Regecide, How the public opinion on regicide changed, comparing Charles I (1649) and Louis XVI (1793).

Abstract

The subject of this essay is regicide, which means killing a king, or the killer of a king, because regis in Latin means: of king and cida means: killer and cidium means: killing. The broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to a judicial execution of a king after a trial. More broadly, it can refer to the killing of an emperor. However, in this essay I will be focussing on the judicial executions of Charles I and Louis XVI. In this essay I wil answer my research question: to what extent did the public opinion on regicide change comparing Charles I’s and Louis XVI’s regicide?