As January melts into February, my thoughts often turn to the final moments of our two King Charles’s.
30th January (1649) marks the anniversary of the Regicide. I remember being about 8 or 9 years old at school, learning the first lessons about our Tudor and Stuart history, and one aspect of the killing of the King has always remained with me. I can vividly recall my teacher (Mrs Howitt… she smelt of Poison by Dior) telling us that when King Charles I was led onto the scaffold, he wore two vests to guard against the bitter cold lest his shivers be mistaken for a sign of fear.
The image of a King loathe to shiver before his rebellious subjects really touched me. I am reluctant to put this down to sympathy as it feels disrespectful to pity a King but I am left with an impression of pride and dignity in the moment that the Divine Right of Kings was shattered so violently.
6th February (1685) marks the anniversary of the death of King Charles II. That image of the King dying slowly surrounded by the ticking clocks that so fascinated him.
The constitutional crisises prompted by the deaths of both Kings have had a lasting impact upon the Great Britain that we know today. What I deduce from the periods of Republic and Revolution that followed both of these events is this country’s dependence upon a sound Monarchy. I am proud of this lesson learnt. A true Royalist through and through.
The only problem that I face year after year at this sombre time is the glorious distraction that is my best friend’s Birthday. I would love to join the Cavaliers of The Sealed Knot in their annual drinks on the Mall but this event is always scheduled on the last Saturday in January and I am forever being called upon to drink with the Birthday girl.
I would love to pay a solemn pilgrimage to Banquetting House to look out to where the scaffold would have stood and lay flowers at the foot of the statue in Trafalgar Square (erected by the Son to commemorate the Father) but I am invariably tied up in my kitchen fashioning a suitably chic Birthday cake.
Today, I light a candle in memory of the most fabulous King of England… and I am sure that he will approve most heartily when it is blown out by the most stylish girl I know. Tomorrow, I will post you a picture of this cake, because I wouldn’t want to spoil tonight’s surprise!
The King is dead. Long live the Queen.
C
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"I would love to join the Cavaliers of The Sealed Knot in their annual drinks on the Mall"
ReplyDeleteIt is the Kings Army of the English civil War society that stages this event.
And long live Restoration Cake!
ReplyDeleteYou are just TOO CUTE :)
ReplyDeleteIn response to the above comment from Marquess of Winchesters Regt, I would like to say how thrilled I am to be corrected. Your events sound fantastic and I hope to get myself along to one this year! Nice to hear from a fellow enthusiast.
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