Abstract

Francis White, an officer of the New Model Army with a successful yet turbulent military career, opposed the trial of Charles I Stuart. He did so not in spite of some royalist sympathy: he was able to recognize how the recourse to legal form hid a trap. English law, grown under the shadows of monarchy, could hardly be used to judge a ruler in a feasible and convenient manner. Also strength, the possession of that same Sword brandished by monarchs of every age to establish their dynasties, was already a more than sufficient tool to dispose of the matter. The New Model Army, victor of the Civil War, didn’t need law and, ultimately, even violence. The article will retrace the main steps in White’s thought with the conviction that his view, that of a military officer and often reluctant author, may be particularly representative of a difficult moment in English history, when the army’s influence becomes growingly strong on the political scene. Despite the lucidity of White’s view, similar to the one displayed by Robespierre during the French Revolution, naked strength doesn’t seem sufficient: to deal with the problem of royalty, both for Charles I and Louis XVI, the Sword wears the robes of the judge.