| Notes |
- Reigned 1625 - 1649, when he was beheaded.
King of England, Scotland and Ireland whose refusal to compromise over
complex religious and political situations led to civil war, his own
execution and the temporary suspension of the monarchy in England.
The second son of James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, Charles
was born at Fife in Scotland on 19 November 1600. His father succeeded
Queen Elizabeth I and came to the throne of England as King James I in
1603. Charles was created Duke of Albany at his baptism (December
1600) and Duke of York in 1605. He was placed in the care of Lord and
Lady Fyvie until the age of four, then moved to England where he was
brought up in the household of Sir Robert and Lady Carey. As a child,
Charles suffered from weak ankle joints (probably the result of
rickets) which slowed his physical development. He was also slow in
learning to speak. He outgrew these defects, except for a slight
stammer which he never overcame. His education was overseen by Thomas
Murray, a Scottish Presbyterian who later became Provost of Eton.
Charles was a serious student who excelled at languages, rhetoric and
divinity.
Charles was overshadowed by his brilliant elder brother Prince Henry,
to whom he was devoted, but Henry died when Charles was 12 years old.
Charles and his sister Elizabeth mourned Henry together, which created
a bond between them that affected English foreign policy after
Elizabeth married the Elector of the Palatinate. Henry's death made
Charles heir to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland. By
strength of will, he overcame his physical weaknesses to become a good
horseman and huntsman. He developed sophisticated tastes in the arts
and earnestly applied himself to his religious devotions. Created
Prince of Wales in 1616, he was instructed by King James in every
aspect of ruling a kingdom. With a profound belief that Kings were
appointed by God to rule by Divine Right, Charles succeeded as the
second Stuart King of England in 1625.
Charles came to the throne amid pressure from English Protestants for
intervention against Spain and the Catholic powers in the religious
wars raging in Europe (the Thirty Years War, 1618-48). He allowed
England's foreign policy to be directed by the unpopular Duke of
Buckingham, who launched a series of disastrous military expeditions
against Spain and France with the aim of indirectly assisting the
Palatinate. Charles dissolved his first two Parliaments when they
attempted to impeach Buckingham but he was forced to call a third
because he needed funds to pursue his warlike policies. In 1628,
Charles' opponents formulated the Petition of Right as a defence
against the King's arbitrary use of his powers. Charles grudgingly
accepted the Petition in the hope that Parliament would grant him
subsidies, but in practice he ignored its provisions.
After Buckingham was assassinated in 1628, Parliament began to
criticise Charles' religious policy. He angrily dismissed his third
Parliament in 1629, imprisoned several of his leading opponents, and
declared his intention of ruling alone. The eleven-year period of the
King's Personal Rule was also described as the "Eleven Year Tyranny".
It was initially successful during the turmoil of the Civil Wars,
many people looked back upon it as a golden age of peace and
prosperity. Charles had made peace with Spain and France by 1630.
Trade and commerce grew; the King's finances were stable by 1635. This
enabled him to commission great works of art by Rubens and Van Dyck,
and also to build up the Royal Navy for England's defence. But without
Parliament to grant legal taxes, Charles was obliged to raise income
by obscure and highly unpopular means including forced loans, the sale
of commercial monopolies and, most notoriously of all, Ship Money.
Along with Charles' controversial religious policies, these measures
alienated many natural supporters of the Crown, including powerful
noblemen like Lord Saye and Sele, and wealthy landowners like John
Hampden.
In religion, Charles favoured the elaborate and ritualistic High
Anglican form of worship. He appointed William Laud Archbishop of
Canterbury in 1633. Laud insisted upon strict compliance to the
established tenets of the Church and vigorously supported the King's
Divine Right. Much of the Laudian liturgy was interpreted by Puritans
as being dangerously close to Roman Catholic practices.
The King's marriage to the French Catholic princess Henrietta Maria in
1625 had also caused consternation amongst English Protestants,
particularly as she was allowed to practise her religion openly and
freely. In some quarters, Henrietta Maria's influence over the King
and the royal children was regarded as part of an international Papist
conspiracy against the Protestant faith.
Although Charles himself was high-minded and devout, his religious
policies were deeply divisive and turned Puritans like Pym and
Cromwell against him. In collaboration with Archbishop Laud, he
insisted upon religious conformity across England, Scotland and
Ireland. This went disastrously wrong when the Anglican liturgy and
Laudian Prayer Book were forced upon the Scottish Kirk in 1637,
resulting in the creation of the Scottish National Covenant against
interference in religion and the Bishops' Wars between the two
nations. In order to finance war against the Scots, Charles was
obliged to recall Parliament in 1640, bringing his eleven-year
personal rule to an end.
The strength of feeling against the King's policies in Church and
State resulted in vehement opposition from the Short Parliament of
April 1640 and its successor the Long Parliament. Rather than attack
the King himself, however, Parliament impeached and condemned to death
his principal ministers Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford,
with Charles doing little to help them.
