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
High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles I High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles I The High Court of Justice was the court established by the Rump Parliament to try King Charles I of England. This was an ad hoc tribunal created specifically for the purpose of trying the king, although the name was used for subsequent courts. After the first English Civil War, the parliamentarians accepted the premise that the King, although wrong, had been able to justify his fight, and that he would still be entitled to limited powers as King under a new constitutional settlement. By provoking the second Civil War