16. Before They Fought George III, American Colonists Fought Charles I
The American Revolution’s biggest baddie was King George III, upon whom the Patriots pinned most of the blame for the conflict. Indeed, when one examines the Declaration of Independence and gets past the first few uplifting “We hold these truths to be self-evident” sentences, the rest of the document is one long screed, decrying his tyranny and infamies.
However, George III was not the first king against whom Americans took up arms: that distinction goes to king Charles I. Over a century before America’s War of Independence, American colonists took up arms against a king during the English Civil War (1642 – 1651).