Father's Execution
When the king was captured for the final time and sentenced to death by Oliver Cromwell and the other judges in 1649, Elizabeth wrote a long letter to parliament requesting permission to join her sister Mary in Holland. However, this request was refused until after the execution had taken place. On 29 January 1649, a highly emotional final meeting occurred between the two young royals, Elizabeth and the Duke of Gloucester, and their father. Elizabeth, who was then thirteen, while her younger brother was eight years old, wrote an account of the meeting that was found among her possessions after her death: "He told me he was glad I was come, and although he had not time to say much, yet somewhat he had to say to me which he had not to another, or leave in writing, because he feared their cruelty was such as that they would not have permitted him to write to me." Elizabeth was crying so hard that her father asked her if she would be able to remember everything he told her. She promised never to forget and said she would record it in writing. She wrote two separate accounts about the meeting, both found among her effects after her death a year and a half later. Her father told his sobbing daughter not to "grieve and torment herself for him" and asked her to keep her faith in the Protestant religion. Charles I told her to read certain books, among them Bishop Andrew's Sermons, Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity and Bishop Laud's book against Fisher, to ground her against "popery".
| “ | He bid us tell my mother that his thoughts had never strayed from her, and that his love would be the same to the last. Withal, he commanded me and my brother to be obedient to her; and bid me send his blessing to the rest of my brothers and sisters, with communications to all his friends. Then, taking my brother Gloucester on his knee, he said, 'Sweetheart, now they will cut off thy father's head.' And Gloucester looking very intently upon him, he said again, "Heed, my child, what I say: they will cut off my head and perhaps make thee a king. But mark what I say. Thou must not be a king as long as thy brothers Charles and James do live; for they will cut off your brothers' heads when they can catch them, and cut off thy head too at the last, and therefore I charge you, do not be made a king by them.' At which my brother sighed deeply, and made answer: 'I will be torn in pieces first!' And these words, coming so unexpectedly from so young a child, rejoiced my father exceedingly. And his majesty spoke to him of the welfare of his soul, and to keep his religion, commanding him to fear God, and He would provide for him. Further, he commanded us all to forgive those people, but never to trust them; for they had been most false to him and those that gave them power, and he feared also to their own souls. And he desired me not to grieve for him, for he should die a martyr, and that he doubted not the Lord would settle his throne upon his son, and that we all should be happier than we could have expected to have been if he had lived; with many other things which at present I cannot remember. | ” |
Charles I also gave his daughter a Bible during the meeting. After the execution, the royal children became unwanted charges. Joceline, Lord Lisle, the Earl of Northumberland's son, put a case to parliament for the removal of Elizabeth and her brother from the Northumberlands' care. Parliament, however, refused to allow them to go to Holland, and instead placed them in the care of Sir Edward Harrington; however, Harrington's son successfully pleaded that they be looked after elsewhere.
Read more about this topic: Princess Elizabeth Of England
Famous quotes containing the words father and/or execution:
“This is my father or, maybe,
It is as he was,
A likeness, one of the race of fathers: earth
And sea and air.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.”
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)