Charles I of England Charles I ( 19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649 ) was monarch of the three kingdoms of England , Scotland , and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649 . Charles was the second son of King James VI of Scotland , but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603 , he moved to England , where he spent much of the rest of his life . He became heir apparent to the English , Irish and Scottish thrones on the death of his elder brother in 1612 . An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to a Spanish Habsburg princess culminated in an eight - month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiations . Two years later he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France instead . After his succession , Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England , attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his royal prerogative . Charles believed in the divine right of kings and thought he could govern according to his own conscience . Many of his subjects opposed his policies , in particular his interference in the English and Scottish churches and the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent , and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch . Charles ' s religious policies , coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic , generated the antipathy and mistrust of reformed groups such as the Puritans and Calvinists , who thought his views too Catholic . He supported controversial ecclesiastics , such as Richard Montagu and William Laud , whom Charles appointed Archbishop of Canterbury , and failed to successfully aid Protestant forces during the Thirty Years ' War . His attempts to force religious reforms upon Scotland led to the Bishops ' Wars , strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments and helped precipitate his own downfall . From 1642 , Charles fought the forces of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War . After his defeat in 1645 , he surrendered to a Scottish force that eventually handed him over to the English Parliament . Charles refused to accept his captors ' demands for a constitutional monarchy , and temporarily escaped captivity in November 1647 . Re - imprisoned on the Isle of Wight , Charles forged an alliance with Scotland , but by the end of 1648 Oliver Cromwell ' s New Model Army had consolidated its control over England . Charles was tried , convicted , and executed for high treason in January 1649 . The monarchy was abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England was declared . In 1660 , the English Interregnum ended when the monarchy was restored to Charles ' s son , Charles II . Early life . The second son of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark , Charles was born in Dunfermline Palace , Fife , on 19 November 1600 . He was baptised in the Chapel Royal at Holyrood Palace on 23 December 1600 by David Lindsay , Bishop of Ross , and at the same ceremony was created Duke of Albany , the traditional title of the second son of the King of Scotland , with the subsidiary title s of Marquess of Ormond , Earl of Ross and Lord Ardmannoch . James VI was the first cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth I of England , and when she died childless in March 1603 , he became King of England as James I . Charles was a weak and sickly infant , and while his parents and older siblings left for England in April and early June that year , he was not considered strong enough to make the journey to London due to his fragile health . He remained in Scotland with his father ' s friend Alexander Seton , Lord Fyvie , appointed as his guardian . By 1604 , Charles was three and a half and as he was able to walk the length of the great hall at Dunfermline Palace without assistance , it was decided that he was now strong enough to make the journey to England to be reunited with his family . In mid - July 1604 , Charles left Dunfermline for England where he was to spend most of the rest of his life . In England , Charles was placed under the charge of Elizabeth , Lady Carey , the wife of courtier Sir Robert Carey , who put him in boots made of Spanish leather and brass to help strengthen his weak ankles . His speech development was also slow , and he retained a stammer , or hesitant speech , for the rest of his life . In January 1605 , Charles was created Duke of York , as is customary in the case of the English sovereign ' s second son , and made a Knight of the Bath . Thomas Murray , a Presbyterian Scot , was appointed as a tutor . Charles learnt the usual subjects of classics , languages , mathematics and religion . In 1611 , he was made a Knight of the Garter . Eventually , Charles apparently conquered his physical infirmity , which might have been caused by rickets , and grew to a peak height of . He became an adept horseman and marksman , and took up fencing . Even so , he was not as valued as his physically stronger and taller elder brother , Henry Frederick , Prince of Wales , whom Charles adored and attempted to emulate . However , in early November 1612 , two weeks before Charles ' s 12th birthday , Henry died at the age of 18 of what is suspected to have been typhoid ( or possibly porphyria ) , and Charles became heir apparent . As the eldest living son of the sovereign , Charles automatically gained several titles ( including Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay ) . Four years later , in November 1616 , he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester . Heir apparent . In 1613 , his sister Elizabeth married Frederick V , Elector Palatine , and moved to Heidelberg . In 1617 , the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand of Austria , a Catholic , was elected king of Bohemia . The following year , the Bohemians rebelled , defenestrating the Catholic governors . In August 1619 , the Bohemian diet chose as their monarch Frederick V , who was leader of the Protestant Union , while Ferdinand was elected Holy Roman Emperor in the imperial election . Frederick ' s acceptance of the Bohemian crown in defiance of the emperor marked the beginning of the turmoil that would develop into the Thirty Years ' War , which the English Parliament and public quickly grew to see as a polarised continental struggle between Catholics and Protestants . James , however , had been seeking marriage between the new Prince of Wales and Ferdinand ' s niece , Habsburg princess Infanta Maria of Spain , and began to see the Spanish match as a possible diplomatic means of achieving peace in Europe . Unfortunately for James , negotiation with Spain proved generally unpopular , both with the public and with James ' s court . The English Parliament was actively hostile towards Spain and Catholicism , and thus , when called by James in 1621 , the members hoped for an enforcement of recusancy laws , a naval campaign against Spain , and a