January 30, 1649

Execution of Charles I

Charles I is beheaded outside the Banqueting House at Whitehall

Charles asked for a second shirt. He feared the January cold would set him shivering, and that the spectators would read the shaking as fear.

30 January 1649: from St James's to a scaffold at Whitehall

On 30 January 1649 Charles I was escorted under guard from St James's Palace to Whitehall, where he waited several hours before passing through the Banqueting House to an outdoor scaffold.

The warrant behind it was dated 29 January 1648/9 and survives on a single parchment carrying 59 signatures and seals. It ordered the beheading in the open street before Whitehall, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

A speech almost nobody heard

Troops held the larger crowd beyond hearing distance, so Charles addressed only the people near him. A contemporary authorized pamphlet preserves what he said.

He signalled when he was ready, and a heavily disguised executioner killed him with one blow of the axe. That man's identity is unknown; Richard Brandon and William Hulet are among the proposed candidates, and no identification is secure.

What was and was not settled that day

The same day the Commons prohibited anyone from proclaiming a successor as king of England or Ireland. The monarchy itself had not been abolished: Parliament did that in March, and declared England a Commonwealth and Free State on 19 May.

The prohibition did not reach Scotland. The Scottish Estates proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

The date is the contemporary English Old Style date with the year modernized to begin on 1 January. The warrant itself is catalogued as 29 January 1648/9.
The executioner's identity is unknown. Richard Brandon and William Hulet are among the proposed candidates, but no identification is secure.
Accounts differ over who transcribed the scaffold speech and over some details of the execution. A printed version appeared immediately under official authority.