Abstract
The Trial of Charles I is one of the most startling — perhaps the most startling — event of English history. It certainly astounded all Europe in 1649. ‘The most horrible and detestable parricide ever committed by Christians’ — in words such as these it was almost everywhere condemned. Only in some of the Swiss Protestant cantons does there seem to have been a favourable reception to the event.
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Short Bibliography
By far the best text of the King’s Trial is A Perfect Narrative, authorised by the censor in 1649 and reprinted several times during that year. It is reproduced in its entirety in State Trials, vol. iv. Additional material from the notes of John Phelps, the Clerk who minuted the meetings of the High Court of Justice, is included in John Nalson, A True Copy of the Journal for the High Court of Justice for the Trial of Charles I, published in 1684, but reproduced in its entirety in State Trials, vol. iv. J. C. Muddiman, Trial of Charles I (1928) follows Nalson for the text, but is marred by a Royalist prejudice even more extreme than Nalson’s.
For the documentation, such as it is, of Cromwell’s part in the trial, see W. C. Abbott, Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, vol. i (Cambridge, Mass., 1939). For the character of the press, see Joseph Frank, Beginnings of the English Newspaper (Cambridge, Mass., 1962).
For a general account of the Trial with discussion of the evidence see C. V. Wedgwood, Trial of Charles I (1964).
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© 1970 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Wedgwood, C.V. (1970). The Trial of Charles I. In: Parry, R.H. (eds) The English Civil War and after, 1642–1658. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15368-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15368-8_3
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