Weight of words
A curated archive of speeches that shaped the posture of states, the fate of alliances, and the international order.
Speech is an instrument of state. Monarchs, presidents, revolutionaries, and secretaries-general have used the set-piece address to declare war and to sue for peace, to bind allies and to unsettle them, to claim legitimacy and to deny it to others. This is a curated archive of such speeches, from Elizabeth I at Tilbury to the present day, chosen for their bearing on the posture of states, the shape of alliances, and the international order.
Each is presented from the record: the speaker, the occasion, and the text as delivered or as reliably transcribed. Where a speech was not given in English or French, the original is offered alongside a translation. The Centre supplies context, not commentary, and leaves the words to stand.
30 January 1649
I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown
After defeat in the English Civil War and trial before a parliamentary court, Charles I was beheaded outside the Banqueting House at Whitehall on 30 January 1649. Unable to be heard by the crowd, he addressed his last words chiefly to Bishop Juxon in the first public execution of a reigning English monarch.
I go from a corruptible, to an incorruptible Crown; where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the World.
Historical record. The Centre neither holds nor claims any copyright in these speeches. They are gathered and reproduced here as a historical record from public and archival sources. A rights holder who wishes a speech removed, or aligned to an authorized source, may request this through our contact page.