Quotes from Don Jordan

Twenty-eight men were on trial. If found guilty, they faced death by the grisly form of torture known as hanging, drawing and quartering. The most important of these were twenty-four who had sat as judges at the king's trial. Most of them had played other key roles in bringing the king to trial.

The accused were to be tried under a three-hundred-year-old Act. The Treason Act of 1351 had come into being during the reign of Edward III, its purpose to define and limit the number of offences classed as treason. It sill exists today. The

After selecting and swearing in a hand-picked jury, the prosecution then lowered the bar for the amount of evidence necessary to convict. Traditionally, in a treason trial, a minimum of two witnesses was required to prove guilt. Bridgeman announced that one witness would now be sufficient.

overwhelmed the Scots. The Prince's lack of skill as a commander

These lawyers agreed to charge the alleged regicides under the ancient law of treason, which made 'imagining' the death of the king or his heir punishable by death. 'Imagining' could cover a range of acts from direct involvement in a royal death to advocating it. They then agreed to drop the requirement under common law for two witnesses to prove an action. In the forthcoming trials one witness was to be deemed sufficient.

Attainder was medieval England's great disincentive to treason. It was seen by many as a punishment equally dire as execution. As well as condemning the individual to a traitor's death, it condemned his bloodline to ruin by declaring all titles, property and estate held at the time of the treason forfeit to the crown. The

A Cavalier Parliament, watched over by the king's brothers and his parliamentary contacts, had drawn up the list of those to be tried. Charles's placemen had done their jobs in other ways, too; the highest lawyers in the land, all royal appointees, had designed the trials in such a way that there could only be one possible outcome. Yet