If you ask me, I'd say King Charles was asking for it

If you look solely at the account of King Charles’s trial on pages 1739-41, the king comes off as arrogant, unremorseful, and disrespectful. I understand he had feelings that parliament was in the wrong, but, possibly if he had sung to different tune, he would have kept his head for a little while longer. In a situation in which you are on trial with the chance of execution, it would be in your best interest to at the very lease reframe from smiling.

                The account from The Moderate, although short, provides several examples where King Charles should have just bite the bullet and behaved differently.  Upon entering the court, neither King Charles nor parliament took off their hats. ”The king came into the court, his hat on, and the Commissioners with theirs on also; no congratulation or motion of hats at all” (1739). Neither party wanted to show superiority to the other.  I understand that King Charles thought he was right, I really do, but its striking that he could not have played this situation better. Whether or not he did it sincerely is irrelevant. If King Charles was playing his cards right he would have shown respect to the people who currently had his life in their hands. Wouldn’t you think?

                As his charges were read, the king maintained his smug attitude to the situation. “The king smiled often during the time, especially at those words therein, viz that Charles Stuart was a tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy of the commonwealth.” (1739) Really Charles, smiling? SMOOTH.

                The king continues with the same antics by refusing response to his charges, reminding parliament that he is their “lawful king”. He then proceeds to tell the Lord President that “England was never an elective kingdom but a hereditary kingdom, for near a thousand years, therefore let me know by what authority I am called hither.” (1740) It seems fairly ignorant to not realize while you’re sitting in a courtroom, that those in prosecuting you are in the authority position. (Whether or not legitimately so).

 Logic has seemingly escaped the king.  However, due to the strong religious feelings King Charles’s presents, he comes off as a martyr and not crazy or dumb. He leaves the courtroom saying he is not afraid of the sword. He truly believed that if he had given in to this “illegitimate” power he would be sinning. He was willing to die for what he thought was right. Something we do not see a lot of on the modern political field. If Charles was king today, maybe he would have played the game a bit better.

A separate thought, but I think it is important to remember, that Charles was in the situation because he was not liked by the people. Perhaps in the actual courtroom he was a little more diplomatic than described in the passage.  If the spin we had the opportunity to read was authored by someone who opposed the king as well, then the author possibly could have written about Charles’s words and King Charles persona based on his present hatred for the king not on the facts.