Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,783
On January 30, 1649, the overthrown King Charles I of England was by order of Oliver Cromwell publicly beheaded in London!
This old illustration shows the execution absolutely correct, the king was executed lying down!
This could be the end of the story - but it is not!
After the end of the subsequent era of Oliver Cromwell as "Lord Protector" (1658)...
... and the flight of his absolutely incapable son and successor Richard to France (1659)...
...was te monarchy in 1660 with the enthronement of Charles II.
... restored by the parliament.
In January 1661, the new king and his faithful again feel so firmly in the saddle that they stage a bizarre revenge grotesque ...:
On January 29th, those at Westminster Abbey ...
... buried corpses of Oliver Cromwell ...
... and two of his closest confidants, Henry Ireton ...
... and John Bradshaw ...
... are exhumed by order of the king.
One day later, on January 30, 1661, exactly twelve years after the execution of Charles I, the three dead were "executed" at the exact same place on the gallows yard in Tyburn in London where Charles I had been beheaded.
The half decayed carcasses are first hanged ...
... then beheaded - and Cromwell's head is also burned! The heads of the three are then spiked on pikes and exposed across Westminster Hall for public deterrence.
Afterwards the "executed" are buried nameless!
However, not completely, as it turned out:
At some point Cromwell's severed and heavily charred head ...
... got in the wrong hands - and was been shown for years by its "owners" afor money!
This went on for 300 years - until 1960!
Then, however, the authorities intervened, confiscated the head (the authenticity of which was now questioned) and buried it at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, where Cromwell had once studied...:
Cheers
This old illustration shows the execution absolutely correct, the king was executed lying down!
This could be the end of the story - but it is not!
After the end of the subsequent era of Oliver Cromwell as "Lord Protector" (1658)...
... and the flight of his absolutely incapable son and successor Richard to France (1659)...
...was te monarchy in 1660 with the enthronement of Charles II.
... restored by the parliament.
In January 1661, the new king and his faithful again feel so firmly in the saddle that they stage a bizarre revenge grotesque ...:
On January 29th, those at Westminster Abbey ...
... buried corpses of Oliver Cromwell ...
... and two of his closest confidants, Henry Ireton ...
... and John Bradshaw ...
... are exhumed by order of the king.
One day later, on January 30, 1661, exactly twelve years after the execution of Charles I, the three dead were "executed" at the exact same place on the gallows yard in Tyburn in London where Charles I had been beheaded.
The half decayed carcasses are first hanged ...
... then beheaded - and Cromwell's head is also burned! The heads of the three are then spiked on pikes and exposed across Westminster Hall for public deterrence.
Afterwards the "executed" are buried nameless!
However, not completely, as it turned out:
At some point Cromwell's severed and heavily charred head ...
... got in the wrong hands - and was been shown for years by its "owners" afor money!
This went on for 300 years - until 1960!
Then, however, the authorities intervened, confiscated the head (the authenticity of which was now questioned) and buried it at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, where Cromwell had once studied...:
Cheers
