Tag: Samuel Pepys

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The Martyrdom of Charles I & ‘Get Back’ January 30th

Banqueting Hall and Execution of Charles I
Banqueting Hall and the Martyrdom of Charles I

January 30th is the anniversary of the execution of King Charles I. Today, he was beheaded as a murderer and traitor. Or as a Royalist would see it, it is the anniversary of the Martyrdom of Charles I.

Thousands came to see the execution, amongst them Samuel Pepys. They crowded around the scaffold outside a window of Inigo Jones’s magnificent Banqueting Hall, in Whitehall, London. Charles was brought into the Banqueting House. There he must have looked up at the magnificent Peter Paul Reubens’ ceiling. Charles had commissioned the painting to depict of the Apotheosis of his father, James I. It was the symbol of the Divine Right of the King to rule.

Scaffold to Heaven?

I doubt he saw the irony. I suspect he thought he was going to heaven to join his father, in glory as a Martyr to his religion. He walked outside, through the window, into the cold January air. Two of his bloodstained shirts still exist, probably to stop him shivering. He wanted to be seen as going fearless to his death not shivering with fear. Then, he made a short speech exonerating himself. He spoke without stammering for the first time in his public life. The Rooftops around were lined with spectators. Black cloth framed the scaffold. As the executioner axe fell, there was a dull grown from the crowd (most could not see the axe falling).

This was on January 30th, 1648. But, if you look at a history book, it will tell you it was in 1649. This was before our conversation to the Gregorian calendar. Then the year number changed not as we do on January 1st but on March 25th. This was the day the Archangel Gabriel revealed to the Virgin Mary that she was pregnant. For more on the importance of March 25th look at my Almanac entry here:

‘Oh the stupendous, and inscrutable Judgements of God’

On the same day, twelve years later, in 1661 Oliver Cromwell and his chief henchmen were dug up from their splendid Westminster Abbey tombs. Their bodies were abused by official command. Cromwell’s head was stuck on the top of Westminster Hall. There it remained until blown off in the Great Fire of 1703 (or 1672, or 1684). Then, it taken to Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College, which Cromwell attended. Only the Head Porter knew where. (According to someone who came on my Oliver Cromwell Walk last year.) Whether it is his head or not is disputed. The tale of the head is told in detail here.

The Royalist, John Evelyn, said in his diary:

This day (oh the stupendous, and inscrutable Judgements of God) were the Carkasses of that arch-rebel Cromwel1, Bradshaw, the Judge who condemned his Majestie and Ireton, sonn in law to the usurper, dragged out of their superb Tombs (in Westminster among the Kings) to Tybourne, and hanged on the Gallows there from 9 in the morning till 6 at night, and then buried under that fatal and ignominious Monument in a deep pit. Thousands of people (who had seen them in all their pride and pompous insults) being spectators .

Samuel Pepys records by contrast:

…do trouble me that a man of so great courage as he was should have that dishonour, though otherwise he might deserve it enough…

Pepys served the Parliamentary side before the restoration of Charles II, when he adroitly, swapped over to the Royalist side.

Every year, I do a Guided Walk and a Virtual Tour on Charles I and the Civil War on this day or the last Sunday in January. Look here for details.

Charles I Raises the Standard August 22nd 1642
Civil War Parade through Westminster Last Sunday in January
No More Christmas December 23rd, 1652

On This Day

1661 – Oliver Cromwell’s corpse disinterred and ritually executed

1826 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world’s first modern suspension bridge, Architect Thomas Telford

1933 – Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany

1969 – Get Back to Where you Once Belonged – the anniversary of the rooftop concert in Saville Row where the Beatles played ‘Get Back’.

YouTube Clip with scenes from the Roof Top Concert

First published in 2023, revised on January 29th 2024,2025, 2026

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St. Lucy & Eye Care through the Ages December 14th

Medieval Cataract Surgery – calling couching Eye Care through the Ages .

So, on St Lucy’s Day, you, being someone worried about your eyes, might have sought an altar dedicated to St Lucy, the patron saint of eye health. (see December 13th’s Post on St Lucy). Although you may be disappointed that there has been no miraculous cure for you, you might have been encouraged to do something about it. So that’s what this post is about.

There are only two churches in the UK dedicated to St Lucy or St Lucia. One run by the National Trust in Upton Magna, Shropshire, but there must have been a few chapels in Cathedrals and Abbeys dedicated to her. I have my eyes open for them!

For Redness of the Eye or Pink Eye

There are many household books still, existing. These show that much of medical practice was carried out in the home, by ordinary men and women. More often women, actively not only collected useful recipes and cures, but also tested them out and improved them. Here is an example:

For the redness of eyes, or bloodshot. Take red wine, rosewater, and women’s milk, and mingle all these together: and put a piece of wheaten bread leavened, as much as will cover the eye, and lay it in the mixture. When you go to bed, lay the bread upon your eyes calmer and it will help them.

Fairfax Household book, 17th/ 18th century. (Reported in The Perpetual Calendar of Folklore by Charles Kightly)

‘Pink eye’ is mentioned in a document unearthed at the Roman Fort of Vindolanda.  It lists the troops of the Cohort in occupation.  We read that of the garrison of 750, 474 are absent with 276 in the fort of which 38 are sick, 10 with ‘pink eye’.  This is probably conjunctivitis.

