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The botched arrest attempt was politically disastrous for Charles.[197] 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.[198] In one stroke Charles destroyed his supporters' efforts to portray him as a defence against innovation and disorder.[199]
Parliament quickly seized London, and Charles fled the capital for Hampton Court Palace on 10 January 1642,[200] moving two days later to Windsor Castle.[201] After sending his wife and eldest daughter to safety abroad in February, he travelled northwards, hoping to seize the military arsenal at Hull.[202] 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.[203]
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.[204] Following futile negotiations, Charles raised the royal standard in Nottingham on 22 August 1642.[205] At the start of the First English Civil 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.[206]
After a few skirmishes, the opposing forces met in earnest at Edgehill, on 23 October 1642. Charles's nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine disagreed with the battle strategy of the royalist commander Lord Lindsey, and Charles sided with Rupert. Lindsey resigned, leaving Charles to assume overall command assisted by Lord Forth.[207] Rupert's cavalry successfully charged through the parliamentary ranks, but instead of swiftly returning to the field, rode off to plunder the parliamentary baggage train.[208] Lindsey, acting as a colonel, was wounded and bled to death without medical attention. The battle ended inconclusively as the daylight faded.[209]
In his own words, the experience of battle had left Charles "exceedingly and deeply grieved".[210] He regrouped at Oxford, turning down Rupert's suggestion of an immediate attack on London. After a week, he set out for the capital on 3 November, capturing Brentford on the way while simultaneously continuing to negotiate with civic and parliamentary delegations. At Turnham Green on the outskirts of London, the royalist army met resistance from the city militia, and faced with a numerically superior force, Charles ordered a retreat.[210] He over-wintered in Oxford, strengthening the city's defences and preparing for the next season's campaign. Peace talks between the two sides collapsed in April.[211]
The war continued indecisively over the next couple of years, and Henrietta Maria returned to Britain for 17 months from February 1643.[212] After Rupert captured Bristol in July 1643, Charles visited the port city and lay siege to Gloucester, further up the river Severn. His plan to undermine the city walls failed due to heavy rain, and on the approach of a parliamentary relief force, Charles lifted the siege and withdrew to Sudeley Castle.[213] The parliamentary army turned back towards London, and Charles set off in pursuit. The two armies met at Newbury, Berkshire, on 20 September. Just as at Edgehill, the battle stalemated at nightfall, and the armies disengaged.[214] In January 1644, Charles summoned a Parliament at Oxford, which was attended by about 40 peers and 118 members of the Commons; all told, the Oxford Parliament, which sat until March 1645, was supported by the majority of peers and about a third of the Commons.[215] Charles became disillusioned by the assembly's ineffectiveness, calling it a "mongrel" in private letters to his wife.[216]
In 1644, Charles remained in the southern half of England while Rupert rode north to [220]
At the battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645, Rupert's horsemen again mounted a successful charge, against the flank of Parliament's New Model Army, but Charles's troops elsewhere on the field were pushed back by the opposing forces. Charles, attempting to rally his men, rode forward but as he did so, Lord Carnwath seized his bridle and pulled him back, fearing for the king's safety. Carnwath's action was misinterpreted by the royalist soldiers as a signal to move back, leading to a collapse of their position.[221] The military balance tipped decisively in favour of Parliament.[222] There followed a series of defeats for the royalists,[223] and then the Siege of Oxford, from which Charles escaped (disguised as a servant) in April 1646.[224] He put himself into the hands of the Scottish Presbyterian army besieging Newark, and was taken northwards to Newcastle upon Tyne.[225] 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,[7] the Scots withdrew from Newcastle and delivered Charles to the parliamentary commissioners in January 1647.[227]
Parliament held Charles under house arrest at [228] 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.[229] Charles was eager to exploit the widening divisions, and apparently viewed Joyce's actions as an opportunity rather than a threat.[230] He was taken first to Newmarket, at his own suggestion,[231] and then transferred to Oatlands and subsequently Hampton Court, while more ultimately fruitless negotiations took place.[232] 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.[233] 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.[234] Hammond, however, confined Charles in Carisbrooke Castle and informed Parliament that Charles was in his custody.[235]
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.[236]
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.[237]
Charles's only recourse was to return to negotiations,[238] which were held at Newport on the Isle of Wight.[239] On 5 December 1648, Parliament voted by 129 to 83 to continue negotiating with the king,[240] 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.[241] Hammond was replaced as Governor of the Isle of Wight on 27 November, and placed in the custody of the army the following day.[242] 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,[243] while others stayed away voluntarily.[244] The remaining members formed the Rump Parliament. It was effectively a military coup.[245]
Charles was moved to Hurst Castle at the end of 1648, and thereafter to Windsor Castle.[248] In January 1649, the Rump House of Commons indicted him on a charge of treason, which was rejected by the House of Lords.[249] The idea of trying a king was a novel one.[250] 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.[251] 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.[252] The High Court of Justice established by the Act consisted of 135 commissioners, but many either refused to serve or chose to stay away.[253] 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.[254] John Bradshaw acted as President of the Court, and the prosecution was led by the Solicitor General, John Cook.[255]
Charles was accused of treason against England by using his power to pursue his personal interest rather than the good of the country.[256] 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."[256] Reflecting the modern concept of command responsibility,[257] 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."[258] An estimated 300,000 people, or 6% of the population, died during the war.[259]
