchs respected that power. The Civil Wars of the 1640s were perhaps the most violent and destructive episodes in British history. This was a struggle between King Charles I and Parliament over how, and in whose interests, the country should be governed. But what about the soldiers themselves, and the people caught in the firing line? I’m here at the National Archives in Kew to find out more about what sources can tell us about them. The Civil War divided the nation and it had a terrible effect upon ordinary people. Here at Kew, they’ve got this wonderful book of bound letters. This one here is by an officer in the Parliamentary army, Nehemiah Wharton, and he wrote it to an acquaintance. In this letter, written during the early stages of the Civil Wars, he describes a range of actions by the opposing Royalist troops: “Certain gentlemen of the country informed me that Justice Edmund, a well-spoken man, was robbed by the vile bluecoats of Colonel Chomley’s regiment and lost even their beds”. Later, in the same letter, he writes: “We had news that Prince Rupert, that evil Royalist, had surrounded Leicester and demanded £2000 or else threatened to plunder the town”. We could dismiss this source as being biased towards the Parliamentary side of the argument, but all sources are biased in their own way. It does tell us about the effects of the war upon civilians. The first source is a soldier’s observations of the scale of human suffering, but what about those people on the receiving end? Other sources reveal that the war was having a huge impact on ordinary people on both sides. Here I have a second source relating to the Civil War. It’s a petition or a plea to a County Committee- the County Committees were instructed by Parliament to raise taxes in support of the Parliamentarians’ war effort. This particular one outlines the case of a woman named Mary Baker. It says, “Mary’s husband is in very poor health, his whole estate has been seized, and so he cannot pay an extra 20th part or 5%. Yet a warrant was issued against Mary’s husband to pay the rest”. Mary is begging on behalf of her husband here, so, on the face of it, the situation seems pretty bad. Now it could be that they are just exaggerating in order to get out of paying their taxes. But the shelves here at the National Archives contain many other cases like this one. In the first source, the Royalists were doing the plundering. Here, in this source, it seems as though the Parliamentarians are doing their own type of plundering. The two sources we’ve looked at give us a great sense of the war’s immediate impact upon men and women. But we need a longer-term picture. And here’s a source that provides it. It’s a petition from a group of widows in Liverpool, and it gives us a sense of the devastating impact of the war on whole communities. It talks about the effects on, “the many hundreds of widows and fatherless children, whose husbands and fathers lost their lives and estates”. What we get from this source over and above the other two in an impression of the sorry state that the women and children were left in as a result of the war. “Houses were burned and many of your petitioners’ husbands were barbarously massacred and the rest imprisoned and all despoiled and robbed of their estates”. The petition blames the Royalist army for the carnage and plunder. And in this source, they’re saying to Parliament, “we supported you, we made sacrifices and now we want compensation for this”. The sources we’ve looked at take us beyond the textbooks and their usual focus on leaders like Oliver Cromwell. The story of war is the story of how it affected ordinary men, women and children, people like Nehemiah Wharton, who described his experiences as a soldier. Or Mary Baker, who pleaded for compensation after her property and possessions were plundered. Or the Liverpool widows, whose lives were devastated by the conflict. The sources we’ve looked at today show us how the Civil War affected ordinary people like you and me.
Historic Royal Palaces joins millions of people around the world in mourning the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty was our longest reigning monarch and will be remembered for a remarkable lifetime of service. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Royal Family. Our thoughts are with them at this time. Following the death of Her Majesty The Queen, as a mark of respect, all of our six sites were closed on Friday 9 September and will be closed again on the day of the state funeral. Hillsborough Castle and Gardens will remain closed until the day after the funeral. For further information, please read our FAQs page.
Killing of a 'treasonous' King
Historic Royal Palaces joins millions of people around the world in mourning the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty was our longest reigning monarch and will be remembered for a remarkable lifetime of service. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Royal Family. Our thoughts are with them at this time. Following the death of Her Majesty The Queen, as a mark of respect, all of our six sites were closed on Friday 9 September and will be closed again on the day of the state funeral. Hillsborough Castle and Gardens will remain closed until the day after the funeral. Read more in our FAQs
As a King, Charles I was disastrous; as a man, he faced his death with courage and dignity. His trial and execution were the first of their kind. Charles I only became heir when his brother Henry died in 1612. Charles had many admirable personal qualities, but he was painfully shy and insecure. He also lacked the charisma and vision essential for leadership. His stubborn refusal to compromise over power-sharing finally ignited civil war. Seven years of fighting between Charles’ supporters and Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians claimed the lives of thousands, and ultimately, of the King himself. Charles was convicted of treason and executed on 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall.
Charles was not born to be king. He was the youngest child of James I, known as ‘Baby Charles’.
In private, Charles was gentle and polite, by all accounts a loving father. However, in public the King’s acute shyness made him appear haughty and arrogant. Charles also did not allow anyone except his wife to sit in his presence. This infuriated his enemies, particularly Parliamentarians. His lack of empathy and refusal to consider opposing views led to his increasing unpopularity. Determined to maintain absolute power, Charles was out of step with the changing times. Image: King Charles I by Gerrit van Honthorst, 1628, © National Portrait Gallery, London
The Royalists made a strong start, and their cavalry remained undefeated until 1644. Gradually the Parliamentarians under military genius Oliver Cromwell began to gain the upper hand in what become the bloodiest war ever fought on English soil. The Battle of Naseby in June 1645 and the defeat of the Royalist army probably marked the turning point in the war, although fighting dragged on until 1649.
Some families had bitterly divided loyalties, brother fighting brother, but religion cut deeper, with Catholics tending to support the King.
Charles I was given just three days to put his affairs in order and say goodbye to his family. After the trial he was taken by sedan chair a short distance to his old room at Whitehall Palace. Charles refused to see anyone but his children and his chaplain, Bishop Juxon. The next day the King was moved to St James’s Palace. Charles spent the day burning papers, praying and saying sad farewells to his two youngest children, Henry Duke of Gloucester, aged 9 and Princess Elizabeth, who was 11.
His wife, Henrietta Maria had fled abroad earlier in the war, and his other children were also in exile.
A huge crowd had gathered in the bitter weather. But they were held so far away that the King's final short speech was lost in the freezing air. Erected against the Banqueting House in Whitehall, the scaffold was hung round with black cloth. In the centre of the blackened and sanded floor stood the axe and a lower quartering block of a kind used to dismember traitors. Two men, heavily disguised with masks, stood ready to perform the act.
It is said that Brandon, the official executioner could not be found.
When Charles II returned from exile in 1661 public opinion had swung right back behind the monarchy. Many people were heartily sick of the sober restraints of Puritanism. Oliver Cromwell, who died a disillusioned man in 1658, had failed to create a working Parliament and his incompetent son and heir, Richard, was forced to resign. Rather than endure another Civil War, Parliament invited the late King’s son to return to rule.
Oliver Cromwell's son was known as ‘Tumbledown Dick’.
Charles I remains the only English monarch to have been tried and executed for treason. In the years after his death, the muddle of Parliament, sober life under the Puritans and ultimately failure to establish a functioning government meant people started viewing Charles I differently. Perhaps Charles I's most important legacy is his fabulous art collection, which now forms the Royal Collection. The execution of Charles I is remembered every year on 30 January with a service in the Banqueting House. Image: Bust of King Charles I outside Banqueting House. The inscription reads: 'His majesty King Charles I passed through this hall and out of a window nearly over this tablet to the scaffold in Whitehall where he was beheaded on 30th January 1649'.
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Who was the Puritan figure who won the English Civil War and was responsible for the beheading of Charles I of England?
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