Office for King Charles the Martyr (30 January)
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
Charles II mandated that the anniversary of his father's execution on 30 January 1649 be observed annually as a day of fasting and humiliation, with a special office in the Book of Common Prayer from 1662. This office — providing a collect, epistle, and gospel for 'Charles King and Martyr' — appeared in all official BCP editions from 1662 until its removal by royal and parliamentary authority in 1859 under the Anniversary Days Observance Act. At its peak observance, over 3,000 sermons commemorating Charles I were delivered across England annually on that date. It was deeply embedded in Stuart devotional culture and in the broader Anglican calendar for nearly two centuries.
Why it still matters
Though removed from the BCP in 1859, the office survives in Anglican liturgical history and is still observed by some Anglo-Catholic parishes on 30 January as a commemoration of Church-State conflict and the witness of Christian conscience under political pressure.
Kept alongside
Book of Common Prayer (1662 Revision)
The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer was authorized by Act of Uniformity following the Savoy Conference (1661) and the subsequent revision carried out by the Convocation of the Church of England, producing over six hundred alterations to the previous text. It became the standard devotional and liturgical text for all Stuart and Windsor monarchs, and Charles I's personal copy—preserved at Trinity College Library, Cambridge, inscribed 'Charles Stuart Rex — a book he used to take out of his closett 1648'—documents his private daily use. All subsequent Stuart and Windsor monarchs have drawn on its language in court chapel worship and personal piety, and it remains the legal standard of Anglican worship to this day.
The Book of Common Prayer (1662)
The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments
The normative liturgical and devotional book of the Church of England, reprinted at the accession of every monarch with updated prayers for the reigning sovereign and royal family. Queen Elizabeth II was confirmed on 28 March 1942 in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle; her grandfather George V read a chapter of the Bible alongside the Prayer Book every day; and the Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon had, according to Archbishop George Carey's eulogy, 'a lifelong love of the Authorised Version and the Book of Common Prayer.' It governed Morning and Evening Prayer at all Windsor chapels and was described by Elizabeth II as central to her formation.
Liber Regalis (Royal Book — Coronation Ordinal)
The Liber Regalis is the coronation ordinal held at Westminster Abbey (MS 38) that provided the order of service for every English coronation from Richard II through Elizabeth I. For James I's coronation in 1603, it was translated into English for the first time, and all subsequent Stuart and Windsor coronation liturgies descend directly from that adaptation. The anointing, investiture, and crowning prayers recited over every Stuart and Windsor monarch derive ultimately from this single manuscript. It is now on permanent display in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey, and the coronation of Charles III in 2023 traces its liturgical form through this medieval book.