A stained vest said to have been worn by King Charles I when he was beheaded in 1649 is set to go on display in London. The King's execution is a key moment in British history.
Exactly 371 years ago on a bitterly cold Jan. 30, 1649, the king stepped out of the Banqueting House in Central London onto a scaffold, where his executioner awaited with an ax. A large crowd assembled to watch the beheading.
King Charles I’s Royalists were defeated by Parliament’s forces in the bloody English Civil Wars, which lasted from 1642 to 1651. In May 1646, after suffering a string of military defeats, the King had placed himself in the protection of a Scottish army but was handed over to the English Parliament nine months later.
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