Little Arthur's history of England

by Lady Maria Callcott

This Cromwell was a Puritan, or Roundhead. He was brave, and very sagacious, and very strictly religious, according to his own notions, though some men thought him a hypocrite; at all events he was always thinking how he could make himself the greatest man in England.

He may have thought that, though the army had got King Charles in its power, the people would never allow him to be put in prison for his lifetime, and that, if he were sent away to another country, he might come back sometime and make war again. So he said that the king had behaved so ill that he ought to be tried before judges. And he and the other generals named a great many judges to examine into all the king’s actions and words.

In the meantime King Charles had been moved from one prison to another, till at last he was brought to London to be tried.

I cannot explain to you, my dear, all the hard and cruel things that were done to this poor king, whose greatest faults were owing to the bad education given him by his father, and the bad advice he got from his wife, and those men whom he thought his best friends.

When his misfortunes came, his wife escaped to France with a few of her own favourites; and her eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, also escaped. Soon after his second son, James, Duke of York, also escaped to his mother; but the king’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth, and the little Henry, Duke of Gloucester, remained in England.

When King Charles was brought to London, only two of his own friends could see him every day: one of these was Dr. Juxon, Bishop of London, and the other was Mr. Herbert, his valet, who had been with him ever since the army had made him prisoner.

Shortly after the king was brought to London the judges appointed by the army condemned him to death, and three days afterwards his head was cut off.

But those three days were the best and greatest of Charles’s life. In those he showed that, if he had been mistaken as a king, he was a good man and a right high-minded gentleman. One of these days you will read and know more about him. I will only tell you now about his taking leave of his children; and I will copy the very words of his valet, Mr. Herbert, who wrote down all that happened to his dear king and master, during the last part of his life.

The day after the king was condemned to die, “Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Gloucester, her brother, came to take their sad farewell of the king their father, and to ask his blessing. This was the twenty-ninth of January. The Princess, being the elder, was the most sensible of her royal father’s condition, as appeared by her sorrowful look and excessive weeping; and her little brother seeing his sister weep, he took the like impression, though, by reason of his tender age, he could not have the like apprehensions. The king raised them both from off their knees; he kissed them, gave them his blessing, and setting them on his knees, admonished them concerning their duty and loyal observance to the queen their mother, the prince that was his successor, love to the Duke of York and his other relations. The king then gave them all his jewels, save the George he wore, which was cut out in an onyx with great curiosity, and set about with twenty-one fair diamonds, and the reverse set with the like number; and again kissing his children, had such pretty and pertinent answers from them both, as drew tears of joy and love from his eyes; and then, praying God Almighty to bless them, he turned about, expressing a tender and fatherly affection. Most sorrowful was this parting, the young princess shedding tears and crying lamentably, so as moved others to pity that formerly were hard-hearted; and at opening the chamber-door, the king returned hastily from the window and kissed them and blessed them.” So this poor little prince and princess never saw their father again.