This is a work of fiction but explains the period very well and I researched events mentioned. 3/2/23 Act of Indemnity and Oblivion passed in England after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, which pardoned most of those who had opposed the monarchy.
1642 to 1651 English Civil War
1651 till 1658 Cromwell became Lord Protector of England.
1660 to 1685 Charles II
This starts in 1660 in Boston when Daniel Gookin arrived back home from England with 2 regicides Colonel Edward Whalley and Colonel William Goffe. They wanted shelter as the Charles 11 who had given amnesty to the soldiers in the Roundhead army but wanted everyone who had signed his fathers death warrant executed.
Colonel Hackers wife had been forced to hand over this death warrant certificate. It goes back to describe the Execution of Charles1 that he was brought out of the window of Banqueting house Whitehall onto a platform that had (no ladder or access to it from below) where he was decapitated.
1549 The Book of Common Prayer was the first English prayer book for the Anglican church during the reformation.
Richard Nayler had a grudge against these 2 regicides as they had arrested him when his wife was ready to give birth and when he came out of Newgate prison found that his wife and baby had died of premature birth due to shock.
1650 Battle of Dunbar was a decisive victory for Cromwell and 3000 prisoners were sent off to the colonies as indentured servants. The rest of Charles I family had fled.
Reports came to London from Boston by a ships captain that he had seen the 2 regicides sheltered by the Massachusetts governor.
1660 By this time many of the regicides had already died, 10 caught was hung, drawn and quartered in public view at Charring Cross, this was 11 years after Charles I execution.
1661 The body of Cromwell was exhumed and it was treated the same as the living regicides, and then chase in New England takes place. Puritans were translating the bible into Wampanoag the language of the Massachusetts tribe.
New Haven Connecticut was an independent colony then. 1620 The governor here had gone to the Hague and been ejected from the church there because of his strict baptism rules. The regicides were busy training the local militia and thought perhaps they would build up and army against the king. They could escape to New Amsterdam under Peter Stuyvesant the Dutch governor(he had lost a leg in the battle against the Spanish in the indies and had a wooden leg) and ask for sanctuary.
The one regicide was writing his memoir of his childhood friendship to Oliver Cromwell. The whole of New England had a Christian population of 30,000 while London had a million, perhaps it is easier to hide in London.
"The sole authority in New Haven is God"
An informer told them which houses to search for the regicides. The informers wife could not fall pregnant and was accused of being a witch, this drove her to her death. The informer had been whipped by the New Haven governor for being drunk. The chance to see their wives again lured 3 people to Netherlands where they were caught and taken by ship to England. The English could not get to those in Germany. Out of 59 regicides 11 had died of natural causes by the time Charles II came to power only 5 were alive still, the public had seen enough killing and the rest must be assassinator. A team was sent to Lausanne, they assassinated someone in broad daylight ran and got to their horses and fled the country.
The Puritans had demolished the Globe rounded up hundred of prostitutes and exiled many to America, maypoles were taken down and merriment of Shrove (absolve, the day before the period of Lent )Tuesday were stopped.
In Cambridge the wanted to take the gold and silver plate and vandalized St Mary's at St. Peterborough Cathedral the destroyed everything from the idols , library and achieves.
1643 Gainsborough first battle of the civil war attacking a Royalist base resulting in many Royalists fleeing and drowning in the Lincolnshire fens.
1944 Marston Moore about 4000 Royalist killed for only 300 Roundheads, the largest battle ever fought on English soil and Cromwell now controlled the whole north.
1945Nasby first battle fought with New Model Army, started at Leicester and the Royalist were outnumbered 2 to 1 led by Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Over 100 women of the Royalist were hacked to death accused of being papist, whores and witches and were buried in a common grave. After Cromwell had beaten the Welsh at Pembroke and the Scots at Preston the Roundheads converged on London. The army now excluded all MPs that wanted a settlement with the king
The Royalist army had been destroyed but they still had to siege pockets of resistance at Bridgewater Sherburne Bristol, Dartmouth, Banbury, Exeter, Oxford Worcester even 2 years after Naseby.
1648 Siege of Colchester the Royalists held out for 11 weeks inside the city walls. The king tried to escape to France but no ship was waiting for him instead he fled to the Isle of Wight where is stayed in Carisbrooke Castle and the governor sent a message to Cromwell. Cromwell had a riding accident and never recovered from that.
British expedition troops arrived and New Netherland now no longer existed and New Amsterdam was New York named after the kings brother. These troops were sent to look for the regicides who had moved secretly from New Haven to Hadley , Connecticut. There would now be a war between England and the Netherlands.
1666 The English navy suffered a defeat by the Dutch at Paternoster, the bubonic plague broke out, followed by the great fire of London. 1666 was meant to be the year of the Second Coming instead the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse - war, plague, famine, death as mentioned in Revelations. 1 in 4 Londoners died and 87 churches were destroyed.
1665 to 1667 The second Anglo Dutch war lasted 2 years. The war ended up with the signing of the Treaty of Breda. Manhattan was left under English rules and the Dutch were left Isle Run all the spice Island of the Dutch East Indies.
1642 to 1649 English Civil wars. Charles I had an unwavering belief of Divine Right of Kings, and refused to compromise his god given authority. For the victorious Parliamentarians to bring the sovereign to trial was revolutionary. It was the Rump Parliament that brought him to trial. He was executed in 1649 January. Regicide was propelled by a resolute minority faction centered from key figures in the New Model Army. 59 commissioners signed the death warrant.
The Kings death was necessary to secure the hard won gains of the Civil war and prevent the resurgence of Royalism. The trial and execution were not universally supported.
The signatories were high ranking military commanders like Cromwell and Ireton to influential MPs as Henry Marten and legal figures like Bradshaw, a roll call of men from a tapestry of reasons.
1660 May. Charles II returned to London after 11 years of republican rule. This was the result of Cromwell's death in 1659 followed by the ineffectual leadership of his son Richard Cromwell. Once his government crumbled it paved the way for General George Monck to facilitate the kings return.
1660August The Act of Indemnity and Oblivion. This was part of Charles II Declaration of Breda which offered clemency and reconciliation. However those who had killed the king would be relentlessly remembered and revenged. This pacified the many but made a terrifying example of the few. a deterrent against future rebellion.
A significant number of signatories had died in the 11 years between the Execution of Charles I and the restoration of Charles II. About 15 of natural causes, a number in battle especially in Ireland. These were all exhumed hung and beheaded and some of the heads were placed on spikes above Westminster Hall. There bodied were then reburied in a common pit in St Margaret's churchyard. A deliberate act of desecration and denial of honour. This was a carefully orchestrate state ritual a form of damnatio memoriae an attempt to delegitimize the rules an recast them as traitors. Others were merely attainted - the confiscation of their estates.
Of the signatories still alive even when the pleaded guilty were treated as traitors were hung drawn and quartered.
A further 19 had their sentences commuted to life in imprisonment, through expressions of contrition, or intercession of powerful friends or family with royalist connections. Perhaps a pragmatic desire of the Crown to avoid excessive bloodshed.
About 20 signatories chose to flee England initially to Protestant Netherland but when this became perilous to Switzerland's independent cantons. At least 3 took shelter amongst the Puritans of New England and later found shelter in New Haven , Connecticut.
Colonel Richard Ingoldsby received a full pardon as he had supported General Monck and restoration and had captured John Lamburt who had attempted to rally support against the monarchy's return. The executioner of the king , the headman and his assistant were masked and never identified while alive.
1688 The Glorious Revolution, further limited monarchical power. However the memory of the regicide and what followed led to an enduring mistrust of radical institutional change.
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