Today in History: Charles I Executed

On this day (January 30) in 1649 King Charles I of England was beheaded by his own people. Charles is a difficult historical figure to feel sympathy toward. He created all of his own problems by refusing to believe that there were any practical limits on his authority. Many men in England’s Parliament and within the New Model Army were willing to work with him to achieve a political comprise that left Charles as king, but time and time again he acted in bad faith until even his supporters threw up their hands in despair. And even as he picked fights with his English subjects, he picked them with his Scottish and Irish subjects as well creating a situation that a like-minded genius could not have handled—and Charles never struck me as being particularly bright.

But if you’re looking for a silver lining in Charles’s political ineptness (aside from the push it gave to those advocating for limits on the executive power in the kingdom) you can always look to literature. Charles’ demise inspired Alexandre Dumas to make the attempt to stop the execution of Charles I the focal point of the action toward the end of Twenty Years After with Athos literally having made it to a point beneath the stage upon which the execution took place but still unable to prevent the fatal blow.