CHARLES I. 
135 
41. During the absence of Cromwell, the Presbyterian leaders in 
Parliament opened negotiations with the captive King. "The resolu 
tion authorizing this was passed by a vote of 129 against 
83. VForthwith an officer named Colonel Pride entered 
the House of Commons, followed by two regiments, and 
forcibly expelled the Presbyterian members. The name Rump was 
derisively given to the remaining Independents, who constituted all 
that was left of the famous “ Long Parliament,” 
42. The Rump Parliament proceeded to impeach the King for his 
alleged crimes against the State, It made a new definition of treason, 
declaring that it was “treason for a King to levy war 
upon his subjects,” The King's trial was committed to Ph 
& tribunal called “the High Court of Justice,” consisting . 
nominally of one hundred and fifty members, of whom not more than 
ifty actually attended the sessions. Al the peers appointed to the 
Court absented themselves. ‘The High Court of Justice ” met on the 
20th of January 1649, and sat for seven days, under the presidency of a 
Iawyer named Bradshaw. Throughout the trial Charles bore himself 
with quiet dignity, declining to acknowledge the jurisdietion of his 
judges, The sentence of the court was in the following terms :— 
* For which treasons and crimes this court doth adjudge that he, the 
said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy, 
should be put to death by severing his head from the body.” What. 
cver may have been the King’s faults or follies, the illegality of thie 
sentence is beyond all question. "To secure its passage, it had been 
necessary to assume that the House of Commons had power to legis: 
late without the concurrence either of the Peers or of the Sovereign. 
43. Before and during Charles’s trial great efforts were made to save 
him, Strong protests were received from Scotland. The United States 
of the Netherlands interceded in his behalf. The Prince z { 
of Wales offered any concessions that would save his of the King 
father'’s life, All was in vain. Three days after its issue “ 
the dread sentence was carried out. On the 30th of January 1649, a 
day held sacred by many generations of loyal Englishmen, Charles 
Stuart was behended on a platform erected in front of the banqueting 
hall of Whitehall Palace, The fire which subsequently destroyed the 
palace spared the banqueting hall, which has long been used as one 
of the chapels royal. Every visitor to London gazes at the window 
through which King Charles LI. stepped forth to the fatal block, The 
King met his fate with 2 composure worthy of a Christian. ‘His 
head fell at the first blow ; and as £he executioner lifted it to the sight 
of all, a groan of pity and horror hurst from the silent crowd.”