Exhibition will feature artefacts from public executions from 1196 to 1868
On 30 January 1649, King Charles I of England took to the scaffold outside the Banqueting House in London’s Whitehall. He had requested two shirts to prevent himself from shivering from the cold, a reflex he thought could be mistaken for fear. He knelt in front of the crowd and placed his head on a block. Moments later, the axe fell.
Now, 371 years later, the pale blue vest worn by Charles during his execution is to go on display. “This undergarment would have been a good thing to wear in January because it is knitted silk, so it would have been a warm garment,” said Meriel Jeater, a curator at the Museum of London.
