- Object type: Document
- Formal Title: Charles's order for impeachment of the five members
- Creator: Charles I
- Date Created: January 3, 1642
- Origin: London, England
- Current Location: unknown
The father of Charles I (1600-1649), James I (1566-1625) wrote two books, one called Trew Law of Free Monarchies and another Basilikon Doron which were described as follows:
"... there were no legal limits to the power of kings, that Parliaments had no function but to give advice. It was a theory upon which Charles had been brought up. Kings, like fathers, derived their authority from God and had a Divine Right to demand obedience and honour ... that the King of England sat in Jesus Christ's throne in this part of the Earth."
Charles I took his father's words to heart. When he heard that Parliament was considering impeaching his own wife, Queen Henrietta, he wrote down the warrant for the arrest of five members of the Parliament.
The document, in his own hand-writing, survives. "You are to ...", "You are to ...", and " ... you must ..." - it barked with Royal authority.
In the result, civil war broke out and lasted from 1642 to 1648 and which Charles' Royalist army lost. Before the year 1648 was out, Charles I was arrested on the orders of Parliament and subjected to a spectacular 18-day trial at which he defiantly refused to plead, based on his Divine Right.
While imprisoned, Charles had ten servants including three cooks.
The most qualified judges fled their duties, some even feigning illness, to avoid having to preside over the trial of a British monarch.
Finally, a little-known judge, John Bradshaw was chosen to preside over the 135-judge panel.
On January 27, 1649, Charles was condemned to death "by the severing of the head from his body ... as a tyrant, traitor, murderer and a public enemy", and duly executed three days later.
Charles I truly believed that leaving law-making in the hands of the people, elected or otherwise, was a mistake and not in their best interests. His last words were:
"I must tell you that the liberty and freedom (of the people) consists in having of Government, those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in Government, Sir; that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things. If I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the Power of the Sword, I needed not to have come here, and therefore I tell you ... that I am the martyr of the people."
His death sent shockwaves throughout Europe and was a clear shot across the bow of other who claimed to hold Divine Right of law. The wave of democracy was building and would not be stopped.
REFERENCES:
Hibbert, C., Charles I (London: Readers Union, 1968), pages 100-101.
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