30 January 1649
Charles executed

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On a specially built scaffold outside Inigo Jones' Banqueting Hall in Whitehall, Charles I is publicly beheaded. The crowd utters a deep groan as his head is shown off by the executioner. It is the first and last judicial killing of a reigning English monarch.

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Charles's last words ... included the forgiveness of his enemies and a majestic articulation of his death as transcendence: 'I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world.' As he prepared to lay his head on the block, silence seized the onlookers. A 17-year-old in the crowd saw the axe fall and recalled 'such a groan as I never heard before, and I desire I may never feel again.'

From A Century of Troubles by Stevie Davies (Channel 4 Books)

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