This whole controversy about right, whether of kings in general, or of the king of England in particular, has become more difficult because of the obstinate struggles of factions than through the actual nature of the business. So I hope that for those who prefer the pursuit of truth before faction, I have from the law of God, and the right of nations, and finally from the institutes of my country brought forward abundant proofs that might leave it beyond doubt that a king of England can be judged and also punished by death. As for the rest - whose minds either superstition has seized, or premature admiration of the king's splendour has so dulled the edge of their wits that they can see nothing glorious or splendid in true virtue and liberty - whether we battle with reason and arguments or with examples, we strive in vain.
Truly you, Salmasius, as with all the rest, seem to do this too to the limit of absurdity, as you, who cannot stop heaping all kinds of insults upon all Independents, assert that the very king whom you are defending was the most independent of all: for ‘he did not owe his kingdom to his people, but to his family'. Then the man whom you forcefully grieved at the beginning of your book ‘was forced to plead for his life', you now complain ‘perished unheard'. But in truth, if you like to inspect the whole pleading of his cause, which is most faithfully published in French, perhaps you will be otherwise persuaded. Although Charles was certainly granted for some days on end the fullest opportunity of speaking, he did not indeed make any use of it to clear the crimes that he was charged with, but only to reject wholly that jurisdiction and his judges. And it is no wrong for any defendant who is either silent or always makes irrelevant replies, if he is clearly guilty, to be condemned even unheard.
If you say that Charles ‘died a death clearly answering to his life’ I agree; if you say that he ended his life piously, holily, and ‘fearlessly', know that his grandmother, Mary, an infamous woman, died on the scaffold with an equal appearance of piety, holiness and constancy.