Charles the First

Charles the First:

I am all but a Catholic person,

Yet I’m rich with power from England.

I am dressed for a day fit for the sun

And I’m the king of this wealthy island.

Bad times are coming, times are changing.

My men bring me news of a new leader

And my traditional ways are ageing.

I think I’m turning into a pleader.

My young boy, Charles number two, is in France,

Though I hear neither hide nor hair from him,

Word has it that he enjoys a good dance.

So when I lose he will be next in kin.

Protestant ways will take over this land

And Charles the first will not be around.

Before my kingdom is in Cromwell’s hands,

He will make my head roll along the ground.

They say parliament over the royals.

Catholic to Protestant religion.

I blame Henry the eighth for no morals

And I foresee religious collisions.

The Scottish ‘Engagement’ was my downfall.

Where the Scots invaded on my behalf.

I cannot stop the result of a brawl.

With the war, Royalists began to laugh.

‘Levying war against the Parliament

And kingdom of England’ I’m guilty.

A traitor! I laughed. What could they have meant?

I asked: ‘I’m tried by which authority?’

‘Justice, justice!’ Versus ‘God save the king!’

On the twenty sixth of January

The court said I was a dangerous thing.

I find my sentence extraordinary.