Protestant marriage for the Prince of Wales . Parliament ' s attacks upon the monopolists for their abuse of prices led to the scapegoating of James ' s Lord Chancellor , Francis Bacon , and then to Bacon ' s impeachment before the House of Lords . The impeachment was the first since 1459 without the king ' s official sanction in the form of a bill of attainder . The incident set an important precedent as the process of impeachment would later be used against Charles and his supporters : the Duke of Buckingham , Archbishop Laud , and the Earl of Strafford . James insisted that the House of Commons be concerned exclusively with domestic affairs , while the members protested that they had the privilege of free speech within the Commons ' walls , demanding war with Spain and a Protestant Princess of Wales . Charles , like his father , considered the discussion of his marriage in the Commons impertinent and an infringement of his father ' s royal prerogative . In January 1622 , James dissolved Parliament , angry at what he perceived as the members ' impudence and intransigence . The Thirty Years ' War , originally confined to Bohemia , spiralled into a wider European war . In 1620 , Charles ' s brother - in - law , Frederick V , was defeated at the Battle of White Mountain near Prague and his hereditary lands in the Electoral Palatinate were invaded by a Habsburg force from the Spanish Netherlands . Charles and the Duke of Buckingham , James ' s favourite and a man who had great influence over the prince , travelled incognito to Spain in February 1623 to try to reach agreement on the long - pending Spanish match . In the end , however , the trip was an embarrassing failure . The Infanta thought Charles was little more than an infidel , and the Spanish at first demanded that Charles convert to Roman Catholicism as a condition of the match . The Spanish insisted on toleration of Catholics in England and the repeal of the penal laws , which Charles knew would never be agreed by Parliament , and that the Infanta remain in Spain for a year after any wedding to ensure that England complied with all the terms of the treaty . A personal quarrel erupted between Buckingham and the Count of Olivares , the Spanish chief minister , and so Charles conducted the ultimately futile negotiations personally . When Charles returned to London in October , without a bride and to a rapturous and relieved public welcome , he and Buckingham pushed a reluctant King James to declare war on Spain . With the encouragement of his Protestant advisers , James summoned the English Parliament in 1624 so that he could request subsidies for a war . Charles and Buckingham supported the impeachment of the Lord Treasurer , Lionel Cranfield , 1st Earl of Middlesex , who opposed war on grounds of cost and who quickly fell in much the same manner as Bacon had . James told Buckingham he was a fool , and presciently warned his son that he would live to regret the revival of impeachment as a parliamentary tool . An under - funded makeshift army under Ernst von Mansfeld set off to recover the Palatinate , but it was so poorly provisioned that it never advanced beyond the Dutch coast . By 1624 , James was growing ill , and as a result was finding it difficult to control Parliament . By the time of his death , March 1625 , Charles and the Duke of Buckingham had already assumed " de facto " control of the kingdom . Early reign . With the failure of the Spanish match , Charles and Buckingham turned their attention to France . On 1 May 1625 Charles was married by proxy to the fifteen - year - old French princess Henrietta Maria in front of the doors of the Notre Dame de Paris . Charles had seen Henrietta Maria in Paris while " en route " to Spain . The couple married in person on 13 June 1625 in Canterbury . Charles delayed the opening of his first Parliament until after the second ceremony , to forestall any opposition . Many members of the Commons were opposed to the king ' s marriage to a Roman Catholic , fearing that Charles would lift restrictions on Catholic recusants and undermine the official establishment of the reformed Church of England . Although he told Parliament that he would not relax religious restrictions , he promised to do exactly that in a secret marriage treaty with Louis XIII of France . Moreover , the treaty placed under French command an English naval force that would be used to suppress the Protestant Huguenots at La Rochelle . Charles was crowned on 2 February 1626 at Westminster Abbey , but without his wife at his side because she refused to participate in a Protestant religious ceremony . Distrust of Charles ' s religious policies increased with his support of a controversial anti - Calvinist ecclesiastic , Richard Montagu , who was in disrepute amongst the Puritans . In his pamphlet " A New Gag for an Old Goose " ( 1624 ) , a reply to the Catholic pamphlet " A New Gag for the New Gospel " , Montagu argued against Calvinist predestination , the doctrine that salvation and damnation were preordained by God . Anti - Calvinists — known as Arminians — believed that human beings could influence their own fate through the exercise of free will . Arminian divines had been one of the few sources of support for Charles ' s proposed Spanish marriage . With the support of King James , Montagu produced another pamphlet , entitled " Appello Caesarem " , in 1625 shortly after the old king ' s death and Charles ' s accession . To protect Montagu from the stricture of Puritan members of Parliament , Charles made the cleric one of his royal chaplains , increasing many Puritans ' suspicions that Charles favoured Arminianism as a clandestine attempt to aid the resurgence of Catholicism . Rather than direct involvement in the European land war , the English Parliament preferred a relatively inexpensive naval attack on Spanish colonies in the New World , hoping for the capture of the Spanish treasure fleets . Parliament voted to grant a subsidy of £140 , 000 , which was an insufficient sum for Charles ' s war plans . Moreover , the House of Commons limited its authorisation for royal collection of tonnage and poundage ( two varieties of customs duties ) to a period of one year , although previous sovereigns since Henry VI of England had been granted the right for life . In this manner , Parliament could delay approval of the rates until after a full - scale review of customs revenue . The bill made no progress in the House of Lords past its first reading . Although no Parliamentary Act for the levy of tonnage and poundage was obtained , Charles continued to collect the duties . A poorly conceived and executed naval expedition against Spain under the leadership of Buckingham went badly , and the House of Commons began proceedings for the impeachment of the duke . In May 1626 , Charles nominated Buckingham as Chancellor of Cambridge University in a show of support , and had two members who had spoken against Buckingham — Dudley Digges and Sir John Eliot — arrested at the door of the House . The Commons were outraged by the imprisonment of two of their members , and after about a week in custody , both were released . On 12 June 1626 , the Commons launched a direct protestation attacking Buckingham , stating , " We protest before your Majesty and the whole world that until this great person be removed from intermeddling with the great affairs of state , we are out of hope of any good success ; and do fear that any money we shall or can give will , through his misemployment , be turned rather to the hurt and prejudice of this your kingdom than otherwise , as by lamentable experience we have found those large supplies formerly and lately given . " Despite Parliament ' s protests , however , Charles refused to dismiss his friend , dismissing Parliament instead . Meanwhile , domestic quarrels between Charles and Henrietta Maria were souring the early years of their marriage . Disputes over her jointure , appointments to her household , and the practice of her religion culminated in the king expelling the vast majority of her French attendants in August 1626 . Despite Charles ' s agreement to provide the French with English ships as a condition of marrying Henrietta Maria , in 1627 he launched an ultimately unsuccessful attack on the French coast to defend the Huguenots at La Rochelle . The action , led by Buckingham , drove a wedge between the English and French crowns that was not surmounted for the duration of the Thirty Years ' War . Buckingham ' s failure to protect the Huguenots — and his retreat from Saint - Martin - de - Ré — spurred Louis XIII ' s siege of La Rochelle and furthered the English Parliament ' s and people ' s detestation of the duke . Charles provoked further unrest by trying to raise money for the war through a " forced loan " : a tax levied without parliamentary consent . In November 1627 , the test case in the King ' s Bench , the " Five Knights ' Case " , found that the king had a prerogative right to imprison without trial those who refused to pay the forced loan . Summoned again in March 1628 , on 26 May Parliament adopted a Petition of Right , calling upon the king to acknowledge that he could not levy taxes without Parliament ' s consent , not impose martial law on civilians , not imprison them without due process , and not quarter troops in their homes . Charles assented to the petition on 7 June , but by the end of the month he had prorogued Parliament and re - asserted his right to collect customs duties without authorisation from Parliament . On 23 August 1628 , Buckingham was assassinated . Charles was deeply distressed , throwing " himself upon his bed , lamenting with much passion and with abundance of tears " . He remained grieving in his room for two days . In contrast , the public rejoiced at Buckingham ' s death , which accentuated the gulf between the court and the nation , and between the crown and the Commons . Although the death of Buckingham effectively ended the war with Spain and eliminated his leadership as an issue , it did not end the conflicts between Charles and Parliament . It did , however , coincide with an improvement in Charles ' s relationship with his wife , and by November 1628 their old quarrels were at an end . Perhaps Charles ' s emotional ties were transferred from Buckingham to Henrietta Maria ; she became pregnant for the first time , and the bond between them grew ever stronger . Together , they embodied an image of virtue and family life , and their court became a model of formality and morality . Personal rule . Parliament prorogued . In January 1629 Charles opened the second session of the English Parliament , which had been prorogued in June 1628 , with a moderate speech on the tonnage and poundage issue . Members of the House of Commons began to voice opposition to Charles ' s policies in light of the case of John Rolle , a Member of Parliament whose goods had been confiscated for failing to pay tonnage and poundage . Many MPs viewed the imposition of the tax as a breach of the Petition of Right . When Charles ordered a parliamentary adjournment on 2 March , members held the Speaker , Sir John Finch , down in his chair so that the ending of the session could be delayed long enough for resolutions against Catholicism , Arminianism and poundage and tonnage to be read out and acclaimed by the chamber . The provocation was too much for Charles , who dissolved Parliament and had nine parliamentary leaders , including John Eliot , imprisoned over the matter , thereby turning the men into martyrs , and giving popular cause to their protest . Shortly after the prorogation , without the means in the foreseeable future to raise funds from Parliament for a European war , or the influence of Buckingham , Charles made peace with France and Spain . The following eleven years , during which Charles ruled England without a Parliament , are referred to as the personal rule or the " eleven years ' tyranny " . Ruling without Parliament was not exceptional , and was supported by precedent . Only Parliament , however , could legally raise taxes , and without it Charles ' s capacity to acquire funds for his treasury was limited to his customary rights and prerogatives . Finances . The reigns of Elizabeth I and James I had generated a large fiscal deficit . Notwithstanding Buckingham ' s short lived campaigns against both Spain and France , there was in reality little economic capacity for Charles to wage wars overseas . Throughout his reign Charles was obliged to rely primarily on volunteer forces for defence and on diplomatic efforts to support his sister , Elizabeth , and his foreign policy objective for the restoration of the Palatinate . England was still the least taxed country in Europe , with no official excise and no regular direct taxation . To raise revenue without reconvening Parliament , Charles resurrected an all - but - forgotten law called the " Distraint of Knighthood " , in abeyance for over a century , which required anyone who earned £40 or more from land each year to present himself at the king ' s coronation to be knighted . Relying on this old statute , Charles fined individuals who had failed to attend his coronation in 1626 . The chief tax imposed by Charles was a feudal levy known as ship money , which proved even more unpopular , and lucrative , than poundage and tonnage before it . Previously , collection of ship money had been authorised only during wars , and only on coastal regions . Charles , however , argued that there was no legal bar to collecting the tax for defence during peacetime and throughout the whole of the kingdom . Ship money , paid directly to the Treasury of the Navy , provided between £150 , 000 to £200 , 000 annually between 1634 and 1638 , after which yields declined . Opposition to ship money steadily grew , but the 12 common law judges of England declared that the tax was within the