The Trials of Charles I - by Ian Ward (Hardcover)

About the Book

"One of the iconic moments in English history, the trial and execution of King Charles I has yet to be studied in-depth from a contemporary legal perspective. Professor Ian Ward brings his considerable legal and historical acumen to bear on the particular constitutional issues raised by the regicide of Charles, and not only analyses the unfolding of events and their immediate historical context, but also draws out their wider importance and legacy for the generations of historians, politicians, and writers over the ensuing three and a half centuries. This is a book about constitutional history and thought, but also about the writing of constitutional history and thought and the forms they have taken -- whether as scholarship, polemics, or literary experiments -- in collective British memory. Chapters range from the events leading up to and through the trial and execution of Charles; to their theatricality, legality, and constitutionality; to the political writings such as Milton's Tenure of Kings and Hobbes' Leviathan that followed; and finally trace the various subsequent histories and trials of Charles I that presented him either as martyr, Tory or -- in the 18th and 19th centuries -- the Whig"--

Book Synopsis

One of the iconic moments in English history, the trial and execution of King Charles I has yet to be studied in-depth from a contemporary legal perspective. Professor Ian Ward brings his considerable legal and historical acumen to bear on the particular constitutional issues raised by the regicide of Charles, and not only analyses the unfolding of events and their immediate historical context, but also draws out their wider importance and legacy for the generations of historians, politicians, and writers over the ensuing three and a half centuries.

This is a book about constitutional history and thought, but also about the writing of constitutional history and thought and the forms they have taken -whether as scholarship, polemics, or literary experiments - in collective British memory. Chapters range from the events leading up to and through the trial and execution of Charles; to their theatricality, legality, and constitutionality; to the political writings such as Milton's Tenure of Kings and Hobbes' Leviathan that followed; and finally trace the various subsequent histories and trials of Charles I that presented him either as martyr, Tory or -- in the 18th and 19th centuries -- the Whig.

Review Quotes

"Vivid, entertaining, and engaging" - H-Net

"Ian Ward gives us a master-class in the writing of seventeenth-century legal and constitutional history and in the historiography of the downfall of Charles Stuart. The pacy style, rich use of contemporary sources, intricately interwoven, and some cliff-hangers, all make for an enthralling and penetrating read." - N.M. Dawson, Professor Emeritus, Queen's University, Belfast, UK

"The Trials of Charles I lies at the crossroads of law, art, literature, and social history. It is a fresco where the grand narrative of the Civil War is enriched by the pétites histoires of its protagonists. Ian Ward masters the cross-disciplinary implications of sixteenth-century English legal history." - Matteo Nicolini, Associate Professor in Comparative Law, Verona University, Italy

"Ian Ward has written a pacy and compelling account of one of the most pivotal moments in English constitutional history. It will be enjoyed by scholars and general readers alike." - Gary Watt, Professor of Law, University of Warwick, UK

"This stimulating book charts a very persuasive course through the controversies surrounding Charles I's trial and execution in January 1649. In the process, it sheds a huge amount of light not only on the trial itself but also on the contested nature of Stuart monarchy and of Charles's posthumous reputation." - David L. Smith Fellow and Director of Studies in History, Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, UK

About the Author

Ian Ward is Professor of Law at Newcastle University, UK. He is the author of several books including Shakespeare and the Legal Imagination (1999), A State of Mind? The English Constitution and the Popular Imagination (2000), The English Constitution: Myths and Realities (2004), Law, Text, Terror (2009), Law and the Brontes (2011), and Sex, Crime and Literature in Victorian England (2014).