On January 30, 1649, in London, a silent crowd gathered before Whitehall's Banqueting House to watch Charles I place his head on the block and be beheaded. For the first time in modern European history, a people executed their own sovereign.
To understand that moment, we must go back. Charles, I believed in a simple and dangerous principle: the king rules by divine right. He is accountable to neither Parliament nor the people. But seventeenth-century England was no longer medieval. When Charles attempted to govern without Parliament and imposed arbitrary taxes, conflict became inevitable, and religious tensions (between Anglicans, Puritans, and Catholics) did the rest. The country split, and in 1642, civil war broke out. On one side were the royalists, loyal to the king. On the other hand, the Parliamentarians, led by figures like Oliver Cromwell, transformed an improvised army into a disciplined military machine, the New Model Army.
The war lasted several years, but in the end, the latter prevailed. When Charles was defeated, a negotiation still seemed possible, but the king played on multiple tables, negotiated in secret, and sought foreign allies, especially France. For his adversaries, he was no longer just a political enemy; he was a traitor.
So, in 1649, Parliament established a special court to try none other than the king. Charles refused to recognise its authority. For him, no human court could judge a sovereign chosen by God. He remained silent while the prosecution called him a "tyrant, traitor, and enemy of the people." He was then sentenced to death. On the scaffold, Charles controlled every detail. He did not plead guilty, but defended the monarchical order until his last breath. After the execution, a witness reported a collective groan from the crowd, but it was not jubilation; it was shock.
After the execution, England became a republic. The monarchy and House of Lords were abolished, but Charles' absence brought instability. Oliver Cromwell concentrated power, becoming Lord Protector. Authority changed, but remained rigid.
In 1660, just eleven years later, the monarchy returned. Charles II, son of the executed king, reclaimed the throne. The revolution was neither a failure nor a complete success.