3. Regicide, Part Two: Yorkshire and the King's Revenge
Episode notes
Content note: this episode includes descriptions of executions and exhumed human remains.
In May 1660, Charles II rode back into London to cheering crowds. For the men who had signed his father's death warrant, the celebrations meant something else: it was time to run.
In the second of two episodes, we follow what happened next. We cover the Act of Oblivion and the men it left out, the October 1660 trials, and the grim January of 1661, when Cromwell and others were dug up to face a punishment their deaths hadn't spared them.
We follow the fates of the North's regicides and the generals who refused to sign, visit the legend that Cromwell's body lies hidden at Newburgh Priory in North Yorkshire, and look at plague, fire and a brother's crown. We finish with the world of Robert Harris's novel Act of Oblivion, which inspired this episode.
It's a story about revenge, survival, and how long a king's memory can be.
Missed Part One? Start there for the road to the scaffold!