Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles
I. Charles Spencer. Bloomsbury Press. January 2015. 352 pp. ISBN#: 9781620409121.
King
Charles I of England has become a tyrant; but this is not the same England that
tolerated such mistreatment or such financial extravagance that would pauperize
the government coffers. This is the
story of how Parliament plans and carries out demise of Charles I. What is fascinating about the pre-trial and
trial is that Spencer presents a King who seems innocent (Not!) while
Parliament is portrayed as those who willingly or through coercion participate
in the accusations of the King who dares to live in conditions beyond his
financial allowance and then dares to declare actual, physical war against the
“will of the common people” who are represented by members of Parliament. The
power of the mob impressed itself upon this reader as all I kept thinking as I
was reading was “Why was the King not allowed a team of defense lawyers or
supporters at his own trial?” This is
not just 21st Century revisionist history thinking here. Yet Spencer reveals through Charles’ speech
during the trial that he believed he needed no defense since he ruled by God’s
divine right and therefore was only accountable to that God. Spencer as a true historian leaves the reader
to reflect and comment on such idiocy, travesty or impressive faith!
King
Charles I is beheaded in a riveting scene which Spencer excels at describing
throughout the book. Charles in this
version of history elicits mostly support and sympathy. That same sympathy will also be revealed in
the following pages in which Charles’ son, Charles, returns to power after
Parliament pursues and destroys other Royalists. Another interesting facet of this
presentation is the role of Oliver Cromwell which never receives the focused
attention he deserved in this history; he is always mentioned as influencing
other anti-Royalists, Puritans, Parliament members, and soldiers. Later on his excessive pride and grandiosity
when in control are all we learn about this man’s brief exercise of power. One
can only surmise that this focus was not the purpose of Spencer’s central
thesis.
The
rest of the story recounts the demise of almost every single person who was
involved in the original Committee planning the prosecution of Charles,
including those who actually never participated in the trial or execution of
the King, those who did participate in all of the above, all signatures of the
death sentence, and even those who were key commanders of the military involved
in moving Charles I toward his trial and death.
Spencer
manages to add a very human interest side to each Parliamentary or military
person targeted for revenge which is all that saves the last three-quarters of
this text from being repetitively tedious!
For
those interested in this historical period, Spencer offers a very readable,
carefully researched and fascinating account of the end of royal abuse and the
rise of popular sovereignty in 17th Century England.
