Subject

Executed for regicide. In the civil war he fought on the side of Parliament against King Charles I. Close to Cromwell, he was elected to the Long Parliament, sat as a judge in the King's trial and was one of the 59 regicides who signed the death warrant. Come the Restoration he was arrested and was the first regicide to be executed. He was hung, drawn and quartered at Charing Cross (i.e. at the site of Queen Eleanor's Cross). During the week 13-19 October a total of 6 regicides and 4 supporters were executed in the same way a the same place. Four regicides who were already dead (Cromwell, Ireton, Pride and Bradshaw) were found guilty of treason, dug up and hung in chains at Tyburn. Poor Harrison's greatest claim to fame is as the but of a black joke from Pepys, quoted on the plaque.