3 – King Charles I
King Charles I never really set out to be a tyrant. In fact, he never really set out to be King of England: his brother, Henry, was older and therefore the heir to the throne, but died suddenly when Charles was a child, propelling him up to next in line. Henry had been smart, strong, handsome, well-liked…essentially, everything that Charles was not.
Charles was groomed for the role from an early age, but lacked the temperament to rule well. He prevaricated often, and was easily led by whichever courtier had his ear at any given time and when he did finally get around to making a decision, they were often catastrophic. He did little for his own personal popularity by remaining close to his father’s friend, the Duke of Buckingham, who was something of a mentor to Charles but widely disliked by just about everyone else, and by marrying a Catholic, Henrietta Maria of France. The King was the head of the Church of England, which had been formed less than a century earlier in opposition to Catholicism, and many Protestants in England feared a return of what they saw as papacy when Charles came to the throne.
When his father died in 1625, Charles set about the business of being King. He wanted to go to war with Spain, but couldn’t get the cash together. When he called a Parliament to grant him money, they refused, so he dismissed them and didn’t call another for 11 years. In the meantime, he attempted to spread the Church of England via the Book of Common Prayer, which was to be used at every service in the country. Unfortunately for Charles, this included Scotland, where a totally different form of Protestantism was prevalent. This provoked war with the Scots, which required him to recall Parliament, who again refused to grant him money without serious reforms. He lost the war and subsequently had to pay even more in reparations to Scotland, leaving him flat broke. Again, he had to return to Parliament.
Charles’ argument with Parliament would only escalate. They considered themselves to be the sovereign power, while Charles saw himself as appointed by God to rule, the so-called Divine Right of Kings. The center of this debate was over who controlled the military forces – both sides thought they did – and it turned out that they both sort of did. The army split along the middle and the English Civil War began in 1642. Charles again lost and found himself on trial for treason against the nation.
Ironically, almost none of the people trying him had ever wanted to oust the King – they just wanted a constitutional monarchy, where Parliament made the laws and the King was a figurehead – but now that he was on trial, they had to fulfill their role. Still, of the 135 Parliamentarians tasked with forming the court, only around half actually showed up to put the King on trial. For Charles’ part, he refused to accept the authority of Parliament to try him. Technically he was right, as the Parliament required Royal Assent to pass anything, but in practice, it wasn’t going to work like that. His attitude towards his jurors was contemptuous and he continually claimed that only God could judge him and was eventually removed from the court. A death sentence was passed.
On Tuesday, January 30, 1649, King Charles I was executed publicly in the center of London. He had had countless opportunities to reverse his tyranny and avoid his own execution, very few of his executioners actually wanted to execute him and most of the people who showed up did not want to see him beheaded, but he had worked himself into a corner. After Charles would come to the man who was third to sign his death sentence and a man who would become arguably an even larger tyrant than the King himself: Oliver Cromwell.
Also Read: How the 3 English Civil Wars Were Won?