Britain – September 2019

46 BRITAIN http://www.britain-magazine.com

HISTORY

IMAGES:

©

THE

PALMER/GETTY

IMAGES/WWW.BRIDGEMANART.COM

Charles I believed that as an absolute monarch he stood

for constitutional and social stability, and the right of his

subjects to enjoy the benets of that stability. But through

his intransigence he had failed to keep the peace with

Parliament and in his kingdoms, and he had paid the price.

Oliver Cromwell, at rst a seeker of compromise, saw

the struggle between King and Parliament in terms of

a religious duty to establish “godly” government and

justied his increasingly ruthless actions by the dictum

“Necessity hath no law”. In the end he became another

king in all but name.

To this day, some see Charles I as a martyr for his

people, while others see Cromwell and the Roundheads as

a necessary medicine dosed out to royalty on the long path

to achieving constitutional monarchy. One thing is certain:

there was to be no turning back of the clock, as Charles II

and his successors would nd. Even now Cromwell’s

statue, set up in Victorian times outside the Houses of

Parliament, bears silent witness to the responsibilities and

pitfalls that await those who would govern.

For more on decisive moments in British history, visit

http://www.britain-magazine.com

DID YOU KNOW?

OFollowing Cromwell’s posthumous execution his head

became a freakish collector’s item. In 1960 it was bequeathed

to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he once studied,

and it is now immured in a secret location in the anti-chapel.

OOn the anniversary of the death of King Charles I, 30 January,

wreaths are laid at his statue that faces down London’s

Whitehall towards the site of his execution; a commemorative

service is held in Banqueting House.

OThe Cromwell Association holds an event each year to mark

the anniversary of Cromwell’s death. This year’s service will be

at St Mary’s Church, Putney, on 7 September.

This image: A statue of

Oliver Cromwell outside

the Houses of Parliament

Below: Charles II's

procession from the

Tower of London to

Westminster in 1661