king ' s prerogative , though some of them had reservations . The prosecution of John Hampden for non - payment in 1637 – 38 provided a platform for popular protest , and the judges only found against Hampden by the narrow margin of 7 – 5 . The king also derived money through the granting of monopolies , despite a statute forbidding such action , which , though inefficient , raised an estimated £100 , 000 a year in the late 1630s . Charles also raised funds from the Scottish nobility , at the price of considerable acrimony , by the Act of Revocation ( 1625 ) , whereby all gifts of royal or church land made to the nobility since 1540 were revoked , with continued ownership being subject to an annual rent . In addition , the boundaries of the royal forest s in England were extended to their ancient limits as part of a scheme to maximize income by exploiting the land and fining land users within the enlarged boundaries for encroachment . Religious conflicts . Throughout Charles ' s reign , the issue of how far the English Reformation should progress was constantly brought to the forefront of political debate . Arminian theology emphasised clerical authority and the individual ' s ability to reject or accept salvation , and was consequently viewed as heretical and a potential vehicle for the reintroduction of Roman Catholicism by its Calvinist opponents . Charles ' s sympathy to the teachings of Arminianism , and specifically his wish to move the Church of England away from Calvinism in a more traditional and sacramental direction , were perceived by Puritans as irreligious tendencies . In addition , Charles ' s subjects followed news of the European war closely and grew increasingly dismayed by Charles ' s diplomacy with Spain and his failure to support the Protestant cause abroad effectively . In 1633 , Charles appointed William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury . Together , they began a series of anti - Calvinist reforms that attempted to ensure religious uniformity by restricting non - conformist preachers , insisting that the liturgy be celebrated as prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer , organising the internal architecture of English churches so as to emphasise the sacrament of the altar , and re - issuing King James ' s Declaration of Sports , which permitted secular activities on the sabbath . The Feoffees for Impropriations , an organisation that bought benefice s and advowson s so that Puritans could be appointed to them , was dissolved . To prosecute those who opposed his reforms , Laud used the two most feared and powerful courts in the land , the Court of High Commission and the Court of Star Chamber . The courts became unpopular among the propertied classes for inflicting degrading punishments on gentlemen . For example , in 1637 William Prynne , Henry Burton and John Bastwick were pilloried , whipped and mutilated by cropping and imprisoned indefinitely for publishing anti - episcopal pamphlets . When Charles attempted to impose his religious policies in Scotland he faced numerous difficulties . Although born in Scotland , Charles had become estranged from his northern kingdom ; his first visit since early childhood was for his Scottish coronation in 1633 . To the dismay of the Scots , who had removed many traditional rituals from their liturgical practice , Charles insisted that the coronation be conducted in the Anglican rite . In 1637 , the king ordered the use of a new prayer book in Scotland that was almost identical to the English Book of Common Prayer , without consulting either the Scottish Parliament or the Kirk . Although written , under Charles ' s direction , by Scottish bishops , it was resisted by many Scots , who saw the new prayer book as a vehicle for introducing Anglicanism to Scotland . On 23 July , riots erupted in Edinburgh upon the first Sunday of the prayer book ' s usage , and unrest spread throughout the Kirk . The public began to mobilise around a re - affirmation of the National Covenant , whose signatories pledged to uphold the reformed religion of Scotland and reject any innovations that were not authorised by Kirk and Parliament . When the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met in November 1638 , it condemned the new prayer book , abolished episcopal church government by bishops , and adopted Presbyterian government by elders and deacons . Bishops ' Wars . Charles perceived the unrest in Scotland as a rebellion against his authority , precipitating the First Bishops ' War in 1639 . Charles did not seek subsidies from the English Parliament to wage war , but instead raised an army without parliamentary aid and marched to Berwick - upon - Tweed , on the border of Scotland . Charles ' s army did not engage the Covenanter s as the king feared the defeat of his forces , whom he believed to be significantly outnumbered by the Scots . In the Treaty of Berwick , Charles regained custody of his Scottish fortresses and secured the dissolution of the Covenanters ' interim government , albeit at the decisive concession that both the Scottish Parliament and General Assembly of the Scottish Church were called . Charles ' s military failure in the First Bishops ' War caused a financial and diplomatic crisis for Charles that deepened when his efforts to raise finance from Spain , while simultaneously continuing his support for his Palatine relatives , led to the public humiliation of the Battle of the Downs , where the Dutch destroyed a Spanish bullion fleet off the coast of Kent in sight of the impotent English navy . Charles continued peace negotiations with the Scots in a bid to gain time before launching a new military campaign . Because of his financial weakness , he was forced to call Parliament into session in an attempt to raise funds for such a venture . Both English and Irish parliaments were summoned in the early months of 1640 . In March 1640 , the Irish Parliament duly voted in a subsidy of £180 , 000 with the promise to raise an army 9 , 000 strong by the end of May . In the English general election in March , however , court candidates fared badly , and Charles ' s dealings with the English Parliament in April quickly reached stalemate . The earls of Northumberland and Strafford attempted to broker a compromise whereby the king would agree to forfeit ship money in exchange for £650 , 000 ( although the cost of the coming war was estimated at around £1 million ) . Nevertheless , this alone was insufficient to produce consensus in the Commons . The Parliamentarians ' calls for further reforms were ignored by Charles , who still retained the support of the House of Lords . Despite the protests of Northumberland , the " Short Parliament " ( as it came to be known ) was dissolved in May 1640 , less than a month after it assembled . By this stage Strafford , Lord Deputy of Ireland since 1632 , had emerged as Charles ' s right hand man and together with Laud , pursued a policy