A facsimile of the death warrant of King Charles I together with an explanatory note The Death Warrant of King Charles IIt must be quite satisfying to have one s name recorded in history but if it were for being involved in the regicide of a King perhaps it is not quite so glorifying Many of the 59 people who signed King Charles I s death warrant were noblemen Members of Parliament or other prominent citizens and were therefore known for other reasons as well as being party to this event But the names of such as T Harrison and Jo Carew to name but two are probably only known as signatories of the death warrant Of course probably the most prominent name on the warrant is that of a certain O Cromwell. It was 26 January 1649 that the court of Commissioners had tried King Charles I and agreed among themselves to sentence him to death and the sentence was pronounced on 27 January However the document quickly became out of date so rather than ask the signatories of which there were then 59 of the 67 Commissioners to sign again an alteration was made to change the date to 29 January. On the following day 30 January Charles I went to his execution on a scaffold erected outside the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall Colonel Francis Hacker retained the death warrant but on the restoration of Charles II Hacker by then a prisoner in the Tower of London was ordered by the House of Lords to surrender it and after a spell in the Jewel Tower at Westminster it has remained in their custody in the House of Lords library since 1851. Interestingly on the back of the warrant is written in a 17th century hand The bloody Warr an t for murthering the King Though only four pages in length this pamphlet brings to life a defining moment in British history At that time the year was held to start on 25th March and therefore 29th January was correctly dated on the warrant as 1648 and not 1649 as it would be reckoned today Paperback Books can be attributed to Anonymous for several reasons They are officially published under that name They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.See also Anonymous.