The Downfall of King Charles I: Sources & Citations

When Prince Andrew was formally arrested in February 2026, I immediately thought of the last royal to be taken into custody: King Charles I, in 1647.

For Andrew, the arrest led to a quiet exit from public life. For Charles, it led to a civil war, the rise of a republic, and the end of his reign, and his life, on a scaffold outside the palace.

Image sources:

By order of appearance

Daniel Mytens I, Charles I, 1633, oil on canvas, St. Louis Museum of Art

Anthony Van Dyke, Charles I and Henrietta Maria with their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Mary, 1632, oil on canvas, The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle

Anthony Van Dyke, Portrait of Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, 1632, oil on canvas, Archbishop’s Castle and Gardens, Kroměříž

Anthony van Dyck, Charles I with M. de St. Antoine, 1633, oil on canvas, Queen’s Gallery, Windsor Castle

Rogers Herbert, Assertion of Liberty of Conscience by the Independents of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, 1644, 1847, oil on canvas, Westminster Palace
Image credit: Parliamentary Art Collection

Anthony Van Dyke, Charles I in Three Positions, 1635-36, oil on canvas, Palace of Holyroodhouse. Image credit: The Royal Collection

Wenceslaus Hollar, Tower of London, 1625-77Etching, second state of two, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

John Seymour Lucas, The Flight of the Five Members, 1642, 1915, oil on canvas, Parliamentary Art Collection, Westminster Palace

Ladislaus Bakalowicz, Judgement of Charles I, 1650, 1885, oil on canvas, Private Collection

Ernest Crofts, Charles I on his way to execution, 1891, oil on canvas, Towneley Hall Art Gallery & Museum 

Unknown artist, The Execution of Charles I of England, 1649, oil on canvas, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Benjamin West, Oliver Cromwell Dissolving the Long Parliament, 1782, oil on canvas, Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey.