Miles Corbet (1595–1662) was an English politician, recorder of Yarmouth and a regicide of King Charles I.
Life
Born a member of the Corbet family he was the son of Sir Thomas Corbet of Sprowston, Norfolk and the younger brother of Sir John Corbet, 1st Baronet, MP for Great Yarmouth from 1625 to 1629. He entered Lincoln's Inn and was appointed Recorder of Great Yarmouth.[1]
After the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, the castle was returned to its ancestral owners. All the 59 men who had signed the death warrant of Charles I were in grave danger of severe punishment because they were considered regicides. Miles Corbet, like many of them, fled England. He went to the Netherlands where he thought he would be safe. However, along with two other regicides, John Okey and John Barkstead, he was arrested by the English ambassador to the Netherlands, Sir George Downing, and returned to England under guard. After a trial, Corbet was found guilty, and executed on 19 April 1662. In his dying speech he said:
When I was first called to serve in parliament I had an estate; I spent it in the service of the parliament. I never bought any king's or bishop's lands; I thought I had enough, at least I was content with it; that I might serve God and my country was that I aimed at.[1]
