The events of 1660 provoked an urgent and unsettling question. Would Charles II take revenge on those who had fought against and killed his father during the 1640s? Ahead of his return to England, Charles promised clemency, but some likely targets decided to flee the country. They made the correct decision. As Charles Spencer reveals, the new king was determined to hunt down those who had been involved in Charles I’s execution: signatories to the death warrant, lawyers from the trial, and men who had stood on the scaffold. Spencer does not disguise his admiration for these king-killers or his annoyance with the way they were treated after the Restoration. In his acknowledgements he writes that they “deserve, in my view, to be remembered with respect for their sacrifices: this