High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles I This was eventually signed by 59 of the Commissioners, including two who had not been present when the sentence was passed. King Charles was beheaded in front of the Banqueting House of the Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649. He declared that he had desired the liberty and freedom of the people as much as any; "but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having government... It is not their having a share in the government; that is nothing appertaining unto them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things." Francis Allen arranged payments
History of the Puritans under King Charles I and he was subsequently beheaded on 30 January 1649. The execution of Charles I would be the lens through which the Puritan movement was viewed for generations. For its opponents, the outcome confirmed that Puritanism ultimately led to violent rebellion, and that there was a straight line from religious fanaticism to regicide. The largest single group of Puritans, the Presbyterians, had in fact opposed the regicide, but to the supporters of the king and of episcopacy, this seemed like too fine a distinction. On the other hand, for many Independents, the regicide was entirely justified: Charles was a man who