Regicide

The Civil War, the Protectorate, and the Restoration – the extraordinary upheavals at the fulcrum of English history – are embodied here in the story of a remarkable man, politician, and prisoner: the regicide Henry Marten. As an organiser of the trial of Charles I and a signatory of the King’s death warrant, he was targeted for prosecution once the monarchy was restored in 1660. Marten was convicted of High Treason and spent years on the equivalent of death row, writing letters that now give a rare and extraordinary insight into the life of a prisoner in the Tower of London. John Worthen’s revelatory biography uncovers the brilliant mind, modern mindset, political vigour, tender bravery, and extraordinarily emblematic life of a neglected seventeenth-century figure.