7 MAY 1983, Page 20

Anti-regicides

Sir: A. N. Wilson (9 April) makes the ludicrous statement: 'In 1649, only one voice of protest, in the whole of England, was raised against the decapitation of Charles I; and that was Lady Fairfax, nominally a Parliamentarian.'

Dame Veronica Wedgwood in The Trial of Charles I writes: 'On 3rd February the act forbidding the proclamation of a new King posted in Whitehall was torn down and replaced by a denunciation of the Regicide Parliament, ending with the words "God save Charles II". Ten days later the excluded members of Parliament denounc- ed the murder of the King and declared their loyalty to Charles II. At Pontefract, still holding out after eight months' siege, the Royalist governor struck a gold coin for Carolus Secundus.'

Perhaps this is enough to make the point. I could list other protests such as sermons and pamphlets, not to mention the royalist underground publication Prag.

J. Alan Smith

40 Albany Court, Epping, Essex