The English Experiment & the Death of a King (Interviewed In Time)

by Colin Croad

  RTI: Your highness has certainly made your view clear to me, and I appreciate that.

  Cromwell: I have always tried to be clear in all my dealings with all men, sir. Whilst I am not a vain man, I do value the opinion and counsel of my fellow man, if he is a true man of God.

  RTI: That is very true, your highness, but what about the woman in your life. What does your wife think about the prospect of you becoming king and, possibly, her becoming queen?

  Cromwell: My wife! Elizabeth is a good, God fearing woman who knows that a wife is the main support and comfort in a man’s life, secondly only to God Himself. Whilst I thank God for sending her to me and for blessing me with so many children, I know that she will do as her husband commands. She will obey me in all things as I am the head of the house just as Christ is the head of the church. I hope you are not foolish enough to make your decisions in life based solely on what your wife thinks, sir? My Elizabeth knows that I have always tried to make the right decisions in life. What good husband hasn’t? I value her dedication and love to me, which has supported me throughout the long and terrible years of war. Without her by my side, life would be that much harder to bear in times of doubt and peril. An example of her resolve and support for me would have to be when some of the children she bore me died when they were only in their infancy. Only a woman of tremendous faith in God and love for her husband could have dealt with such tragedies. Now, you will forgive me if I ask you to leave, but I have finally grown very weary and would like to spend some time in quiet contemplation with God.

  RTI: Of course, your highness, but before I go may I ask you one last question?

  Cromwell: Do you ever cease with your questions, sir? If you must, but be quick!

  RTI: With all that has happened to the country and with all that has happened to you personally, how do you think posterity will remember you, and how would you like to be remembered?

  Cromwell: You have a way about you, sir, a certain unique way of asking questions that I find both interesting and disturbing. It’s almost as if you know exactly what questions to ask in order to make the person you put them to search their inner selves! It’s as if you have a window into a person’s soul, and you can already see the answer!

  RTI: I mean no disrespect, your highness. I merely wish to help you to better understand where you are and what to do.

  Cromwell: Do not be alarmed, sir. I will answer your question plainly and truthfully enough. I would hope that posterity would treat me as fairly and justly as I have tried to lead this realm. My biggest fear is that my enemies, those ungodly men whose sole desire is to satisfy their own greed and lusts, should be heard and listened to instead of reason and truth. However, I know that God will always make a path for the righteous man, and in that knowledge I am confident that, in time, the real meat of my journey here on God’s earth, the truth about Oliver Cromwell, will be heard. When that day comes, I hope they talk of the Godly man, the man who reluctantly took the reins of power and did his utmost to restore this country to a Godly, powerful and prosperous land. I would have it that they saw me as a man of reason and justice, blind to the injustices against me, but always vigilant when it came to injustice done to others. Does that answer your question, sir?

  RTI: It certainly has, your highness, and you have been very gracious in speaking with me. I hope that our talk together has helped you in some small way?

  Cromwell: Surprisingly, it has helped to talk and it has put much into context. I now feel certain that God has paved the way for me in life, shielded me from my enemies both in war and politics, and that this offer of the crown is no more than a test of my faith. I feel more assured than ever that I could never restore the office of king! Now, away with you, sir. I wish to speak with my God alone.

  (Interview terminated shortly after midnight. RTI retrieved successfully).

  Regulated Time Interview No. 2 Subject: Charles Stuart, English Monarch 1625-1649 AD Location: St James’s Palace Date: 29th January, 1649 approximately 11pm Background: Charles Stuart, king of England, is to be executed on the morning of the 30th January 1649 after being found guilty of treason by a parliamentary court. This is following seven years of brutal civil war during which both sides have committed war crimes against each other, but Charles is held responsible for causing it all. The king is being held in rooms at St James’s Palace before being taken to Whitehall to be beheaded. The RTI appeared under the guise of a minister of the church to give the subject the chance to prepare himself and to get right with God. On the very eve of his death, the emotional turmoil and psychological state of mind of the subject can only be imagined. This gave the RTI a distinct advantage in being able to get the subject to ‘open up’.

