merly demanded for the army was still in arrear. The money was
in the hands of the Treasurers at War, but they refused to pay it over
until they had received their security from the wards according to
agreement. Fairfax pressed for an immediate payment, otherwise he would be
under the necessity of quartering troops of horse and foot upon those
wards which had failed to give the promised security for arrears of
assessments. Rather than this should happen the aldermen themselves
engaged to be security to the treasurers for payment of the money.(926)

(M473)

In the meanwhile the special tribunal established for the trial of the
king had commenced its work. At its head sat John Bradshaw, a
sergeant-at-law and sometime a judge of the sheriffs' court of the Wood
Street compter in the city.(927) Five aldermen were placed on the
commission, viz., Isaac Pennington, Thomas Andrews, Thomas Atkins, Rowland
Wilson and John Fowke;(928) but only the first two named took any active
part in the trial, and Wilson absolutely declined to serve. Not one of
them affixed his signature to the king's death-warrant. Among the rest of
the commissioners were, however, two citizens of repute, viz., Robert
Tichborne, afterwards an alderman,(929) and Owen Rowe, both of whom took
an active part in the trial and both signed the warrant for the king's
execution. When put upon his trial in October, 1660, for the part he now
took, Tichborne pleaded that what he had done was through ignorance, and
that had he known more he would sooner have entered a "red hot oven" than
the room in which the warrant was signed.(930) His penitence saved his
life, and he, like Pennington, spent the remainder of his days in
confinement.

The proceedings of the trial were unreasonably short and sharp. On Friday,
the 19th January, Charles was brought from Windsor to London. On the
following day he made his first appearance before his judges. On that day
week--Saturday, the 27th--sentence was pronounced, and three days later (30
Jan.) it was carried out before the king's own banquetting-house at
Whitehall.

CHAPTER XXVI.

(M474)

Within a week of the king's execution the Commons, confident in their own
strength and that of the army, voted the abolition of king and house of
lords, and declared England to be a Commonwealth.(931) They next proceeded
(14 Feb.) to place the executive power in the hands of a Council of State
of forty-one members, most of whom wer