no earthly power can justly call me (who am your King) in question as a delinquent ... this day's proceeding cannot be warranted by God's laws; for, on the contrary, the authority of obedience unto Kings is clearly warranted, and strictly commanded in both the Old and New Testament ... for the law of this land, I am no less confident, that no learned lawyer will affirm that an impeachment can lie against the King, they all going in his name: and one of their maxims is, that the King can do no wrong ... the higher House is totally excluded; and for the House of Commons, it is too well known that the major part of them are detained or deterred from sitting ... the arms I took up were only to defend the fundamental laws of this kingdom against those who have supposed my power hath totally changed the ancient government.[262]
At the end of the third day, Charles was removed from the court,[264] 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.[265] Fifty-nine of the commissioners signed Charles's death warrant.[266]
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.[267] 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:[268][269]
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.[270] Charles was separated from spectators by large ranks of soldiers, and his last speech reached only those with him on the scaffold.[271] 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."[272] 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."[273] He continued, "I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be."[274]
At about 2 p.m.,[275] 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.[276] According to observer Philip Henry, a moan "as I never heard before and desire I may never hear again" rose from the assembled crowd,[277] some of whom then dipped their handkerchiefs in the king's blood as a memento.[278]
The executioner was masked and disguised, and there is debate over his identity. The commissioners approached William Hulet and Hugh Peters.[279] The clean strike, confirmed by an examination of the king's body at Windsor in 1813,[280][8] suggests that the execution was carried out by an experienced headsman.[282]
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!"[283] Although Charles's head was exhibited,[284] the words were not used, possibly because the executioner did not want his voice recognised.[283] 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.[285]
The commission refused to allow Charles's burial at [289] 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.[128]
Ten days after Charles's execution, on the day of his interment, a memoir purporting to be written by the king appeared for sale.[285] This book, the Eikon Basilike (Greek: the "Royal Portrait"), contained an apologia for royal policies, and it proved an effective piece of royalist propaganda. John Milton wrote a Parliamentary rejoinder, the Eikonoklastes ("The Iconoclast"), but the response made little headway against the pathos of the royalist book.[290] Anglicans and royalists fashioned an image of martyrdom,[291] and Charles was recognised as a martyr king by his followers. From the latter half of the seventeenth century, high Anglicans commemorated his martyrdom on the anniversary of his death and churches, such as those at Falmouth and Tunbridge Wells, were founded in his honour.[128]
Partly inspired by his visit to the Spanish court in 1623,[292] Charles became a passionate and knowledgeable art collector, amassing one of the finest art collections ever assembled.[293] His intimate courtiers including the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Arundel shared his interest and have been dubbed the Whitehall group.[294] In Spain, he sat for a sketch by Velázquez, and acquired works by Titian and Correggio, among others.[295] 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.[296] 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.[297] Charles's collection grew further to encompass Bernini, Bruegel, da Vinci, Holbein, Hollar, Tintoretto and Veronese, and self-portraits by both Dürer and Rembrandt.[298] By Charles's death, there were an estimated 1760 paintings,[299] most of which were sold and dispersed by Parliament.[300]
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.[301] 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.[302] Cromwell forcibly disbanded the Rump Parliament in 1653,[303] thereby establishing The Protectorate with himself as Lord Protector.[304] Upon his death in 1658, he was briefly succeeded by his ineffective son, Richard.[305] Parliament was reinstated, and the monarchy was restored to Charles I's eldest son, Charles II, in 1660.[306]
In the words of John Philipps Kenyon, "Charles Stuart is a man of contradictions and controversy".[307] Revered by high Tories who considered him a saintly martyr,[128] he was condemned by Whig historians, such as Samuel Rawson Gardiner, who thought him duplicitous and delusional.[308] In recent decades, most historians have criticised him,[309] the main exception being Kevin Sharpe who offered a more sympathetic view of Charles that has not been widely adopted.[310] While Sharpe argued that the king was a dynamic man of conscience, Professor Barry Coward thought Charles "was the most incompetent monarch of England since Henry VI",[311] a view shared by Ronald Hutton, who called him "the worst king we have had since the Middle Ages".[312]
Archbishop William Laud, who was beheaded by Parliament during the war, described Charles as "A mild and gracious prince who knew not how to be, or how to be made, great."[313] Charles was more sober and refined than his father,[314] but he was intransigent and deliberately pursued unpopular policies that ultimately brought ruin on himself.[315] Both Charles and James were advocates of the divine right of kings, but while 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.[316] 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".[317]
The official [320] The authors of his death warrant referred to him as "Charles Stuart, King of England".[321]
As Duke of York, Charles bore the royal arms of the kingdom differenced by a label Argent of three points, each bearing three torteaux Gules.[323] The Prince of Wales bore the royal arms differenced by a plain label Argent of three points.[324] 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). In Scotland, the Scottish arms were placed in the first and fourth quarters with the English and French arms in the second quarter.[325]
Coat of arms as heir apparent and Prince of Wales used from 1612 to 1625
Coat of arms of Charles I used (outside Scotland) from 1625 to 1649
Coat of arms of Charles I used in Scotland from 1625 to 1649
Charles I of England, James II of England, Oliver Cromwell, Westminster Abbey, Diana, Princess of Wales
Charles I of England, Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I of England, Henry VII of England, Henry VIII of England
Edward VI of England, Anglicanism, Charles I of England, Edward IV of England, Elizabeth I of England
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth II, Prince Harry, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
Conservative Party (UK), Charles I of England, Labour Party (UK), Colonel, Liberal Party (UK)
Anglicanism, Charles I of England, Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury, Book of Common Prayer
Anne, Queen of Great Britain, House of Vasa, House of Savoy, House of Bonaparte, House of Orange-Nassau
Charles I of England, New Model Army, Westminster Abbey, Kingdom of England, London