The night after King Charles the First was beheaded, my Lord Southampton and a friend of his got leave to sit up by the body in the Banqueting House of Whitehall. As they were sitting there about two o'clock in the morning, they heard the tread of somebody coming very slowly upstairs. By-and-by the door opened, and a man entered, very much muffled up in his cloak, and his face quite hid in it. He approached the body, considered it very attentively for some time, and then shook his head and sighed out the words, "Cruel necessity"! He then departed in the same slow and concealed manner as he had come in. Lord Southampton used to say that he could not distinguish anything of his face; but that by his voice and gait he took him to be Oliver Cromwell.
Background information: This quote was taken from an eyewitness who was tasked with sitting with the body of King Charles I before his burial.
What can you infer that Cromwell meant when he stated that the death of the king was a “cruel necessity”?
He was ashamed and filled with regret about the execution.
He was sad about the execution but satisfied with the result.
He was fearful that he would be punished for taking part in the execution.
He was proud of the execution and believed the country was better off.
