Royal Square

The story

Lé Vièr Marchi, the old market. On 17 February 1649, eighteen days after Charles I was beheaded in London, the Viscount Laurens Hamptonne read out a proclamation here, on Sir George Carteret's orders, making Charles II King — the first place to proclaim him King of England, at a moment when England had abolished the monarchy. On 6 January 1781 a French force under Baron de Rullecourt marched into the same square at dawn, having landed overnight at La Rocque. Major Francis Peirson, twenty-four years old, was shot dead here as his troops broke the French line; de Rullecourt died of his wounds in a house on the square. Copley painted the scene two years later and it hangs in Tate Britain.