He fled to Scotland, his Stuart homeland, but the Scots were even less impressed by him than the English and, so, investing Newcastle, occupied the city and made themselves unpopular amongst Geordies. Having run up quite a few bills supporting the English Parliamentary cause his Scottish 'countrymen' wanted to swap His Majesty for coin, which duly, grudgingly, took place.
Charles however, was not done and played a very silly game with his captors and finally, all patience with this wilful man exhausted, the zealots among the Parliamentary faction, notably in the army, had him tried, condemned and executed in London on the 30th January 1649. He died, so it was said by onlookers, in a style conspicuously lacking in his reign, resolute and calm. However, the struggle of who ruled and how played out among the 'Anglosphere' peoples down the next century afterwards, most notably in America.
The execution of King Charles the First, 30th January 1649.
I have followed his (putative) footsteps from the site of his captivity (now occupied by a bank …) towards the place where, in olden days open fields gave Charles a chance to practice his game.
The route sets off from the heart of Tyneside 19th century 'Classical' city scape at the top of Grey Street, down Market Street to Shieldfield, now semi-isolated behind a wall of crap architecture and duelled urban motorway. On the walk I snapped some of the few delights and much of what went wrong in the shaping of the Tyneside of the 21st century.
A link to an off site slideshow. Any questions do ask.
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