of " Thorough " that aimed to make central royal authority more efficient and effective at the expense of local or anti - government interests . Although originally a critic of the king , Strafford defected to royal service in 1628 ( due in part to Buckingham ' s persuasion ) , and had since emerged , alongside Laud , as the most influential of Charles ' s ministers . Bolstered by the failure of the English Short Parliament , the Scottish Parliament declared itself capable of governing without the king ' s consent and , in August 1640 , the Covenanter army moved into the county of Northumberland . Following the illness of the earl of Northumberland , who was the king ' s commander - in - chief , Charles and Strafford went north to command the English forces , despite Strafford being ill himself with a combination of gout and dysentery . The Scottish soldiery , many of whom were veterans of the Thirty Years ' War , had far greater morale and training compared to their English counterparts , and met virtually no resistance until reaching Newcastle upon Tyne where , at the Battle of Newburn , they defeated the English forces and occupied the city , as well as the neighbouring county of Durham . Advised from all sides to call a parliament , Charles took the unusual step of summoning a great council of peers , which met on 24 September at York . After informing the peers that a parliament would convene in November , Charles asked them to consider how he could acquire funds to maintain his army against the Scots . They recommended making peace . A cessation of arms , although not a final settlement , was agreed in the humiliating Treaty of Ripon , signed in October 1640 . The treaty stated that the Scots would continue to occupy Northumberland and Durham and be paid £850 per day , until peace was restored and the English Parliament recalled , which would be required to raise sufficient funds to pay the Scottish forces . Consequently , in November Charles summoned what later became known as the Long Parliament . Once again , Charles ' s supporters fared badly at the polls . Of the 493 members of the Commons , over 350 were opposed to the king . Long Parliament . Tensions escalate . The Long Parliament proved just as difficult for Charles as had the Short Parliament . It assembled on 3 November 1640 and quickly began proceedings to impeach the king ' s leading counsellors of high treason . Strafford was taken into custody on 10 November ; Laud was impeached on 18 December ; Lord Keeper Finch was impeached the following day , and he consequently fled to the Hague with Charles ' s permission on 21 December . To prevent the king from dissolving it at will , Parliament passed the Triennial Act , to which royal assent was granted in February 1641 . The Act required Parliament to be summoned at least once every three years , and permitted the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and 12 peers to summon Parliament if the king failed to do so . Strafford had become the principal target of the Parliamentarians , particularly John Pym , and he went on trial for high treason on 22 March 1641 . However , the key allegation by Sir Henry Vane that Strafford had threatened to use the Irish army to subdue England was not corroborated and on 10 April Pym ' s case collapsed . Pym and his allies immediately launched a bill of attainder , which simply declared Strafford guilty and pronounced the sentence of death . Charles assured Strafford that " upon the word of a king you shall not suffer in life , honour or fortune " , and the attainder could not succeed if Charles withheld assent . Furthermore , many members and most peers were opposed to the attainder , not wishing , in the words of one , to " commit murder with the sword of justice " . However , increased tensions and an attempted coup by royalist army officers in support of Strafford and in which Charles was involved began to sway the issue . The Commons passed the bill on 20 April by a large margin ( 204 in favour , 59 opposed , and 230 abstained ) , and the Lords acquiesced ( by 26 votes to 19 , with 79 absent ) in May . Charles , fearing for the safety of his family in the face of unrest , assented reluctantly on 9 May after consulting his judges and bishops . Strafford was beheaded three days later . On 3 May , Parliament ' s Protestation attacked the " wicked counsels " of Charles ' s " arbitrary and tyrannical government " ; while those who signed the petition undertook to defend the king ' s " person , honour and estate " , they also swore to preserve " the true reformed religion " , parliament , and the " rights and liberties of the subjects " . Within a week , Charles had assented to an unprecedented Act , which forbade the dissolution of the English Parliament without Parliament ' s consent . In the following months , ship money , fines in distraint of knighthood and excise without parliamentary consent were declared unlawful , and the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission were abolished . All remaining forms of taxation were legalised and regulated by the Tonnage and Poundage Act . The House of Commons also launched bills attacking bishops and episcopacy , but these failed in the Lords . Charles had made important concessions in England , and temporarily improved his position in Scotland by securing the favour of the Scots on a visit from August to November 1641 during which he conceded to the official establishment of Presbyterianism . However , following an attempted royalist coup in Scotland , known as " The Incident " , Charles ' s credibility was significantly undermined . Irish Rebellion . The population of Ireland was split into three main socio - political groups : the Gaelic Irish were poor and Catholic ; the Old English , who were descended from medieval Normans , owned vast estates and were also predominantly Catholic ; while the New English were Protestant settlers from England and Scotland who were aligned with the English Parliament and the Puritans . Strafford ' s administration had improved the Irish economy and boosted tax revenue , but had done so by heavy - handedly imposing order . He had trained up a large army in support of the king and had weakened the authority of the Irish Parliament , while promoting a Laudian Anglicanism that was anathema to both Presbyterians and Catholics . As a result , all three groups had become disaffected . Strafford ' s impeachment provided a new departure for Irish politics whereby all sides joined together to present evidence against him . In a similar manner to the English Parliament , the Old English members of the Irish Parliament argued that their opposition to Strafford did not negate their loyalty to Charles . They argued that Charles had been led astray by the malign influence of the earl , and that , moreover , the ambiguity surrounding Poynings ' Law meant that a viceroy such as Strafford could emerge as a despotic figure instead