  RTI: (appearing suddenly in the room where the subject was located did make the subject nervously withdraw. However, once he had stepped out of the shadows and into the dim light, and with a few words of reassurance and apologies for making the subject start, he became more relaxed. Sitting down, the subject accepted the RTI as someone who had come to help him before the execution).

  How is your majesty feeling tonight?

  Charles: As well as I might, given the circumstances. Have you come to help me pray?

  RTI: Yes your majesty, and to help you to unburden your soul for any sins and transgressions you may have a wish to talk about.

  Charles: Indeed, there are a few of those we could talk about, but have you got all night priest?

  RTI: We have the night and I haven’t a need to be anywhere else your majesty. If there are any burdens on your conscience, then now is the time to talk about them. When we let go and talk about our problems it can take a great weight off our shoulders. King or pauper, we need to unburden our souls.

  Charles: I would very much like to talk, as I have had much on my mind these past years, and I fear for my wife and children.

  RTI: Why don’t we start with them, your majesty? If it pleases you, tell me more about your children.

  Charles: My wife and eldest son, Charles, are safe out the country and I thank God for that at least, though I fear for Henry and Elizabeth who are even now in the hands of my enemies. Ah, my dear sweet children. How I long to see them again, touch their dear sweet innocent faces! I may be a king, sir, but I am also a father, and any father will tell you what a blessing it is to have children. Young Henry and Elizabeth must be confused with all that has befallen them and their family. I feel their anguish and fear. It gives me some comfort to reflect back to happier days, when I could find time to spend with them all. Yet, as a king, I was often away from them, and as I think back I can see that those days were wasted, that if I had the chance to re-live those days then I would have spent more time with them. We feel the pain of knowing what we should have done only when we know we can’t change anything! It is the curse of man, and I fear that a father feels it tenfold when he knows he should have spent more time with his family, but no longer can!

  RTI: Have no fear, your majesty, for I believe your children will come to no harm at the hands of Cromwell or Parliament. They may be Puritans and see themselves as the instruments of God’s wrath, but even they would surely stop at infanticide. As you say, the Queen and your eldest son, Charles, are out of the country and Parliament can touch them. They are safe from your enemies, your majesty. Now, if it pleases your majesty, why don’t we talk of events that led you to being here? Tell me honestly, your majesty, who do you blame for all that has befallen your country?

  Charles: What right have you, priest, to question my authority as anointed king of this land? What right, I say, do you have to try and blame your king for the wars that have ravaged this country of ours? Tell me, I demand it!

  RTI: I meant no disrespect, your majesty. I merely wanted you to reflect upon your circumstances and how you find yourself in this situation. All I want is for you to find peace and for your soul to be cleansed of guilt before you have to meet the final judgement.

  Charles: I know you have a duty to try and he
lp me make peace with my maker, but I can’t find it in my heart to confess to all the guilt of such a ruinous calamity when I feel that God made me king and that it was my duty to defend the will of God! To say that I was guilty of starting the wars is to say that I deny the will of God, and that is something I just cannot do, sir! I see the likes of Cromwell and Parliament as the real architects of the wars, men who have deliberately dragged my people into such hardship and sorrow and have done their utmost to upset the natural order of things!

  RTI: So, you believe that they, all those who raised arms against you, are the guilty party, the ones who have brought such despair on the people of this land?

  Charles: Yes, with all my soul I believe that I am guiltless, and that I was merely trying to defend my God given right as sovereign of this land to do as I saw fit, to make laws for the people as I saw fit, to punish those who opposed me, the anointed king of England, and to reward all those who were loyal to me throughout. My kingdom has endured much hardship, much suffering and death, but I, as their anointed king, did what I thought had to be done to maintain the integrity and dignity of England. It was my unfortunate lot to be king at a time when so many people in the land felt they needed more or demanded more and felt compelled to take up arms to obtain it.

  RTI: Very well, your majesty, I can see that you feel no blame whatsoever for the wars and all the sufferings therein, and it’s good you should have such a firm belief in your innocence as it will help when you stand before God. So, instead, let me ask you about your marriage to the Princess Henrietta Maria of France, a known follower of the catholic faith. Were you not concerned about the reaction your people and parliament would have over this?

