Charles I of England

Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649), was the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. He was a son of James VI and I. He was married to Henrietta Maria of France. He was executed in 1649, during the English Civil War.

Early life
Charles was born at Dunfermline Palace in Fife, Scotland, before his father James VI and I came to the throne of England.

Charles came to England in 1604. He had an elder brother, Henry Frederick, who was clever, handsome, popular, and rich, was next in line for the throne. Henry Frederick died suddenly in 1612, and his brother Charles was made Prince of Wales and the heir apparent to his father's kingdoms..Charles was less suited to be king than Henry had been, because he was small and weak and not as clever.

Charles became closer to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, than anyone else. The Duke of Buckingham was his father's best friend and was very powerful and rich, but he was not popular with most common people. He took Charles to Spain in the hope of finding him a Spanish princess as a bride, but they had many problems on the journey and could not persuade the Spanish king to give them his daughter as a wife for Charles.

Charles sat in the Parliament of England's House of Lords in 1621. King James wanted Charles to marry Maria Anna of Spain because she was the sister of Philip IV of Spain. Charles travelled to Spain to meet Maria in 1623, but the journey was a disaster, the two did not marry, and Charles became an enemy of Spain.

On the way home, Charles went through France again, where he met the French royal family.

Charles married Henrietta Maria of France because she was the sister of the French king, Louis XIII, and planned to fight Spain. The Parliament of England convened in 1624 because of Charles's plans. James I did not want a war but died in 1625.

 Religion 
His religious policies and his marriage to a Roman Catholic made him mistrusted by Reformed groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters, who thought his views were too Catholic. He supported High Church Anglican ecclesiastics and gave little help to Protestant forces enough during the Thirty Years' War. His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt High Anglican practices strengthened the position of the English and Scottish Parliaments and were a cause for his downfall.

King
Charles, now the king, convened the English Parliament again in 1625. The Parliament did not give the king what he wanted, and its men did not like Charles's friend theDuke of Buckingham , who had gone with Charles to Spain and later helped him to marry Henrietta Maria. When Buckingham led the Royal Navy to attack Cadiz in Spain, the campaign was a failure, and Parliament impeached him. That made Charles dissolve (stop) the parliament. Charles also wanted to send soldiers to help Protestants in the France and demanded more money to pay for the army. That campaign was also a failure, and the king had to agree to the Petition of Right in 1628. An army officer assassinated Buckingham that summer.

Parliament convened again in 1629. There were many disagreements about religion and the organization of the Church of England. Charles gave support to the High Church, but the parliament gave their support to the Low Church. Charles supported Arminianism, but Parliament's House of Commons tried to make Arminianism illegal. To stop the House of Commons, the king again dissolved the parliament. Some Members of Parliament in the House of Commons tried to continue their session, but the king put them in prison. Charles continued to support Arminians in the Church of England by making William Laud the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest bishop of England The population disliked Laud, the Arminians and Charles's taxes. Between 1629 and 1640, the king controlled the government alone. There was no parliament. This time has the name "Personal Rule" or the "Eleven Years' Tyranny".

That made Charles very unpopular with the people, who did not like the different taxes that they had to pay directly to him since Parliament could not vote to give him any budget. Many also did not like the King's closest adviser, Laud, who was trying to force the Church of England to use the same Anglican prayer book and end the many other Protestant denominations that were becoming popular at that time.

When the king and Laud tried to force a prayer book on Scotland, which was even more Protestant since it was Calvinist, armed rebellion broke out there. The Wars of the Three Kingdoms started in 1639 with the Bishops' Wars.

The Members of Parliament, angry at the things that had been going on for 11 years, did not want to give him money to fight his war. Instead, they spent the session complaining about what had been going on in the country for the last 11 years. After only three weeks, Charles dissolved Parliament again. For that reason, it was known as the Short Parliament. Without enough money, Charles lost the war badly and had to pay the Scots even more money that he did not have. 

The wars were a failure for the king, and his position forced Charles to convene the Parliament of England in 1640. Parliament voted that the King had to call Parliament and could not shut it down again. Charles had no choice but to agree. The Parliament is known as the Long Parliament because it ended up lasting for 20 years.

Charles was in a weak position, and he had to agree to acts of parliament that took away many of his royal powers. Laud and Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, were impeached and later executed. Parliament also tried to take control of the army away from the king. Many political conservatives were not pleased with this plan. Acting on the advice of his wife, Queen Maria Henrietta, the king went with soldiers to the House of Commons in 1642 and tried to arrest his political enemies, but they had gone. After that failure, the king left London and went to travel the country to look for help. With a collection of his political friends, Charles began the English Civil War with an army at Nottingham and then moved to Oxford. 

Parliament's got the upper hand in the war, and Charles, after a crushing defeat in 1646, went to the Scots for protection. They decided to hand him over to the Parliament of England in 1647.

The war was a failure for the king, and he was made a prisoner. The king got out of Hampton Court Palace in 1647 and ran away to Carisbrooke Castle, on the Isle of Wight.

The governor of the Isle of Wight supported Parliament and made the king a prisoner again. While he was being held at Carisbrooke Castle, Charles made an agreement with the Scots who joined his side, and the fighting started again in 1648. 

Charles's many enemies then fought among themselves in spring 1648. Because he was still making trouble for them even after his capture, Parliament voted to put the king on trial. 

The army then removed the conservatives from Parliament in a political purge in December to prevent more fighting. The men left in Parliament then formed a court in order to hold a trial of the king. The court gave the king the death penalty. That had never been done to a king of England.. 

Children
NameBirthDeathNotesCharles James, Duke of Cornwall13 March 162713 March 1627Stillborn; unknown burial site.Charles II29 May 16306 February 1685Married Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705) in 1663.  No legitimate children.Mary, Princess Royal4 November 163124 December 1660Married William II, Prince of Orange (1626–1650) in 1641.  Had children.James II, King of England14 October 163316 September 1701Married (1) Anne Hyde (1637–1671) in 1659; had children(2) Mary of Modena (1658–1718) in 1673; had childrenElizabeth, Princess of England29 December 16358 September 1650Died young; no children. Buried Newport, Isle of WightAnne, Princess of England17 March 16378 December 1640Died young; no children. Buried Westminster AbbeyCatherine, Princess of England29 January 163929 January 1639Stillborn; buried Westminster Abbey.Henry, Duke of Gloucester8 July 164018 September 1660 Died unmarried; no children. Buried Westminster AbbeyHenrietta, Princess of England16 June 164430 June 1670Married Philippe de France, Duke of Orléans (1640–1701) in 1662; had children

Death
They found him guilty. He was decapitated in a public execution outside the Banqueting House of the Palace of Whitehall. Some of the Members of Parliament who opposed killing Charles were purged, and from then on, what was left of the Long Parliament became known as the Rump Parliament. It took complete power in England, and there was not a new king at all until 1660, when Parliament called his son Charles II, which started the Restoration.

On 19 May 1660, King Charles I was made a Saint by the Church of England. Anglicans considered him as a martyr for the church system known as the Episcopacy.

References

Category:1600 births
Category:1649 deaths
Category:House of Stuart
Category:Kings and Queens of Scotland
Category:17th century in Scotland
Category:17th century in England