Thomas Scot
From Freepedia
Thomas Scot was an English Member of Parliament and one of the regicides of King Charles I.
Early life
Thomas Scot had been a lawyer in Buckinghamshire who grew to prominence as the treasurer of the region’s County Committee between 1644 to 1646 . He grew influential enough to dominate the Committee and eventually secured election to the House of Commons as a recruiter member in 1645. Though he had a penchant for long, passionate speeches in Parliament, Scot could also be a subtle backroom politician who had a knack for creating alliances and rallying votes. A royalist acerbically described his style as one who “crept into the House of Commons, whispers Treason into many of the Members ears, animating the War, and ripping up and studying aggravations thereunto .”
Political career
Scot’s beliefs about government by consent prior to Pride's Purge are hard to gauge, though from what has survived of his writings and speeches many historians have described him as being republican. His actions during the Purge period definitely indicate that he at the least developed strong republican leanings before 1648.
From the beginning of the English Civil War, Scot was a strong supporter of tough terms with King Charles I and later became a vociferous opponent of the Treaty of Newport, declaring “that there could be no time seasonable for such a treaty, or for a peace with so perfidious and implacable a prince; but it would always be too soon, or too late. He that draws his sword upon the king, must throw his scabbard into the fire; and that all peace with him would prove the spoil of the godly .”
After Pride's Purge, Scot became one of the chief organizers of the trial and execution of the King. Scot was instrumental in the erection of the Republic and along with Henry Vane, Oliver Cromwell and Arthur Heselrige became one of its leaders.
In 1653, with the fall of the Republic, Scot became one of the Protectorate's most strident Republicans, organizing anti-Cromwell opposition inside the Parliament.
After the Restoration, for his part in the execution of the King and the running of the Republic, Scot was drawn and quartered on 17 October 1660.
Some of his last words were “I say again; to the Praise of the Free Grace of God;, I bless His name he hath engaged me in a Cause, not to be Repented of, I say, Not to be Repented of.”
