THE PURITAN

Tuesday, 31st of January 1649

THE TYRANT IS DEAD

By Daphne Panagiotopoulou

After 7 days of trial and 3 days of waiting

for the sentence to be carried out, finally,
yesterday at 2:00 in the afternoon, the King
of treason, the King of insolence, the
Catholic, Charles I was beheaded in front
of Whitehall Banqueting House.

The execution, was originally planned to

take place at 12 noon, but it was delayed
because the executioners couldn’t bring
themselves to carry out the sentence and
cut off the King’s head. But in the end,
reason prevailed and the executioners
realised that this was necessary for the
common good.
The last
head-line
of Charles I:
The final hours of the
King that divided
England.
Read on Page 3
So, as the crowd stared in silence in the
shivering cold of January, King Charles
walked up to the platform without fear.
The King had prepared himself for this
moment:
The day before we said goodbye to his wife
and children. In the morning of the day of
his execution, he woke up and requested
red wine and bread for his last meal. Also,
as a last order to his former servants, he
directed them to get him 2 white shirts
instead of one to prevent him from
shivering from the harsh weather of the
day.
So yesterday, the executioners’ axe swung
down and ended a dark chapter in the
history of our country. There were no
cheers from the people, only a deep gasp
and then silence fell once again.
The King was dead.
Sir. Oliver Cromwell called this a “cruel
necessity”. And it was a necessity indeed,
because King Charles I brought this fate to
himself by being a traitor. He betrayed the
country by repeatedly disrespecting the
Parliament, the laws and the people. He
started a Civil War to overthrow the
Parliament because he believed he was above
everyone and equal only to God.
During the 25 years that “A cruel
he was King, he had a necessity”
lavish and provocative
lifestyle that led him in Sir. Oliver
Cromwell
the path of the Devil. The
evil who sent, Rupert, a
demon from Hell in the
form of a dog, to
manipulate the King of
England.
The gravest crime of King Charles I, though,
is that he never repented. He insulted the
court and was arrogant, because he
continued to believe that he was better than
all. But the court made it clear for him and
generations a-head that “the King of England
is not a person, but an office whose every
occupant was entrusted with a limited power to
govern 'by and according to the laws of the land
and not otherwise”