Prevention is better than cure

Things hurtful to the eyes. Garlic, onions, radish, drunkenness, lechery, sweet wines, salt meats, coleworts, dust, smoke, and reading presently after supper.

Good for the eyes. fennel, celandine, eyebright, vervain, roses, cloves and cold water.

Whites Almanack 1627

Cataract operations

Cataract operations have been carried out since 800 BC using a method called ‘couching’.

“The practitioner would sit facing the patient and pass a long needle through the cornea to impale the lens. “He would then forcibly dislodge the lens — rupturing the zonules — and push it into the vitreous cavity, where it would hopefully float to the bottom of the eye and out of the visual axis.”

This was a last resort when the cataract was opaque and the patients nearly blind. It would mean they would need very thick lenses to see well again but, crude as it seems, it worked.

But the operation, without anaesthetics must have been a considerable ordeal. The recovery (still required today for those suffering from a displaced retina) means that the patient has to lie on their back for a week with supports on either side of the head to prevent movement. Of course, there was a serious risk of infection, so prophylactic visits to a chapel of St Lucy might be called for.

The modern treatment for cataracts was established in the 1940s and offers a great solution in 15 minutes surgery. Currently, the NHS has been having trouble dealing with all the cases required, (6% of surgery is for cataract operations). Before COVID-19, there was some talk about cataracts being, in practice, not readily available on the NHS. The waiting time is supposed to be 18 weeks but, for example, at NHS Chesterfield Royal Hospital the waiting time approaches almost 10 months. But waiting times around the country vary from 10 weeks to over a year.

Patrick Brontë’s Eye

On 26th August 1846 Charlotte Brontë took her father to Manchester from Haworth for Cataract surgery. The operation took 15 minutes but without anaesthesia. He was very calm and said the pain was ‘a burning pain.’ It was vital he stay still through the pain. Then, he had to remain in bed for a month in the dark, minimising movement. Leeches were applied to his face, to reduce the inflammation of the wound. He was looked after by a nurse 24 hours a day, supervised by Charlotte. She used the time she spent waiting in writing Jane Eyre. Her Father’s vision was significantly improved and he was able to resume his Parish duties.

Here is a youtube film about Patrick Brontë‘s operation:

Looking through Samuel Pepys’s eyes

You will note, above, that it was considered bad for the eyes to read in low light. It is a myth and not true. Poor Samuel Pepys was continually worried about his reading and writing habits ruining his eyesight. This is an extract from the poignant last entry in his famous diary:

And thus ends all that I doubt I should ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my journal, I being not able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand; and therefore, whatever comes of it, I must forbear: and therefore resolve from this time forward to have it kept by my people in long-hand. I must be consented to sit down no more than is fit for them and all the world to know; or, if they be anything, which cannot be much now my amores are past and my eyes hindering me almost all other pleasures. I must endeavour to keep a margin in my book open, to add, here and there, a note in shorthand with my own hand.

Samuel Pepys Diary, May 31st

The sad thing is that Pepys had another 38 years before he went blind, and what glorious diary entries have we missed because of his false fears of the effect of eye strain?

First published in 2022, updates 2023,  2024 and 2025

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Titus Oates flogged from Aldgate to Newgate  May 20th 1685

Titue Oates & Popish Plot. Set of playing cards themed on the Plot c1679 after a design by Francis Barlow

Titus Oates was a con-man. He accused leading Catholics of participating in a plot to kill King Charles II and restore a Catholic monarchy.  Among his targets were the Queen, and the King’s Brother’s wife.

Titus Oates had a complicated past. He was a Baptist who turned to the Church of England on the Restoration of King Charles II. He went to Cambridge where he was accused of being a ‘Great Dunce’ and never took his degree. His next about turn saw him in St Omer to train as a Jesuit. He accused a man, whose job he wanted, of sodomy. Then, he became a Naval Chaplain. But he was, himself, accused of buggery and dismissed from the Navy. He was received into the Catholic Church while, at the same time, he wrote a series of anti-Catholic Pamphlets. He made accusations against over 500 people. This became known as the Popish Plot.

As a result, twenty-two people were executed, some ‘Hanged, Drawn and Quartered’ because of Oates’ baseless accusations.  The Diarist, Samuel Pepys, was caught up in the anti-Catholic frenzy. Pepys was Secretary of the Navy during the Plot and was close to the Catholic, James, Duke of York. He was accused of selling secrets to the French. Awaiting trial for treason, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Eventually, he was able to clear himself and resume public life. (read this article on the /the-plot-against-pepys/.

Old Print of Samuel Pepys

It was only with the accession of James II that the climate of opinion changed. Then Titus Oates was found guilty of perjury.  Perjury was not punishable with death, so Oates’ punishment was a long-drawn-out affair instead. He was sentenced to be imprisoned for life. And ‘whipped through the streets of London for five days a year for the remainder of his life.’

Oates was put in the pillory at Westminster Hall, where passers-by pelted him with eggs. He was again pilloried the next day in the City.  On the third day, stripped, tied to a cart, and whipped from Aldgate to Newgate. The following day he was whipped from Newgate to Tyburn. (Source Wikipedia)

However, when the Catholic King, James II was, deposed and replaced by the joint Protestant monarchs William and Mary in 1689, Titus Oates was released and given a pension.  He died in 1705.

For Pepys at the Execution of Charles I see my post here.

First Published in 2024, republished in 2025

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