Regicide Regicide The broad definition of regicide ( "of king" + ' "killer" or ' "killing") is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a person of royalty. In the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after a trial, reflecting the historical precedent of the trial and execution of Charles I of England. More broadly, it can also refer to the killing of an emperor or any other reigning sovereign. Before the Tudor period, English kings had been murdered while imprisoned (for example Edward II or Edward V) or
Regicide were disinterred and hanged, drawn and quartered in posthumous executions. In 1662, three more regicides John Okey, John Barkstead and Miles Corbet were also hanged, drawn and quartered. The officers of the court that tried Charles I, those who prosecuted him and those who signed his death warrant, have been known ever since the restoration as regicides. The Parliamentary Archives in the Palace of Westminster, London, holds the original death warrant of Charles I. Different cultures and authors in history have used different definitions for what constitute the crime of regicide, as such it is difficult to make a universally