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
3rd Parliament of King Charles I then turned its attention to Tonnage and Poundage, two onerous taxes on which the King was dependent and which Parliament considered illegal. The King brought the session to a rapid close. Over the summer the fleet to relieve La Rochelle was assembled, but the commander Buckingham was murdered by a disgruntled army officer. The fleet nevertheless sailed under a new commander but achieved little success. When Parliament reconvened in January 1629 it returned to the issue of Tonnage and Poundage, claiming that its continued imposition contradicted the Petition of Right. Matters got so heated that Charles dissolved Parliament by proclamation