of ensuring that the king was directly involved in the governance of Ireland . Disputes concerning the transfer of land ownership from native Catholic to settler Protestant , particularly in relation to the plantation of Ulster , coupled with resentment at moves to ensure the Irish Parliament was subordinate to the Parliament of England , sowed the seeds of conflagration in Ireland that , despite its initial chaos , provided the catalyst for direct armed combat in England between royalists and parliamentarians . Strafford ' s fall from power weakened Charles ' s influence in Ireland , whilst also providing a natural conduit for cooperation between the hitherto antagonistic Gaelic Irish and Old English . When conflict arose between the Gaelic Irish and New English , in the Irish Rebellion of 1641 , the Old English sided with the Gaelic Irish whilst simultaneously professing their loyalty to the king . In November 1641 , the House of Commons passed the Grand Remonstrance , a long list of grievances against actions by Charles ' s ministers committed since the beginning of his reign ( that were asserted to be part of a grand Catholic conspiracy of which the king was an unwitting member ) , but it was in many ways a step too far by Pym and passed by only 11 votes – 159 to 148 . Furthermore the Remonstrance had very little support in the House of Lords , which the Remonstrance attacked . The tension was heightened when news of the Irish rebellion reached Parliament , coupled with inaccurate rumours of Charles ' s complicity . The Irish Catholic army , established by Strafford , whose dissolution had been unsuccessfully demanded three times by the Commons earlier in the year , professed their loyalty to the king . This was combined with the massacres of New English in Ireland by Gaelic Irish who could not be controlled by their Old English lords . Throughout November stories of Irish atrocities , coupled with rumours of " papist conspiracies " in England , circulated the kingdom and were published in a series of alarmist pamphlets . English anti - Catholic opinion was strengthened , damaging Charles ' s reputation and authority . The English Parliament distrusted Charles ' s motivations when he called for funds to put down the Irish rebellion ; many members of the House of Commons suspected that forces raised by Charles might later be used against Parliament itself . Pym ' s Militia Bill was intended to wrest control of the army from the king , but it did not have the support of the Lords , let alone Charles . Instead , the Commons passed the bill as an ordinance , which they claimed did not require royal assent . The Militia Ordinance appears to have prompted more members of the Lords to support the king . In an attempt to strengthen his position , Charles generated great antipathy in London , which was already fast falling into anarchy , when he placed the Tower of London under the command of Colonel Thomas Lunsford , an infamous , albeit efficient , career officer . When rumours reached Charles that Parliament intended to impeach his wife for supposedly conspiring with the Irish rebels , the king decided to take drastic action . Five members . Charles suspected , probably correctly , that some members of the English Parliament had colluded with the invading Scots . On 3 January , Charles directed Parliament to give up five members of the Commons – Pym , John Hampden , Denzil Holles , William Strode and Sir Arthur Haselrig – and one peer – Lord Mandeville – on the grounds of high treason . When Parliament refused , it was possibly Henrietta Maria who persuaded Charles to arrest the five members by force , which Charles intended to carry out personally . However , news of the warrant reached Parliament ahead of him , and the wanted men slipped away by boat shortly before Charles entered the House of Commons with an armed guard on 4 January 1642 . Having displaced the Speaker , William Lenthall from his chair , the king asked him where the MPs had fled . Lenthall , on his knees , famously replied , " May it please your Majesty , I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me , whose servant I am here . " Charles abjectly declared " all my birds have flown " , and was forced to retire , empty - handed . The botched arrest attempt was politically disastrous for Charles . No English sovereign had ever entered the House of Commons , and his unprecedented invasion of the chamber to arrest its members was considered a grave breach of parliamentary privilege . In one stroke Charles destroyed his supporters ' efforts to portray him as a defence against innovation and disorder . Parliament quickly seized London , and Charles fled the capital for Hampton Court Palace on 10 January 1642 , moving two days later to Windsor Castle . After sending his wife and eldest daughter to safety abroad in February , he travelled northwards , hoping to seize the military arsenal at Hull . To his dismay , he was rebuffed by the town ' s Parliamentary governor , Sir John Hotham , who refused him entry in April , and Charles was forced to withdraw . English Civil War . In mid - 1642 , both sides began to arm . Charles raised an army using the medieval method of commission of array , and Parliament called for volunteers for its militia . Following futile negotiations , Charles raised the royal standard in Nottingham on 22 August 1642 . After a few skirmishes , the First Civil War began in earnest on 23 October 1642 with the inconclusive Battle of Edgehill . At the start of the war , Charles ' s forces controlled roughly the Midlands , Wales , the West Country and northern England . He set up his court at Oxford . Parliament controlled London , the south - east and East Anglia , as well as the English navy . Henrietta Maria returned to Britain for 17 months from February 1643 . The war continued indecisively through 1643 and 1644 , until the Battle of Naseby tipped the military balance decisively in favour of Parliament . There followed a series of defeats for the royalists , and then the Siege of Oxford , from which Charles escaped ( disguised as a servant ) in April 1646 . He put himself into the hands of the Scottish Presbyterian army besieging Newark , and was taken northwards to Newcastle upon Tyne . After nine months of negotiations , the Scots finally arrived at an agreement with the English Parliament : in exchange for £100 , 000 , and the promise of more money in the future , the Scots withdrew from Newcastle and delivered Charles to the parliamentary commissioners in January 1647 . Captivity . Parliament held Charles under house arrest at Holdenby House in Northamptonshire , until Cornet George Joyce took him by threat of force from Holdenby on 3 June in the name of the New Model Army . By this time , mutual suspicion had developed between Parliament , which favoured army disbandment and Presbyterianism , and the New Model Army , which was primarily officered by Independent non - conformists who sought a greater political role . Charles was eager to exploit the widening divisions , and apparently viewed Joyce ' s actions as an opportunity rather than a threat . He was taken first to Newmarket , at his own suggestion , and then transferred to Oatlands and subsequently Hampton Court , while more ultimately fruitless negotiations took place . By November , he determined that it would be in his best interests to escape — perhaps to France , Southern England or to Berwick - upon - Tweed , near the Scottish border . He fled Hampton Court on 11 November , and from the shores of Southampton Water made contact with Colonel Robert Hammond , Parliamentary Governor of the Isle of Wight , whom he apparently believed to be sympathetic . Hammond , however , confined Charles in Carisbrooke Castle and informed Parliament that Charles was in his custody . From Carisbrooke , Charles continued to try to bargain with the various parties . In direct contrast to his previous conflict with the Scottish Kirk , on 26 December 1647 he signed a secret treaty with the Scots . Under the agreement , called the " Engagement " , the Scots undertook to invade England on Charles ' s behalf and restore him to the throne on condition that Presbyterianism be established in England for three years . The royalists rose in May 1648 , igniting the Second Civil War , and as agreed with Charles , the Scots invaded England . Uprisings in Kent , Essex , and Cumberland , and a rebellion in South Wales , were put down by the New Model Army , and with the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Preston in August 1648 , the royalists lost any chance of winning the war . Charles ' s only recourse was to return to negotiations , which were held at Newport on the Isle of Wight . On 5 December 1648 , Parliament voted by 129 to 83 to continue negotiating with the king , but Oliver Cromwell and the army opposed any further talks with someone they viewed as a bloody tyrant and were already taking action to consolidate their power . Hammond was replaced as Governor of the Isle of Wight on 27 November , and placed in the custody of the army the following day . In Pride ' s Purge on 6 and 7 December , the members of Parliament out of sympathy with the military were arrested or excluded by Colonel Thomas Pride , while others stayed away voluntarily . The remaining members formed the Rump Parliament . It was effectively a military coup . Trial . Charles was moved to Hurst Castle at the end of 1648 , and thereafter to Windsor Castle . In January 1649 , the Rump House of Commons indicted him on a charge of treason , which was rejected by the House of Lords . The idea of trying a king was a novel one . The Chief Justices of the three common law courts of England — Henry Rolle , Oliver St John and John Wilde — all opposed the indictment as unlawful . The Rump Commons declared itself capable of legislating alone , passed a bill creating a separate court for Charles ' s trial , and declared the bill an act without the need for royal assent . The High Court of Justice established by the Act consisted of 135 commissioners , but many either refused to serve or chose to stay away . Only 68 ( all firm Parliamentarians ) attended Charles ' s trial on charges of high treason and " other high crimes " that began on 20 January 1649 in Westminster Hall . John Bradshaw acted as President of the Court , and the prosecution was led by the Solicitor General , John Cook . Charles was accused of treason against England by using his power to pursue his personal interest rather than the good of the country . The charge stated that he , " for accomplishment of such his designs , and for the protecting of himself and his adherents in his and their wicked practices , to the same ends hath traitorously and maliciously levied war against the present Parliament , and the people therein represented " , and that the " wicked designs , wars , and evil practices of him , the said Charles Stuart , have been , and are carried on for the advancement and upholding of a personal interest of will , power , and pretended prerogative to himself and his family , against the public interest , common right , liberty , justice , and peace of the people of this nation . " Reflecting the modern concept of command responsibility , the indictment held him " guilty of all the treasons , murders , rapines , burnings , spoils , desolations , damages and mischiefs to this nation , acted and committed in the said wars , or occasioned thereby . " An estimated 300 , 000 people , or 6 % of the population , died during the war . Over the first three days of the trial , whenever Charles was asked to plead , he refused , stating his objection with the words : " I would know by what power I am called hither , by what lawful authority . . . ? " He claimed that no court had jurisdiction over a monarch , that his own authority to rule had been given to him by God and by the traditional laws of England , and that the power wielded by those trying him was only that of force of arms . Charles insisted that the trial was illegal , explaining that , The court , by contrast , challenged the doctrine of sovereign immunity , and proposed that " the King of England was not a person , but an office whose every occupant was entrusted with a limited power to govern ' by and according to the laws of the land and not otherwise ' . " At the end of the third day , Charles was removed from the court , which then heard over 30 witnesses against the king in his absence over the next two days , and on 26 January condemned him to death . The following day , the king was brought before a public session of the commission , declared guilty and sentenced . Fifty - nine of the commissioners signed Charles ' s death warrant . Execution . Charles ' s decapitation was scheduled for Tuesday , 30 January 1649 . Two of his children remained in England under the control of the Parliamentarians : Elizabeth and Henry . They were permitted to visit him on 29 January , and he bid them a tearful farewell . The following morning , he called for two shirts to prevent the cold weather causing any noticeable shivers that the crowd could have mistaken for fear : He walked under guard from St James ' s Palace , where he had been confined , to the Palace of Whitehall , where an execution scaffold was erected in front of the Banqueting House . Charles was separated from spectators by large ranks of soldiers , and his last speech reached only those with him on the scaffold . He blamed his fate on his failure to prevent the execution of his loyal servant Strafford : " An unjust sentence that I suffered to take effect , is punished now by an unjust sentence on me . " He declared that he had desired the liberty and freedom of the people as much as any , " but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having government . . . It is not their having a share in the government ; that is nothing appertaining