  Charles: Once again, sir, you see fit to cross those boundaries of decency and proprietary that a gentleman should not cross, and seek to imply that I was in some way wrong to marry the princess, that I should have instead married a woman chosen by my parliament! I tell you now, sir that I will not hear anything bad you may have to say about her majesty the queen!

  RTI: But surely, your majesty, you can see how inflammatory such an act was in a land that was terrified of Catholicism and it’s attachment to Rome, where the people had become staunch followers of the protestant church and in some cases had become zealous puritans? Surely your majesty must have known that trying to reassure parliament that your intentions regarding the church were honourable, that you weren’t going to relax the laws against Catholics and the reforms to the church were safe, and then assuring the French King that you would do just the opposite to please the Catholics-surely you must have realised that this would seriously damage your reputation as king?

  Charles: I know now that there were those in my kingdom who disapproved of my marriage, and were concerned that I would try to take the country back to the old faith. But, even though I allowed the queen to continue with her worship of her faith in peace, and even though I may have said one thing to the French king regarding a planned change in my kingdom, at no time at all did I do anything to hinder my people in their faith and nor would I, for I am their king, head of the church and defender of the faith.

  RTI: How would you describe your marriage to the Queen?

  Charles: What do you mean exactly?

  RTI: Would you say it was a happy marriage, full of affection, a partnership even? After all, initially you were on your way to have a secretly arranged marriage with the Infanta of Spain, but things didn’t quite turn out as you planned, did they?

  Charles: You are well informed, sir. Yes, I saw Princess Henrietta Maria whilst on my way to Spain, and we all thought it was a good match. The Queen and I did have some problems to begin with, and there were times at the beginning when I thought we would become estranged from each other, and the fact that we were both from different countries, different religions almost, did put a strain on us. But, and it is a happy ‘but’, we both discovered a new love for each other. We became a lot closer, sharing everything that a husband and wife should. In time, we grew to have a deep affection for one another. My wife, the Queen, became the perfect obedient wife that I longed for and also became a great source of comfort during difficult times.

  RTI: Yet part of that marriage arrangement also called for a promise to the French to give them military aid in the form of warships which would be used in their suppression of the Huguenots. How do you think that was interpreted as by your parliament and people your majesty?

  Charles: Your tone is both belligerent and disrespectful to your king, sir, and I’ll thank you to remember whose presence you are in! I may not have all the trappings of a sovereign lord anymore, and the rooms I find myself in are not as palatial as they once were, but I’ll thank you to show the same respect to me and my royal person as befits my rank! Now, enough of your impertinence, sir, and leave me to prepare myself for the ‘morrow!

  RTI: I’m simply trying to help your majesty to try and see where, perhaps, you made errors of judgement and to contemplate the notion that you were possibly in some way responsible for where you find yourself tonight, the eve of your death! That, despite being anointed by God, as you put it, you still had the same feelings and prejudices as other mortal men do! That, being in the high office of king of this land, your privileged life hadn’t prepared you for the true feelings and fears of the commonwealth and that your decisions were based on what you, and you alone, thought was best for your kingdom, often disregarding what your Commons knew to be best for the nation! I am, your majesty, here to help you understand and admit to any and all sins against God and your people which may interfere with your entry into the kingdom of heaven, regardless of how painful or inconvenient it may be to your majesty’s belief in yourself and what you see as God’s hand in all this.

  Charles: So, sir, you would have me confess to guilt for all that’s befallen me and not blame my enemies for anything? I think, sir, you are no more than an agent from Mr. Cromwell, come here to draw out of me anything that would make his conscience that much easier to bear! You would have me guilt ridden before God just so those who have conspired to put me here may live easier and sleep better at night! I think not, sir! I am the anointed king of this land, and I find myself here as a result of betrayal, by men who wanted that power over the commons that I myself had and which was bestowed on me, in turn, by my sovereign lord, the lord God on high! And it was his plan, his design that I rule supreme over all my people, lords and commons alike, with justice and wisdom! I feel I have done all I can to maintain the peace and had it not been for those men who desired power for themselves, then I would still be their lord and master! They and they alone, are responsible for all the evils that have overtaken my kingdom! It was my duty as the anointed king to wrest back control by whatever means I saw fit to use! Now, sir, be off I say and leave me in peace.

