Reluctant regicides? The trial of Charles I revisited

Dr Andrew Hopper investigates the recent controversy among
historians about the nature of the trial of King Charles I. Which
individuals drove the king's trial and what were their aims and
goals? Did the king know he was doomed from the outset or did
doubts remain over the trial's outcome? How committed were the
trial commissioners to a capital sentence and what pressures
constrained their freedom of action?


The trial papers of Charles I are on view in The Keeper's
Gallery.


Dr Andrew Hopper is senior lecturer in the Centre for English
Local History at the University of Leicester. He is a historian
of the British Civil Wars, and best known for his two monographs
Black Tom: Sir Thomas Fairfax and the English Revolution
(Manchester University Press, 2007) and Turncoats and renegadoes:
Changing sides in the English Civil Wars (Oxford University
Press, 2012).