Execution of Charles I, 1649 (litho)

Execution of Charles I, 1649. On the morning of 30 January, Charles walked from St James's through the park to Whitehall, calling on his guard "in a pleasant manner to step on a pace." At 2 pm, attended by Bishop Juxon, he stepped through a window of the Banqueting House on to a scaffold draped with black, which had been erected in the street. "Nothing in his life became Charles like the leaving it." After a brief speech to the people, and a word to Juxon, Charles met his end, "at the instant whereof (wrote one of the spectators) there was such a grone by the Thousands then present as I never heard before and desire I may never hear again." Illustration for one a set of cards on Historical London, issued by Hignett's Cigarettes in 1926.