unto them . A subject and a sovereign are clean different things . " He continued , " I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown , where no disturbance can be . " At about 2 p . m . , Charles put his head on the block after saying a prayer and signalled the executioner when he was ready by stretching out his hands ; he was then beheaded with one clean stroke . According to observer Philip Henry , a moan " as I never heard before and desire I may never hear again " rose from the assembled crowd , some of whom then dipped their handkerchiefs in the king ' s blood as a memento . The executioner was masked and disguised , and there is debate over his identity . The commissioners approached Richard Brandon , the common hangman of London , but he refused , at least at first , despite being offered £200 . It is possible he relented and undertook the commission after being threatened with death , but there are others who have been named as potential candidates , including George Joyce , William Hulet and Hugh Peters . The clean strike , confirmed by an examination of the king ' s body at Windsor in 1813 , suggests that the execution was carried out by an experienced headsman . It was common practice for the severed head of a traitor to be held up and exhibited to the crowd with the words " Behold the head of a traitor ! " Although Charles ' s head was exhibited , the words were not used , possibly because the executioner did not want his voice recognised . On the day after the execution , the king ' s head was sewn back onto his body , which was then embalmed and placed in a lead coffin . The commission refused to allow Charles ' s burial at Westminster , so his body was conveyed to Windsor on the night of 7 February . He was buried in the Henry VIII vault in St George ' s Chapel , Windsor Castle , in private on 9 February 1649 . The king ' s son , Charles II , later planned for an elaborate royal mausoleum to be erected in Hyde Park , London , but it was never built . Ten days after Charles ' s execution , on the day of his interment , a memoir purporting to be written by the king appeared for sale . This book , the " Eikon Basilike " ( Greek : the " Royal Portrait " ) , contained an " apologia " for royal policies , and it proved an effective piece of royalist propaganda . Anglicans and royalists fashioned an image of martyrdom , and Charles was recognised as a martyr king by his followers . John Milton wrote a Parliamentary rejoinder , the " Eikonoklastes " ( " The Iconoclast " ) , but the response made little headway against the pathos of the royalist book . Legacy . With the monarchy overthrown , England became a republic or " Commonwealth " . The House of Lords was abolished by the Rump Commons , and executive power was assumed by a Council of State . All significant military opposition in Britain and Ireland was extinguished by the forces of Oliver Cromwell in the Third English Civil War and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland . Cromwell forcibly disbanded the Rump Parliament in 1653 , thereby establishing The Protectorate with himself as Lord Protector . Upon his death in 1658 , he was briefly succeeded by his ineffective son , Richard . Parliament was reinstated , and the monarchy was restored to Charles I ' s eldest son , Charles II , in 1660 . Carolina in North America – later North and South Carolina – was named after Charles I . To the north in Virginia , Cape Charles , Charles River Shire and the Charles City Shire were all likewise named after him ; the king personally named the Charles River . Partly inspired by his visit to the Spanish court in 1623 , Charles became a passionate and knowledgeable art collector , amassing one of the finest art collections ever assembled . In Spain , he sat for a sketch by Velázquez , and acquired works by Titian and Correggio , among others . In England , his commissions included the ceiling of the Banqueting House , Whitehall , by Rubens and paintings by other artists from the Low Countries such as van Honthorst , Mytens , and van Dyck . In 1627 and 1628 , he purchased the entire collection of the Duke of Mantua , which included work by Titian , Correggio , Raphael , Caravaggio , del Sarto and Mantegna . Charles ' s collection grew further to encompass Bernini , Breughel , da Vinci , Holbein , Hollar , Tintoretto and Veronese , and self - portraits by both Dürer and Rembrandt . By Charles ' s death , there were an estimated 1760 paintings , most of which were sold and dispersed by Parliament . Assessments . Archbishop William Laud described Charles as " A mild and gracious prince who knew not how to be , or how to be made , great . " In the words of John Philipps Kenyon , " Charles Stuart is a man of contradictions and controversy " . Revered by high Tories who considered him a saintly martyr , he was condemned by Whig historians , such as Samuel Rawson Gardiner , who thought him duplicitous and delusional . In recent decades , most historians have criticised him ; the main exception being Kevin Sharpe who offered a more sympathetic view of Charles that has not been widely adopted . Charles was more sober and refined than his father , but he was intransigent and deliberately pursued unpopular policies that ultimately brought ruin on himself . Both Charles and James were advocates of the divine right of kings , but whilst James ' s ambitions concerning absolute prerogative were tempered by compromise and consensus with his subjects , Charles believed that he had no need to compromise or even to explain his actions . He thought that he was answerable only to God . " Princes are not bound to give account of their actions , " he wrote , " but to God alone " . Titles , styles , honours and arms . Titles and styles . The official style of Charles I as king was " Charles , by the Grace of God , King of England , Scotland France and Ireland , Defender of the Faith , etc . " The style " of France " was only nominal , and was used by every English monarch from Edward III to George III , regardless of the amount of French territory actually controlled . The authors of his death warrant referred to him as " Charles Stuart , King of England " . Arms . As Duke of York , Charles bore the royal arms of the kingdom differenced by a label Argent of three points , each bearing three torteau x Gules . As Prince of Wales he bore the royal arms differenced by a plain label Argent of three points . As king , Charles bore the royal arms undifferenced : Quarterly , I and IV Grandquarterly , Azure three fleurs - de - lis Or ( for France ) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or ( for England ) ; II Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory - counter - flory Gules ( for Scotland ) ; III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent ( for Ireland ) . Issue . Charles had nine children , two of whom eventually succeeded as king , and two of whom died at or shortly after birth .