The Execution of the King in Britain.

 

After Naseby, Charles escaped to Scotland in 1646, hopping to gain the support of his own people against their common enemy. However, the Scots refused to come to his aid unless he agreed to accept their right to worship in the Presbyterin Church. Charles would do no such thing, of course. So the Scots sent him back and parliament put him under arrest.

For three further years, Charles was the center of controversy. Parliament did not know what to do with him. Indeed, Members of parliament even quarreled with their own army. Led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell was an independent protestant, he was Dissenter, he wanted religious tolerance. This means freedom for everyone to worship as they please. However, Parliament at this time was dominated by the Presbyterins. They carried out the promise they made to the Scots. They abolished Christmas, Easter, the cathedrals, bishops and the Book of Common Prayer. Ministers and ordinary people, called Elders, were to run the English Church in future. However, these reforms were so unpopular, they turned many people against parliament itself.

By now Cromwell was as suspicious of the Presbyterins in Parliament as he was of the Catholics and Anglicans who supported the king. Matters came to a head when Parliament appeared reluctant to pay the army and wanted it to disband. The soldiers, many of them Dissenters like Cromwell, refused to go. Many were levelers. These were working people who wanted the same rights as the gentry. They demanded the vote. They wanted to abolish the House of Lords. They also want the freedom to worship as they pleased. They did not want a church which told everybody what to do.

Cromwell tried to make the peace between parliament and the Army, but in the end sided with his own troops. Meanwhile talking continued between the king and his captors. Secretly, however, Charles plotted to stage a comeback. He escaped from captivity and encouraged his supporters to start a second Civil ar. This time the Scots intervened on the side of the king. A Scottish army crossed the border in 1648 but was decisively beaten by Cromwell.

The renewal of the war convinced army leaders and some members of Parliament that Charles could no longer be trusted. Other MPs wanted an agreement with the king. This is why a senior army officer, called Colonel Pride, broke into the House of Commons and ejected the Members opposed to the army. This was later called Pride’s Purge. Many other Members refused to sit in Parliament in protest. The handful of members remaining were known as the Rump Parliament.

They set up a High Court of Justice ‘for the hearing, trying and adjudging of Charles Stuart’. The King was brought to trial, but as refused to accept that parliament had any power to try him. Nonetheless, he was found guilty and executed on 30 January 1649.