Charles I Commemoration Ceremony

An event in January in London
St. James’s Palace to Trafalgar Square
St James's
Event timing: Sunday nearest to 30th January
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Members of the King's Army of the English Civil War Society will march in the footsteps of King Charles I in commemoration of "His Majestie's Horrid Murder" at the hands of the Parliament on 30th January 1649.

The soldiers of this modern re-creation of a Royalist Army of the Civil Wars are all volunteers and will be clothed and equipped in the same manner as their forebears were 364 years ago. Should the weather turn to snow, as it did then, no doubt some of them will also be following Hys Majestie's sartorial style and be wearing two shirts!

A wreath will be laid at 10.00am at the base of the contemporary statue of King Charles I in Trafalgar Square near the spot the King's murderers were executed when King Charles II regained the throne.

The March will commence, as a funeral march, from a point on The Mall close to St.James' Palace at 11.00am, proceeding down The Mall, down Horse Guards Road and onto Horse Guards Parade itself - where it will assemble for a short Service of Remembrance and a ceremony in which officers will be commissioned and medals awarded to worthy members, many of whom will have taken part in this parade in each of the King's Army's thirty- nine years of existence.

At 12.00 noon a wreath will be presented and later laid near the place of the King's Horrid Murder outside the Banqueting House. The soldiers of this seventeenth century army will march to the beat of the drum on their return journey down The Mall to St. James' Palace.

The King's Army, part of the English Civil War Society, spends the summer months re-creating history with the Roundhead Association at venues throughout the country.