Take a look at the life-size head of King Charles I above the door of Banqueting House and I’ll explain why. Queen Elizabeth I never married nor had children, so the Tudor dynasty came to an end. King James VI of Scotland was invited to take the English throne, with the Stuart dynasty then uniting the two countries. James moved from Scotland to London where he had inherited the royal residence of Whitehall Palace. It was by then rather dilapidated, so he built the magnificent Banqueting House, the building you see here, in which to entertain, completed in 1609.

James’s son, Charles I, was not as diplomatic as his father and during the 1640s the country descended into civil war. Charles was eventually captured by the opposing Parliamentary forces. In 1649 he was put on trial, found guilty of being a tyrant and sentenced to death. A platform was erected in the street against the wall of Banqueting House, roughly where you are standing, around which the public gathered to witness the King being beheaded. He remains the only British monarch to have been executed. When Whitehall Palace was destroyed by fire at the end of the 17th century, Banqueting House was one of the few parts to survive.