Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I

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The king's trial and lead up to the events of the execution are well covered and are written in a fast moving yet detailed way. At the same time, a rumour was circulating that he had been one of the two masked men seen on the scaffold with Charles: one had swung the axe and the other had shown the king’s head to the crowd. Photograph: The Art Archive / Alamy A detail from Claude Jacquand’s depiction of Charles I going to his execution.

Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I

There truly were no worse crimes in England’s monarchial history than treason and/or the threat of regicide; especially when this is done in the name of the government and the people. I was rather surprised that the trial and execution of the King sped along at such a breakneck pace, with Cromwell’s subsequent Commonwealth government only taking up one brief chapter.Those who were caught and condemned suffered agonising and degrading ends, while others saw out their days in hellish captivity. Well, to hide behind that wasn’t considered a defence, and in fact was seen as aggravating the offence.

Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I

Painting them in a highly sympathetic light, Spencer tells the stories of what happened to those 80-some regicides as they fled for their lives from the revenge-bent Charles II in the wake of his restoration to the English monarchy. Lin-Manuel Miranda credited the books for inspiring a song in his show Hamilton, as well as a story beat in the Walt Disney film Moana. While this book is more of a simple retelling of the narrative, it does still matter what stories we choose to tell and which ones we exclude. A powerful tale of revenge from the dark heart of England's past, and a unique contribution to seventeenth-century history, Killers of the King tells the incredible story of the men who dared to assassinate a monarch. Some conspirators fled to Europe, some turned themselves in expecting leniency (usually finding none), others still sailed for America.

It would only be around 100 years later that the last person was executed by hanging, drawing and quartering (despite the punishment not being abolished until 1870) as some of the regicides are – a punishment commonplace for hundreds of years before these events. There are some brutal events that occur that will make some squeamish readers perhaps want to wince as they read but they really highlight the predicament these men found themselves in and in some ways tell a wider story of British history as you can see how events here have a wider effect on the future of the country. To the people, the regicides stood for everything they had hated under the Interregnum – and they were delighted by their deaths. If you are still wondering how to get free PDF EPUB of book Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I by Charles Spencer.

Killers of the King: the Men who Dared Execute Charles I by

Charles Spencer himself is a well-respected author who has written other best-selling history books such as Blenheim and on his family and In a brief account, Spencer speeds through the execution of King Charles I in January of 1649 in the second chapter, which is followed by a brief account of the 10-year Interregnum (the republic Commonwealth government in England during the rule of Cromwell), as well as eventual restoration of the monarchy under Charles I’s son, King Charles II in 1660.Spencer reveals a plethora of information which is often glossed over by other authors and will thus bring illumination and clarity to even those readers with knowledge on the topic. The fear and bravery of the regicides and general atmosphere is highlighted excellently and I found it incredibly engaging. If you’re a scholar of this era in English history, there’s not much you’ll find new, but for the casual reader, it does a fantastic job in communicating the basic narrative in a compelling manner. Too often, he illustrates his narrative of Charles’s trial with sources dating from much later – John Evelyn’s diary, for instance, which was written in a greatly changed political climate. Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl, brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who began writing history by chronicling his own family, is surprisingly sympathetic to the regicides.

King of Killers (2023) - IMDb King of Killers (2023) - IMDb

Present-day "interludes" concern his life as an innkeeper, with each present day depicted in a separate book. PDF] [EPUB] Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I Download by Charles Spencer.Once enthroned, and despite public promises of gentle justice (even forgiveness) for the traitors, Charles II waged a never-ending campaign to hunt down every last man who had a significant role in placing his father on trial. As we are able to understand the various reasons for, and against, killing a monarch we slowly see the gains of the conflict start to devolve. Four days later, it was ritually hanged and beheaded at Tyburn before thousands of jeering onlookers.