  RTI: I can see you earnestly believe in your appointment by God as the rightful king of this land, that you and you alone are fit to rule. I can see you believe that those who fought against you are power hungry criminals who have fooled the commons into fighting against you, their king, and that it was your duty as king to stop them by any means. You see yourself as the champion of the divine right of kings and this became your calling, a crusade to save England from the clutches of those who would bring her to her knees for their own ends. Evil, power hungry usurpers bent on the destruction of the status quo, the old order of things where the king ruled his subjects and the subjects obeyed the king, following him without question where ever he chose to lead, as if he, and he alone, could see and the rest were blind. Is this how you see yourself, your majesty?

  Charles: Yes, that is exactly how it is, sir! My calling is from God and only God can take it away. It was not the responsibility of parliament to tell me how I should rule this kingdom. They were there at my whim and were there only to advise, not to demand of me.

  RTI: So, what you’re saying then, your majesty, is that regardless of the fact that Parliament had been elected by the people to advise you and to help y
ou rule justly, and regardless of the fact that the Commons looked to you to protect them from tyranny and to preserve the laws of the land, you would have done what you wanted to anyway. What do you think would be the outcome of such a policy?

  Charles: You, sir, are trying to make me out to be some tyrant, when all I did was to try and preserve the status quo! I have a love for my people that is so great and I was determined to fight for their liberties as well as my own! I was the law of the land! I was their protection! It did not concern me how those traitors in Parliament viewed me! They were only after the reins of power for themselves, to feed their hunger for wealth and estate! I think, sir, you have a mind to convince me of some error I have committed, but I tell you now that I know of no error, other than not having been a fiercer king with regard to those I should have punished, but instead showed clemency and forgiveness.

  RTI: Why don’t we talk about how you would have done things differently, if you had the chance? Is there anything you would change, your majesty?

  Charles: I fear that we all have regrets, spectres from the past that haunt our minds at night or when we’re alone. Mine, as sovereign lord of this land, are many. I would not be much of a king if I had none whatsoever. When I was younger, I had no thought of being king. Henry, my brother and Prince of Wales, should have been king, but God saw fit to take him from us. That was a loss I never thought to get over, sir, but I did, and it soon dawned on me that God had a purpose for my life, a plan which involved taking my brother, who I adored and worshipped, and putting me on the throne in his place. It was a heavy burden to carry, but carry it I did. I never shied away from my duties, never gave in to my fears, though I would rather Henry had been spared and God had given him the burden, leaving me to pursue my life in peace. I was not of good health when a child, yet I took well to my studies as any Prince should and I would say that I was cared for by those around me. My parents were as good as any child could want to have and I did my best to please them. When my brother died, it was a great shock to suddenly find myself the heir to the throne, to realise that God had chosen me to lead the people of this land. My parents must have wondered how I, the young and unhealthy child who looked so frail as an infant, could possibly become king. Yet, despite their fears, I was helped by God to grow strong enough to fulfil his purpose. However, I think my biggest regret is putting too much faith in men who promised me victory, those of my lords and generals who were ambitious to prove themselves, but whose talents weren’t up to the task. Many is the time when I’ve not listened to the voice of my conscience, not listened to God who chose me, but instead followed the pleadings and protestations of one of my council, who has assured me that he will not let me down. Dear Prince Rupert is the one that readily springs to mind. How devastated I was when he surrendered Bristol to parliament, despite his assurances that he would hold it. Then there are the Scots. If I’d tried to get them to join me sooner with promises of concessions, then the outcome of the wars would have been very different indeed! As I say, sir, we all have regrets, but a king has a legion of them, and each one has a profound affect not only on his person, but on the kingdom as a whole.