The Trial of Charles I: A History in Documents: (From the Broadview Sources Series) - Paperback

by K. J. Kesselring (Editor)

This brief history with documents presents the causes and consequences of King Charles I's trial on charges of treason, murder, and other high crimes against his people.

Back Jacket

In January 1649, after years of civil war, King Charles I stood trial in a specially convened English court on charges of treason, murder, and other high crimes against his people. Not only did the revolutionary tribunal find him guilty and order his death, but its masters then abolished monarchy itself and embarked on a bold (though short-lived) republican experiment. The event was a landmark in legal history. The trial and execution of King Charles marked a watershed in English politics and political theory and thus also affected subsequent developments in those parts of the world colonized by the British.

This book presents a selection of contemporaries' accounts of the king's trial and their reactions to it, as well as a report of the trial of the king's own judges once the wheel of fortune turned and monarchy was restored. It uses the words of people directly involved to offer insight into the causes and consequences of these momentous events.

Author Biography

K.J. Kesselring is Professor of History and Associate Dean, Academic, at Dalhousie University. She is the author of The Northern Rebellion of 1569 and Mercy and Authority in the Tudor State, and the co-editor with Tim Stretton of Married Women and the Law: Coverture in England and the Common Law World.