John Bradshawe (1602 – 1659) is one of the most famous – or depending on your view “notorious” figures of the period.
Some remember him as the traitorous judge who sentenced his monarch – King Charles I – to death after presiding over a “show trial”. Others consider that Bradshawe was a skilled lawyer who became one of the most important men involved in the Parliamentarian government during the Civil Wars and Interregnum. And that his appointment as Lord President of Charles I’s trial was based on merit.
So who was the real John Bradshawe? Was he just a Cromwellian puppet? Did he plot or scheme to be Lord President so that he could preside over the most famous trial in British history?
These are some of the questions which are answered in the first modern biography of Bradshawe by Dr Charlotte Young of the University of Oxford. She tells publisher, Mike Gibbs, what her research has revealed about this important figure.
