Mourning of Charles I in front of the Banqueting House in London

Walking from Parliament Square half way through to Charing Cross/Trafalgar Square, one will see the Banqueting House, which is one of the historical royal palaces.  To me Banqueting House is the place to mourn Charles I.

The “House” was completed in 1622; it is influenced by the Italian Renaissance as the architect, Inigo Jones studied there.  It miraculously survived the Great London Fire in 1698.  The name is misleading as it was designed for all sorts of royal/governmental functions, not just for ‘banqueting’, although a state dinner here would be stately.  It will be closed to the visitors for official functions, if any.

Once inside one needs to look up the ceiling painting by Rubens; it is all about the royal glory and exaltation of James I (Charles I’s father).  This was despised by Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarians, with whom Charles I had a British Civil War, leading to his execution in front of Banqueting House 1649.

The execution was witness by a then student at Christ Church (College) in Oxford; he had a leave and was home at Whitehall, where the Banqueting House locates.  “. . . The Blow I saw given, & can truly say with a sad heart; at the instant whereof, I remember well, there was such a Grone [our modern Groan] by the Thousands then present, as I never heard before & desire I may never hear again.”

It is fitting for Charles II (son of Charles I) to celebrate the restoration of the throne here eleven years later.

Oliver Cromwell had no military experience, but must have military genius; his so-called New Model Army was called Ironsides. (Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes’s poem, Old Ironsides, saved the USS Constitution; I wonder whether Dr. Holmes was inspired by Cromwell’s Ironsides or not; they share the same first name.)

Oliver Cromwell’s vein ran the blood of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s counselor.  Oliver Cromwell's great-grandfather, Richard Williams, the nephew Thomas Cromwell, changed his name to Cromwell.

Poet John Milton (of Paradise Lost fame) worked for Oliver Cromwell and he had to go hiding from the followers of Charles II.  Milton probably witnessed the execution of Charles I.

Charles I’s last words were “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be!”

Lincoln liked to recite the lines of Macbeth (Act III Scene 2)—after King Duncan was murdered.

Duncan is in his grave;
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.

 

British Civil War is the struggle of power between the king and the parliament.  There was also some heated debate or accusation of whether keeping the Reformed Church of England or going back to Catholicism.  Was the execution of Charles I a heinous regicide? Was it legal? Just? or even Necessary?  This is a travel post, one need not to keep the travelers away.  (Some of the photos are from  the event staged by Charles I Society in 2009).

 

Without Charles River, Boston will not be Boston as we know it.  Harvard and MIT are set up along it.  When Captain John Smith presented the map of Massachusetts to Charles I, he suggested the king to change any of the “barbarous names (usually Indian names)” and the king named this river for himself.  So all of you Bostonians, shall we say Charles I River?  I say this lest the young would think it is named after “Prince Charles”, the only royalty they are familiar with.