heir goods may be most their own. It is not for having a sharing government ... a subject and a sovereign are clear different things ... If I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword, I need not to have come here; and therefore I tell you ... that I am the Martyr of the people". The King asked the executioner to wait for a sign. The last words he heard were the executioner's assurance "I will, an' it please Your Majesty". With one blow his head was severed from his body and a groan was heard in the small crowd that witnessed the execution. A week after the King's death, the House of Commons passed an additional Act abolishing the monarchy. Royalists refused to accept it, some on the basis that there could never be a vacancy of the Crown; others on the more legalistic footing that the Act was that of the Commons alone and did not have the participation of the other elements of Parliament: the House of Lords and the King. King Charles I's prediction that others would suffer as he had from arbitrary and lawless power was, at least partly, born out. The High Court of Justice in 1649 sentenced several royalist peers to death. Many enemies to the Commonwealth were subjected to this extra-judicial tribunal in 1650 37 . Prominent adherents to the monarchy were placed under martial law 38 . A new treason law was passed by the Commons exacting an oath of obedience to the Commonwealth. The army leaders, who were the real power in the new polity, adopted the conception of rule by an aristocracy of the "godly" 39 . An Instrument of Government was drafted by army officers in December 1653. It was a practical document binding Oliver Cromwell (by then designated the Lord Protector) to act only through the Council of State chosen largely by the army. Parliament was to meet at least triennially for five months. Its approval was required for nominations to the highest administrative and jud...
