1660/1662 Book, Speeches, Discourses... The Regicides of British King Charles I

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Aug 21, 2021

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  Colonial America
  1660 & 1662 Speeches, Discourses and Prayers of The Regicides of British King Charles I (Founding of New Haven, Connecticut in New England Related)
  1660 and 1662-Dated, Rare Two-Part Hardbound Volume titled, "The Speeches, Discourses and Prayers of The Regicides of British King Charles I...", (191 Pages) Complete, Very Fine.
  This Hardbound Volume measures 7.5" x 5.75" and includes Two Publications herein combined, with printed dates 1660 and 1662. These imprints were generally sympathetic to the group of men who tried, convicted, and executed King Charles I for high treason in 1649.
  These two publications are bound in a 3/4 leather and marbled covers with a raised spine with embossed gold lettered: "Speeches and Prayers of Some of the Late King's Judges & Others - 1660-1662". Both publications are complete. The 1660 publication consists of 96 pages. The 1662 publication is comprised of 71 numbered pages and an additional set of 24 unnumbered pages, inserted between pages 24 and 25. Apart from some slight even tone, the condition of the pages are generally crisp and excellent. Page 81 of the first publication has a small repairable tear on the right side of the top edge, otherwise all of the pages are intact. Part 2 dated 1662, has a large vivid dated signature of an owner, "Sam.ll Clubb 1748."
  The list of persons names that appear in these two publications include: Major General Thomas Harison (or Harrison), John Carew, John Cooke (or Cook), Hugh Peters, Thomas Scott (or Scot), Gregory Clement, Adrian Scroop (or Scrope), John Jones, Daniel Axtell, Francis Hacker, John Barkstead, John Okey, Miles Corbet, and others -- all known as "regicides." These men were among thirty-one of the fifty-nine Commissioners that condemned and beheaded Charles I and who were still living at the time of the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 under Charles II. Most of these men were hanged, drawn and quartered; others were simply hanged, and others received sentences of life imprisonment. At least one regicide was pardoned. The vengeance went so far as to disinter the bodies of Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw, and Henry Ireton to execute them posthumously by hanging, drawing (disemboweling), and quartering their bodies. An absolutely fascinating historical read.
  1660 - THE REGICIDES [Latin for: King-killers], in English history, the name given to those judges and court officers responsible for the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649.
  After the Restoration (1660) of the monarchy they were excepted from the general pardon granted by the Act of Indemnity. At that time 41 of the 59 signers of the king's death warrant were still alive. Fifteen of them fled: William Goffe, John Dixwell , and Edward Whalley went to New Haven, Connecticut in New England.
  Several others went to Germany and Holland; and Edmund Ludlow and four others went to Switzerland. Some were able to convince Charles II that they had had little to do with his father's trial and that they were loyal to the monarchy, and they were reprieved. Nine of those who signed the warrant and four others closely connected with the trial were hanged. Six others, who were deemed less politically dangerous, were imprisoned for life; some were later reprieved.
  Colonel John Okey, 24 August 1606 to 19 April 1662, was a political and religious radical who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A regicide who approved the Execution of Charles I in 1649, he escaped to the Dutch Republic after the 1660 Stuart Restoration, but was brought back to England and executed on 19 April 1662.
  In 1648, Okey was appointed a commissioner to the High Court of Justice after the king was declared as having "traitorously and maliciously levyed war against the present parliament and the people therein represented" and set to stand trial. Okey was one of 135 men who were selected and appointed by "An Act of the Commons Assembled in Parliament".
  Okey, along with about 80 others (all of whom were at risk of being labelled as regicides), was actively involved in the case and was present for most of the court's sittings. Moreover, Okey was one of 59 who signed the king's death warrant, and was also charged with upholding the validity of the actions surrounding the execution of Charles I.
