Charles I was the son of King James I of England, and succeeded him on the throne in 1625 at the age of 25. He married Princess Henrietta Maria of France later that year, though the two were not crowned together because she was Catholic and he was not.

Like his father, Charles believed in the absolute power of kings and clashed with Parliament on many issues. In 1629 Charles decided to govern without summoning Parliament; he sold monopoly rights and raised taxes rather than having money for himself allotted by Parliament. He did end up summoning a session of Parliament in 1640, where the conflicts became even greater. Charles was unable to resist the demand for the execution of his advisor the Earl of Strafford, but on 4 January 1642 he took the step of entering the House of Commons with an armed guard to arrest the five members of Parliament who were planning to impeach Queen Henrietta. Public opinion turned against him, and Charles fled London.

Those who supported the king were called Royalists or Cavaliers; those against him, Parliamentarians or Roundheads. The two sides met in battle many times and for a year or two the Royalists seemed to be winning; however, the New Model Army led by Oliver Cromwell won some great victories in 1644 and 1645. Charles surrendered to the Scottish in 1646, but they handed him over to the Parliamentarians and he was imprisoned.

He was tried before 135 judges but would not put in a plea because he refused to admit that a king being on trial could be legal. He was found guilty by only 68 votes to 67, and sentenced to death. He was excuted by beheading on 30 January 1649, with many of the people attending doing their best to dip a handkerchief in the blood of the "Martyr King" as some would later call him.

Queen Henrietta and their children were able to make their way to France and remained there until Oliver Cromwell's son Richard was compelled to resign from the leadership of England and the return of Charles' son Charles II was negotiated.

Charles I (r. 1625 - 1642) was the second in the lineage of the Stuart dynasty. He was characterized as being uncompromising with Parliament, and the Puritans. He believed in divine right, the idea that kings got their right to rule from God. He was a patron of the arts, inviting artists such as Van Dyck and Rubens to work in England; this expenditure and his expensive court made him always in need of money, something that became a problem later in his life. No doubt this, and especially being unfriendly with the Puritans, led eventually to his beheading later in life.

Born in Fife on November 19, 1600, he was James VI of Scotland's (later James I of England) second son. His mother was Anne of Denmark. He was a sickly child, and when Prince Henry, his brother, died in 1612, he became heir apparent to the throne. His manners were impeccable, and this was commented on by everyone who met him; but throughout his whole life he was completely out of touch with commoners.

A deeply religious man, he believed in Anglican christianity. Many Englishmen, however, were Puritan; they wanted an even plainer version of christianity than the toned-down Catholicism that the Anglican church was at the time.

Even though he didn't like to work with Parliament, one of the greatest portions of the unwritten English constitution (common law) was put together under his rule: the Petition of Right, under the Third Parliament in 1628. It included clauses that:

It is interesting to note that these were some of the many quarrels that the American colonies had with England when they declared independence in 1776; these were rights given to English citizens, and they were being deprived of the colonists.

The Petition of Right no doubt ticked Charles off very much, and he dissolved Parliament for the next 11 years. He brought back the old taxes and feudal privileges to pay for the government, and demanded conformity to the Church of England. During the prosecution of the Puritans that ensued from 1629 to 1640, many left for present-day Holland, and North America, in the "Great Puritan Migration."

In 1640, Charles called the Fourth Parliament, because of the civil war in Scotland which began in 1637, for which Charles needed money (and by the Petition of Right needed Parliament in order to get). They refused to vote on money until their grievances were resolved. Also known as the "Long Parliament" (for it was indeed long), it lasted from 1640 to 1660. By the Triennial Act, Parliament had to be called at least every three years, and Charles gave up his right to dissolve parliament at will.

In 1641, the Parliament abolished the Court of Star Chamber and the High Commission, both of which had been used by Charles to remove people (most of whom disagreed with him politically) from this world. In 1642, after Parliament attempted to take control of the army, Charles arrested the leaders of Parliament, including John Pym, and John Hampden.

At the end of the ensuing civil war, in which the Cavaliers were loyal to the king and the Roundheads, part of the New Model Army, led by Oliver Cromwell, were loyal to Parliament, Charles I was put up for trial for treason and executed at Whitehall on January 29, 1649.

The prospect of having a king put up to trial was very frightening to other European monarchs and nobility. There was now a precedent for killing a monarch; Elizabeth I (r. 1558 - 1603) had been hesitant to kill Mary Queen of Scots (eventually she just imprisoned her), who vied with her for the English throne, because she was afraid of this precedent.

After Charles was executed and Cromwell came to power, Cromwell dug up Charles' body, drew and quartered it, and took Charles head and put it on a pole in the middle of London. It was left up there until the Restoration in 1660, but when Charles II came into power during the Restoration, the skull was not to be found.

Sources:

  • http://www.aber.ac.uk/~ednwww/PGCE/ohc94/ecw/people/charles.html
  • http://www.royal.gov.uk./output/Page76.asp
  • My AP European History notes

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