And that if his Doggs would not eate himm hee would eate him himselfe

In interviewing informers Bradshaw [who presided over the trial of Charles I] was repeatedly confronted with the visceral fury that was felt towards him personally. A London grocer reported to the Council of State that he had heard a royalist vow that he ‘would cutt in peices the said Lord President and boyle him and after give him to his Dogges to eate; And that if his Doggs would not eate himm hee would eate him himselfe.’

A. Keay, The restless republic (2022), loc. 854

Contrived, overblown allegories

Although the king was ostensibly absent from the paintings, every panel above was designed to magnify his authority below. Without his presence they become as they appear to some today – contrived, overblown allegories. But with the King enthroned and his court in attendance, they ceiling represented a brilliant fusion of Catholic Counter-Reformation style with the Protestant symbolism and political imagery of Caroline personal rule.

J. Brotton, The sale of the late King's goods (2006), 171

Charles came to define his royal authority through the awe and silence induced by painting

Charles came to define his royal authority through the awe and silence induced by painting, rather than the books and public disputation cherished by his father, Charles lacked the scholarly erudition of his father, James I, and the ruthless pragmatism of his son, Charles II. His close attention to detail and tendency towards prevarication made him particularly susceptible to the pleasures of collecting, with its absorption in questions of provenance, attribution, style and judgement.

J. Brotton, The sale of the late King's goods (2006), 10

The execution of a king was a greater sin than the Crucifixion, since Christ had not actually been anointed

Some Jacobites believed that King James II should have been canonised like St James because of his devout Catholic faith. Others believed that King Charles should also be canonised as 'the execution of a king was a greater sin than the Crucifixion, since Christ had not actually been anointed, and that he was simply the uncrowned King of the Jews'.

R. Pound, 'A shrine to the Stuart dynasty: Lord Burlington and Jacobite symbolism at Chiswick House', Royal Stuart Journal 9 (2018), 34