Description:
Showing a copy of the document, draughted after the English Civil War, for the death of King Charles I. Showing the signatures of all the regicides, including four Nottingham signatories: Edward Whalley, John Hutchinson, Gilbert Millington, Henry Ireton. The signature of Oliver Cromwell is seen on the left, third from the top. The death-warrant was made out to take effect on Saturday [27 January 1649]. It was written on Friday when the first signatures - Bradshaw, Grey, Cromwell and so forth, not more than twenty-eight in all, were added; and it was addressed to three officers who were named. Two refused to sit. To prepare a new warrant was hazardous because of the twenty-eight some might have refused to sign again. The parchment was therefore scraped, and new dates and names inserted. But the waverers were overawed and 21 signatures more were extracted, and the warrant issued on Monday to Col. Huncks, and as substitutes for the recalcitrant pair, Col. Hacker and Lieut.-Col. Phayre. The text of the warrant is as follows: 'At the high Co[ur]t of Justice for the tryinge and judginge of Charles Steuart Kinge of England January xxixth Anno D[omi]ni 1648. Whereas Charles Steuart Kinge of England is and standeth convicted attaynted and condemned of High Treason and other high Crymes, And sentence uppon Saturday last was pronounced against him by this Co[ur]t to be putt to death by the severinge of his head from his body Of w[hi]ch sentence execuc[i]on yet remayneth to be done, These are therefore to will and require you to see the said sentence executed In the open Streete before Whitehall uppon the morrowe being the Thirtieth day of this instante moneth of January betweene the houres of Tenn in the morninge and Five in the afternoone of the same day w[i]th full effect And for soe doing this shall be yo[u]r sufficient warrant And these are to require All Officers and Souldiers and other the good people of this Nation of England to be assistinge unto you in this service Given under o[ur] hands and Seales...To Colonell Francis Hacker, Colonell Huncks and Lieutenant Colonell Phayre and to every of them. Har. Waller, Hen. Smyth, A. Garland, Symon Mayne, Tho. Wogan, John Blakiston, Per. Pelham, Edm. Ludlowe, Tho. Horton, John Venn, M. Livesey, J. Hutchinson, Ri. Deane, Henry Marten, J. Jones, Gregory Clement, Jo. Bradshawe, John Okey, Willi. Goffe, Robert Tichborne, Vinct. Potter, John Moore, Jo. Downes, Tho. Grey, J. Da[n]vers, Tho. Pride, H. Edwardes, Wm. Constable, Gilbt. Millington, Tho. Wayte, O. Cromwell, Jo. Bourchier, Pe. Temple, Daniel Blagrave, Rich. Ingoldesby, G. Fleetwood, Tho. Scot, Edw. Whalley, H. Ireton, T. Harrison, Owen Rowe, Willi. Cawley, J. Alured, Jo. Carew, Tho. Mauleverer, J. Hewson, Willm. Purefoy, Jo. Barkstead, Robt. Lilburne, Miles Corbet, Ad. Scrope, Isaa. Ewer, Will. Say, James Temple, John Dixwell, Anth. Stapley, Valentine Wauton, Greg. Norton, Tho. Challoner.' The King was sentenced to death on 27 January 1649. Three days later, Charles was beheaded on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London. In August 1660, following the Restoration of King Charles II, the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion was passed as a gesture of reconciliation to reunite the kingdom. A free pardon was granted to everyone who had supported the Commonwealth and Protectorate, except for those who had directly participated in the trial and execution of King Charles I eleven years previously. A special court was appointed in October 1660 and the surviving Regicides were brought to trial. Ten were condemned to death and publicly hanged, drawn and quartered at Charing Cross or Tyburn, London, in October 1660: Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scroope, John Carew, Thomas Scot, and Gregory Clement, who had signed the King's death warrant; the preacher Hugh Peters; Francis Hacker and Daniel Axtel, who commanded the guards at the King's trial and execution; and John Cook, the solicitor who directed the prosecution. A further nineteen were imprisoned for life. Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, Thomas Pride and John Bradshaw were posthumously attainted for high treason. In January 1661, the corpses of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw were exhumed and hung in chains at Tyburn. Twenty of the Regicides fled to Europe or to America. George Downing (1623-84), formerly Cromwell's director of military intelligence, tracked down and arrested three of them: John Barkstead, John Okey and Miles Corbet, who were extradited from the Netherlands and executed in April 1662. John Lisle was murdered by a royalist at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1664. The last survivor of the regicides was probably Edmund Ludlow, who died at Vevey, Switzerland, in 1692. The identity of the executioner who beheaded the King was never discovered. A history of Colonel Hutchinson can be seen at NTGM002910. A history of General Henry Ireton can be seen at NTGM009708. Major-General Edward Whalley, Second son of Richard Whalley, former sheriff of Nottinghamshire, and a cousin of Cromwell's, had fought with distinction in Cromwell's regiment at Gainsborough and went on to become a Colonel in the New Model Army. After he signed the death warrent and at the Restoration, he fled to New England with his son-in-law William Goffe. Although hunted by Royalist agents, Whalley and Goffe were protected by the colonists; Whalley survived in Massachusetts until at least 1674. Gilbert Millington, was Justice of the Peace and MP for Nottingham during the Long Parliament, Millington also served on various county committees during the civil wars. He was present on every day of the King's Trial, took notes of the proceedings and signed the death warrant. After the Restoration Millington made no attempt to deny his part in the regicide. His sentence of death was commuted to life imprisonment on Jersey, where he died in 1666.