Translator: Ellen Maloney Reviewer: Seok Kim
It was a cold, cold morning on the 30th of January, 1649,
when a slight man was led through this space,
from one end to the other, and out to be executed.
And that man was King Charles I.
He had lost a long and bloody civil war against the forces of parliament,
he had been tried for treason against his own people,
and he was condemned to die.
And he died here.
And as you came in, you probably looked up in this amazing space.
And he must have looked up.
And for him, that was an incredible thing,
because it was he who had commissioned this ceiling from Peter Paul Rubens,
which was installed only 13 years before in 1636.
It was a ceiling that was to glorify his family,
the Stuart dynasty,
and instead, it was to be their memorial.
In 1603, his father, James VI of Scotland, became James I of England,
and the painting there is the union of the crowns.
The baby here is James I's grandson,
Charless II to be.
He's held aloft, and the crown leaps the generations.
And the central painting is the apotheosis of James I;
James I is taken into Heaven.
Angels bear him aloft, trumpets sound,
and his worldly crown is substituted for a hero's wreath.
The last of the great paintings is the peaceful reign of James I.
He sits above the throne on his throne,
and he presides over a peaceful nation that will last forever.
Well, it didn't.
Because all of this glorifies and signifies the Stuart's belief
in the divine right of kings,
that they were ordained by God,
and that they could do no wrong.
But Charles I clearly failed.
He was defeated in the civil war
where he lead his forces against those that were loyal to parliament.
And finally, in January 1649,
in Westminster Hall where many of us will be this evening,
he was put on trial for his life.
And he suffered the ultimate penalty here.
So this place has an incredible importance in British history.
Whitehall Palace was vast.
It was the largest in Europe,
and the banqueting house was the first
holy classical building in Britain since the Romans.
And it always looked as if it had just landed.
Charles II, in 1660, on the 29th of May, was restored to his throne,
here, after the failure of the republican experiment.
He was succeeded by his brother and heir, James II,
who was publicly and frighteningly Catholic.
He is dressed rather camply as the Lord Higher Admiral.
(Laughter)
But in him, Stuart absolutism was revived.
What this represented was going to come again.
He was deposed at Christmas, 1688,
and parliament invited his daughter and son-in-law from the Netherlands
to come and rule in his place,
as joint monarchs: King William III and Queen Mary II.
And here again, beneath this ceiling, in this place, they were offered a crown.
They were presented with this, now, rather dog-eared document,
'The Petition of Right.'
That happened on the 13th February, 1689, almost 40 years to the day,
since their grandfather was killed here.
And they were formally invited to accept the crown
on a whole host of provisions that they would not do
as James had done.
They would be resolutely Protestant,
and that they would abide by the will of the people,
so this is a foundation item in the path to democracy.
And it still stands today: On the fourth of January, 1698,
a maid left laundry in front of the fire and the palace burnt to the ground.
This building was saved because of what it represented.
So what it represents is an extraordinary history
of the attempt
to impose rule by the divine right,
and that being destroyed
in the fulcrum of political change.
This building is a stepping stone on the path to democracy.
Thank you.
(Applause)