Why should charles 1 be executed and why shouldn't he have been executed?

Charles I was a cruel tyrannical religious fanatic who believed that he was God's representative on Earth - in England, anyway. He believed in the divine right of kings to rule as sole governor, not to reign as monarch of a community of shared interests. He made war on his own people, specifically their representatives in Parliament and exacted cruel, unusual and idiosyncratic punishments on anyone who went against him. For these reasons he was charged with treason against the common good of the country, and with waging war against the country. A case could be made for all of this. However, his trial was clearly a show of force over a man who had fallen from power and did not rely purely on legal arguments or precedents. The sentence was obvious from the start for one main and important reason: so long as he lived, there would be no peace because he would represent a rallying point for anyone who had lost out in the transfer of power and property. Therefore, for political reason, he ... more