THE COST OF REGICIDE

In the aftermath of the English Civil War, 59 commissioners signed a death warrant for the execution of King Charles I. At first, this death warrant was considered a legal and legitimate document for the new Parliamentarian regime. However, when the monarchy was restored and King Charles II was crowned, this document became a signed confession to regicide and high treason. Shortly after he was crowned, Charles II and his loyalists hunted down everyone who was involved in the murder of Charles I. Most were rounded up to be executed while a handful fled into permanent exile in the American Colonies. Even the commissioners who were already dead were not spared. One prominent example was Oliver Cromwell, the mastermind of Charles I’s execution. When he died, Cromwell was given a funeral fit for a king, but when the monarchy was restored, his body was exhumed, hung from chains, and posthumously executed. Cromwell’s head was mounted on a spike just outside of London as a warning to anyone else who dared defy the monarchy again. In addition, the traitors and their families were stripped of all wealth, titles, and lands through bills of attainder.