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The Guild Church of St Margaret Pattens

Traditions

Charles, King and Martyr - Annual Service

Touch not mine anointed

 Qui Leo de Juda est, et Flos de Jesse Lyrista

Carmina qui Sacro psaltere sacra dedit,

Dulcisonam Ofaciat Citheram fortesque Leones,

Fecundet florem, Carole magne tuum.

Click on thumbnail to enlarge picture.

Every year we at St Margaret Pattens remember the death of King Charles the First who was executed on 30th January 1649.  A special service is held here annually on the Thursday closest to 30th January.  The tradition was begun in 1890 by Fr. James Fish, rector of this church, who was also a founding member of the Society of King Charles the Martyr – an organisation that exists today to commemorate his martyrdom and sacrifice.  A service is held annually at the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London, the site of King Charles's martyrdom.  Services are also held at several churches in this country, as well as at St Margaret Pattens.  

The KIng Charles Service and Banner with Fr James Fish, 1899

When, after the return of the monarchy to England in 1660, the Book of Common Prayer was restored to the Church, an extra service was added to it.  This was the so-called “A Form of Prayer with Fasting” to be used yearly on the thirtieth day of January, being the day of the martyrdom of the blessed King Charles the First.  This service was removed from the Prayer Book in 1859, so we are no longer required “to implore the mercy of God that neither the guilt of that sacred and innocent blood, nor those other sins, by which God was provoked to deliver up both us and our King into the hands of cruel and unreasonable men, may at any time hereafter be visited upon us or our posterity.” 

For us in London, a visible reminder of King Charles the First is his equestrian bronze statue in Trafalgar Square.  This was erected in the King’s lifetime.  In 1649, Parliament, victorious after the Civil War, sold it to a brazier in Covent Garden on condition that it be melted down.  The brazier stated that this had been done and made a fortune by selling to Royalists souvenir trinkets which he said had been made from the metal of the statue.  When the monarchy was restored, he dug it up from his garden, where he had buried it, and sold it to King Charles the Second.  We must, of course, never praise dishonesty, but I think we may be grateful that this striking, historic statue has survived all vicissitudes. 

The statue shows Charles looking down towards Whitehall where he was executed.  He was beheaded on a scaffold erected outside the Banqueting House of Whitehall Palace, but exactly where is disputed.  In about 1880, a keen Tory asked Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, to give his small son a word of advice.  The statesman groaned, but agreed and said to the boy, “Never ask on which side of Whitehall Charles the First was beheaded, because if you do you will be considered a bore which is a terrible thing for anyone to be.” 

Like other happenings in English history, such as the delivery of Magna Carta in 1215 and the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832, the King’s death is remembered not only for its import but also for events which marked the course of its story.  His execution, an illegal action carried through by fanatical army leaders, was marked by his courage and dignity, beginning with, on that bitterly cold, frosty morning, his determination to wear two shirts so as not to shiver on the scaffold as he spoke his last words, “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world.” 

But can Charles the First rightly be considered a martyr?  His personal character was certainly shown in his private life by his high moral purity and excellence, but there was even more to him than that.  In the end, he was condemned by his enemies because his religious principles refused to allow him to agree to the permanent sacrifice of the Church of England in order to conciliate the goodwill of the Scottish Presbyterians and the Puritan English minority.  Charles declared on the scaffold, “I die a Christian according to the profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my father”.  Bishop Creighton (1843–1901: Bishop of London from 1897) said in 1895 that, by his death, Charles saved the Church of England for the future, and that is still true today.   

One final thought would be that, were it not for our royal martyr, we would not be able to worship in this church as we can to this day.

 Charles, King and Martyr (1649) - a sermon given on Thursday, 28th January 2010 by Revd Hugh Thomas.  Readings: 1 Timothy 6:12-16; Mark 4:35-end.