In November 1641, news of the Irish uprising reached London, provoking
a crisis over whether King or Parliament should control the army
raised to quell the rebellion. Both parties tried to gain control of
the Tower of London against a background of riots and unrest. The King
and Royal Family were driven from London in January 1642 after Charles
failed in his attempt to arrest the Five Members regarded as his
leading opponents in Parliament. During the spring and summer of 1642,
both sides manoeuvred to gain control of the armed forces and the
support of the nation. Charles raised his standard at Nottingham
Castle on 22 August 1642. This was the King's call-to-arms and the
beginning of the First Civil War. Ironically, the navy that Charles
had built on the proceeds of ship money declared for Parliament.
Having lost London to the Parliamentarians, Charles set up his court
and military headquarters at Oxford.
Although he lacked military experience, Charles was courageous and
developed strategic skills as the war went on. He personally commanded
the army that defeated Sir William Waller at Cropredy Bridge, then
pursued and defeated the Earl of Essex at Lostwithiel in the summer of
1644. But the Royalist war effort was often hampered by arguments and
jealousies amongst its senior officers, with Charles himself
frequently indecisive or capricious. He was easily swayed by his
counsellors, notably Lord Digby, who was himself conducting a personal
vendetta against Prince Rupert. When the King attempted to raise
troops from Ireland, Parliament mounted a successful propaganda
campaign, raising fears of a Catholic conspiracy, which greatly
damaged his cause. The combination of Parliament's alliance with the
Scottish Covenanters and the formation of the professionally-run New
Model Army brought about the defeat of the Royalists in 1645-6.
Charles fled from Oxford in April 1646 and surrendered to the Scottish
army rather than to Parliament. He attempted to exploit divisions
between the Parliamentarians and their allies, continually involving
himself in plots and intrigues with the exiled Henrietta Maria in the
vain hope of gaining military help from Ireland and France. Charles
failed to recognise the damage done to his cause by his association
with foreigners and Catholics. The Scots handed him over to Parliament
for money in January 1647. The New Model Army which was itself in
disagreement with the Presbyterian faction in Parliament secured the
King in April 1647.
Charles was held at Hampton Court Palace, where he continued to play
off the Army, Parliament and Scots against one another. He hoped that
the Monarchy would be seen as a beacon of stability amongst the
political turmoil, but his obstructiveness and duplicity in
negotiations alienated Cromwell and others who had been anxious to
reach a settlement. Believing that Army radicals were planning to
murder him, Charles escaped from Hampton Court in November 1647. He
went to the Isle of Wight where he sought the protection of the
governor, Colonel Hammond, intending to take ship from there to
France. Torn between loyalty to the King and his duty to Parliament,
Hammond confined King Charles at Carisbrooke Castle.
Refusing to compromise over a settlement with the Army or with
Parliament, Charles turned to the Scots. Under the terms of the
Engagement signed in December 1647, Charles promised to impose the
Covenant in England in exchange for a Scottish army to fight against
Parliament. The Marquis of Argyll and other leading Scottish
Presbyterians opposed the Engagement because Charles refused to take
the Covenant personally, but Argyll's rival the Duke of Hamilton put
himself at the head of the Engager army and prepared to invade
England. The Scottish invasion and simultaneous Royalist uprisings in
England and Wales resulted in the short but bitterly-fought Second
Civil War, culminating in Cromwell's victory over the Scots at the
battle of Preston in August 1648.
Army officers were furious that Charles could deliberately provoke a
second war when his defeat in the first had been so clear an
indication of God's favour to the Parliamentarian cause. Tired of his
deceptions and intrigues, the Army denounced King Charles as the "Man
of Blood". Parliament was purged of Presbyterian sympathisers and
moderates in December 1648 and left with a small "Rump" of MPs that
was totally dependent on the Army. The Rump appointed a High Court of
Justice in January 1649 and Charles was charged with high treason
against the people of England. The King's trial opened on 20 January.
He refused to answer the charges, saying that he did not recognise the
authority of the High Court, but he was sentenced to death on 27
January 1649. The King was beheaded on a scaffold outside the
Banqueting House at Whitehall on 30 January.
The King's execution shocked the whole of Europe. He was buried on 9
February at Windsor rather than Westminster Abbey to avoid the
possibility of public disorder. Charles' personal dignity during his
trial and execution had won him much sympathy. His death created a
cult of martyrdom around him, which was encouraged by the publication
of a book of his supposed meditations during his final months, Eikon
Basilike. The ideal of Charles the Martyr helped to sustain the
Royalist cause throughout the Commonwealth and Protectorate years.
After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, it was sanctified in
the Anglican Church. To this day, wreaths of remembrance are laid on
the anniversary of King Charles' death at his statue, which faces down
Whitehall to the site of his beheading.
(Source: Encylopedia Britannica 2002)
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1600 - 1649 (48 years)