2. Regicide, Part One: Yorkshire and the Killing of a King

Content note: this episode includes descriptions of war and a public execution.

On 30 January 1649, King Charles I stepped out onto a scaffold in Whitehall. Fifty-nine men had signed his death warrant, and a striking number of them came from the North.

In the first of two episodes, we follow the road to the regicide. It starts with a gate slammed shut at Hull and runs through Marston Moor, the largest battle ever fought on English soil, to a trial Westminster had never seen the like of.

We meet four signatories with Yorkshire roots: Peregrine Pelham, Thomas Chaloner, John Alured and Sir William Constable. And we meet two of the North's greatest generals who didn't sign: Thomas Fairfax and John Lambert.

It's a story about loyalty, conscience and family, and about choices that would follow these men long after the axe fell.

Part Two, on Charles II's return, the Act of Oblivion and the revenge that followed, is out now.

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Thanks lads!

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About the show Bad, Mad & Northern is a history and true crime podcast about the villains, eccentrics and extraordinary stories of the North: murderers and body snatchers, kings and rebels, drowned villages and Cold War secrets. Each episode is carefully researched and told with honesty about the sources, and a healthy dose of northern scepticism.

Meet your host I'm Lucy Sheridan: author, speaker, and proud northerner, recording from an armchair in the Peak District. I've always been drawn to the darker corners of our history, and this show is where I get to share them with you. Pull up a chair.

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Watch on Youtube from 1st October 2026

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