A plaque at the site reads:
"KING CHARLES I
1625 - 1649
THIS BRONZE STATUE WAS MADE IN 1633
FOR LORD TREASURER WESTON
BY HUBERT LE SEUR.
IT WAS ACQUIRED BY THE CROWN
AND SET UP HERE IN 1675.
THE CARVED WORK OF THE PEDESTAL
BEING EXECUTED BY JOSHUA MARSHALL"
The larger than life-sized work depicts Charles on horseback awkwardly holding a staff of some sort (a crop?) in his right hand. He wears a sword on his left side. The sturdy horse has its front right hoof raised.
A second plaque at the site reads:
"On the site now occupied by the statue of King Charles I was erected the original Queen Eleanor's cross a replica of which stands in front of Charing Cross station. Mileages from London are measured from the site of the original cross."
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649, and is a saint in the Church of England. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles believed was divinely ordained. Many of his English subjects opposed his actions, in particular his interference in the English and Scottish churches and the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent which grew to be seen as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch.
Religious conflicts permeated Charles's reign. His failure to successfully aid Protestant forces during the Thirty Years' War, coupled with such actions as marrying a Roman Catholic princess, generated deep mistrust concerning the king's dogma. Charles further allied himself with controversial religious figures, such as the ecclesiastic Richard Montagu and William Laud, whom Charles appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Many of Charles' subjects felt this brought the Church of England too close to the Roman Catholic Church. Charles' later attempts to force religious reforms upon Scotland led to the Bishops' Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments and helped precipitate the his own downfall.
Charles' last years were marked by the English Civil War, in which he fought the forces of the English and Scottish parliaments, which challenged his attempts to overrule and negate parliamentary authority, whilst simultaneously using his position as head of the English Church to pursue religious policies which generated the antipathy of reformed groups such as the Puritans. Charles was defeated in the First Civil War (1642–45), after which Parliament expected him to accept its demands for a constitutional monarchy. He instead remained defiant by attempting to forge an alliance with Scotland and escaping to the Isle of Wight. This provoked the Second Civil War (1648–49) and a second defeat for Charles, who was subsequently captured, tried, convicted, and executed for high treason. The monarchy was then abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England, also referred to as the Cromwellian Interregnum, was declared."