The statue of King Charles I is an equestrian statue of Charles I of England in Whitehall, London. It was cast by the French sculptor Hubert Le Sueur in 1638, before the English Civil War. Following the war it was sold by Parliament to John Rivet, a metalsmith, to be broken down. However Rivet hid the statue until the Restoration, when it was placed on a pedestal at its current location.
The statue shows Charles I of England on horseback, with the king wearing a demi-suit of armour but without a helmet. Across the chest is a scarf tied into a bow on the right shoulder. The king is holding a baton in his right hand, and the reins of the horse in his left.[1]
The statue was cast by Hubert Le Sueur in 1638 on the orders of Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland.[1] By the time of the English Civil War between the Roundheads and Cavaliers it had not yet been erected, and so upon the Parliamentary victory the statue was sold to a metalsmith in the Holborn area by the name of John Rivet.[2]
Rivet received instructions from Parliament to break down the statue, but instead he hid it on his premises. He produced some broken pieces of brass as evidence that he had followed his instructions, and for some time sold brass-handled cutlery to both Royalists and Parliamentarians, which he claimed was made from the remains of the statue.[2]
After the Restoration, the statue was found by Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland and, following a complaint to the House of Lords, it was decreed "That the said John Rivett shall permit and suffer the Sheriff of London to serve a replevin upon the said Statue and Horse of Brass, that are now in his Custody." It was purchased by the King and in 1675 was placed in its current location.[1] The pedestal itself is made of Portland stone with a carved coat of arms; the work was completed by Joshua Marshall, who was mason to Charles II. It is situated at the Trafalgar Square end of Whitehall, which looks down the road towards Charles I's place of execution at Banqueting House.[3] Its location at Charing Cross is on the former site of the Eleanor cross which had stood on the site for three and a half centuries until 1647.[1]
On 28 October 1844, during the visit of Queen Victoria to open the Royal Exchange, the sword and the badge of the Order of the Garter were stolen. During the Second World War the statue was removed by the Ministry of Works for protection, and was stored at Mentmore Park, Leighton Buzzard. Before being returned to its plinth in Whitehall, the Ministry carried out some repairs on the statue, including adding a replacement sword and the badge of the Order of the Garter. Additionally, a bronze tablet was added to the base of the plinth, explaining the addition of the replacement items.[4]
In 1977, the plinth was cleaned for the first time in three centuries. The work was conducted by the Department of the Environment and the department of conservation at the Victoria and Albert Museum.[3]