Episode Details

Charles I wore two shirts to his execution on a freezing January morning so that the crowd would not see him shiver and mistake it for fear. It was a final act of royal dignity from a king whose stubborn belief in divine right had cost him his throne, his war, and his head.

This episode traces Charles from his stammering childhood as a spare heir through his clashes with Parliament, the English Civil War, and the trial that made him the first English king to be publicly executed.

• He wore two shirts to his execution so he would not shiver and appear afraid to the crowd
• His insistence on divine right of kings and refusal to compromise with Parliament triggered the English Civil War
• He was tried for treason against the people of England — a legal concept invented specifically for his case
• His execution in 1649 led to eleven years of republican government under Oliver Cromwell