The Execution of Charles I
A Dutch print of the beheading of Charles I outside the Banqueting House at Whitehall on 30 January 1649.
A reigning king was tried by his own subjects, convicted of treason against the realm and executed in public. Continental printmakers seized on it, which is why some of the sharpest images of the event were made abroad. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the argument the trial opened — that a king could be answerable to something other than God — did not close again. Read the full story in our article on The English Civil War: Causes, Conflict, and the Execution of King Charles I.
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