  After the First English Civil War, King Charles I was a prisoner of the Parliamentarians. They tried to negotiate a compromise with him, but he stuck steadfastly to his view that he was King by Divine Right and attempted in secret to raise an army to fight against them. It became obvious to the leaders of the Parliamentarians that they could not negotiate a settlement with him and they could not trust him to refrain from raising an army against them; they reluctantly came to the conclusion that he would have to be put to death. On 13 December 1648, the House of Commons broke off negotiations with the King. Two days later, the Council of Officers of the New Model Army voted that the King be moved from the Isle of Wight, where he was prisoner, to Windsor "in order to the bringing of him speedily to justice". In the middle of December, the King was moved from Windsor to London. The House of Commons of the Rump Parliament passed a Bill setting up a High Court of Justice in order to try Charles I for high treason in the name of the people of England. From a Royalist and post-restoration perspective this Bill was not lawful, since the House of Lords refused to pass it and it failed to receive Royal Assent. However, the Parliamentary leaders and the Army pressed on with the trial anyway.
  At his trial in front of The High Court of Justice on Saturday 20 January 1649 in Westminster Hall, Charles asked "I would know by what power I am called hither. I would know by what authority, I mean lawful". In view of the historic issues involved, both sides based themselves on surprisingly technical legal grounds. Charles did not dispute that Parliament as a whole did have some judicial powers, but he maintained that the House of Commons on its own could not try anybody, and so he refused to plead. At that time under English law if a prisoner refused to plead then this was treated as a plea of guilty (This has since been changed; a refusal to plead now is interpreted as a not-guilty plea).
  He was found guilty on Saturday 27 January 1649, and his death warrant was signed by 59 Commissioners. To show their agreement with the sentence of death, all of the Commissioners who were present rose to their feet.
  On the day of his execution, 30 January 1649, Charles dressed in two shirts so that he would not shiver from the cold, lest it be said that he was shivering from fear. His execution was delayed by several hours so that the House of Commons could pass an emergency bill to make it an offence to proclaim a new King, and to declare the representatives of the people, the House of Commons, as the source of all just power. Charles was then escorted through the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall to a scaffold where he would be beheaded.[6] He forgave those who had passed sentence on him and gave instructions to his enemies that they should learn to "know their duty to God, the King - that is, my successors - and the people". He then gave a brief speech outlining his unchanged views of the relationship between the monarchy and the monarch's subjects, ending with the words "I am the martyr of the people". His head was severed from his body with one blow.
  One week later, the Rump, sitting in the House of Commons, passed a bill abolishing the monarchy. Ardent Royalists refused to accept it on the basis that there could never be a vacancy of the Crown. Others refused because, as the bill had not passed the House of Lords and did not have Royal Assent, it could not become an Act of Parliament.
  The Declaration of Breda 11 years later paved the way for the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. At the restoration, thirty-one of the fifty-nine Commissioners who had signed the death warrant were living. A general pardon was given by Charles II and Parliament to his opponents, but the regicides were excluded. A number fled the country. Some, such as Daniel Blagrave, fled to continental Europe, while others like John Dixwell, Edward Whalley, and William Goffe fled to New Haven, Connecticut. Those who were still available were put on trial. Six regicides were found guilty and suffered the fate of being hanged, drawn and quartered: Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scrope, John Carew, Thomas Scot, and Gregory Clement. The captain of the guard at the trial, Daniel Axtell who encouraged his men to barrack the King when he tried to speak in his own defence, an influential preacher, Hugh Peters, and the leading prosecutor at the trial, John Cook, were executed in a similar manner. Colonel Francis Hacker, who signed the order to the executioner of the king and commanded the guard around the scaffold and at the trial, was hanged. Concern amongst the royal ministers over the negative impact on popular sentiment of these public tortures and executions led to jail sentences being substituted for the remaining regicides.
  Some regicides, such as Richard Ingoldsby, were pardoned, while a further nineteen served life imprisonment. The bodies of the regicides Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton, which had been buried in Westminster Abbey, were disinterred and hanged, drawn and quartered in posthumous executions. In 1662, three more regicides, John Okey, John Barkstead and Miles Corbet, were also hanged, drawn and quartered. The officers of the court that tried Charles I, those who prosecuted him, and those who signed his death warrant, have been known ever since the restoration as regicides.
  The Parliamentary Archives in the Palace of Westminster, London, holds the original death warrant of Charles I.
  
  
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