1. Charles I of England became heir apparent to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1612 upon the death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales.
50 Facts About Charles I of England
1. 2.
Charles I of England believed in the divine right of kings and was determined to govern according to his own conscience.
3.
Charles I of England supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics and failed to aid continental Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years' War.
4.
From 1642, Charles I of England fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War.
5.
Charles I of England surrendered to a Scottish force and, after lengthy negotiations between the English and Scottish parliaments, was handed over to the Long Parliament in London.
6.
The monarchy was abolished and the Commonwealth of England was established as a republic.
7.
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.
8.
Charles I of England learnt the usual subjects of classics, languages, mathematics and religion.
9.
Charles I of England became an adept horseman and marksman, and took up fencing.
10.
Charles I of England, who turned 12 two weeks later, became heir apparent.
11.
Charles I of England had seen her in Paris while en route to Spain.
12.
Charles I of England delayed the opening of his first Parliament until after the marriage was consummated, to forestall any opposition.
13.
Arminian divines had been one of the few sources of support for Charles I of England's proposed Spanish marriage.
14.
Charles I of England provoked further unrest by trying to raise money for the war through a "forced loan": a tax levied without parliamentary consent.
15.
Charles I of England remained grieving in his room for two days.
16.
Charles I of England became pregnant for the first time, and the bond between them grew stronger.
17.
The next 11 years, during which Charles ruled England without a Parliament, are known as the Personal Rule or the "eleven years' tyranny".
18.
Charles I of England was still the least taxed country in Europe, with no official excise and no regular direct taxation.
19.
The chief tax Charles imposed was a feudal levy known as ship money, which proved even more unpopular, and lucrative, than tonnage and poundage.
20.
Charles I of England raised funds from the Scottish nobility, at the price of considerable acrimony, by the Act of Revocation, 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.
21.
When Charles I of England attempted to impose his religious policies in Scotland he faced numerous difficulties.
22.
Charles I of England perceived the unrest in Scotland as a rebellion against his authority, precipitating the First Bishops' War in 1639.
23.
The military failure in the First Bishops' War caused a financial and diplomatic crisis for Charles I of England that deepened when his efforts to raise funds 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.
24.
Charles I of England continued peace negotiations with the Scots in a bid to gain time before launching a new military campaign.
25.
Consequently, Charles I of England summoned what later became known as the Long Parliament.
26.
Charles I of England 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 I of England withheld assent.
27.
Charles I of England had trained up a large Catholic army in support of the King and weakened the Irish Parliament's authority, while continuing to confiscate land from Catholics for Protestant settlement at the same time as promoting a Laudian Anglicanism that was anathema to Presbyterians.
28.
Charles I of England suspected, probably correctly, that some members of the English Parliament had colluded with the invading Scots.
29.
In one stroke Charles I of England destroyed his supporters' efforts to portray him as a defence against innovation and disorder.
30.
Charles I of England raised an army using the medieval method of commission of array, and Parliament called for volunteers for its militia.
31.
Lindsey resigned, leaving Charles I of England to assume overall command assisted by Patrick Ruthven, 1st Earl of Forth.
32.
Charles I of England regrouped at Oxford, turning down Rupert's suggestion of an immediate attack on London.
33.
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 I of England ordered a retreat.
34.
Charles I of England overwintered in Oxford, strengthening the city's defences and preparing for the next season's campaign.
35.
The parliamentary army turned back towards London, and Charles I of England set off in pursuit.
36.
Charles I of England became disillusioned by the assembly's ineffectiveness, calling it a "mongrel" in private letters to his wife.
37.
In 1644, Charles remained in the southern half of England while Rupert rode north to relieve Newark and York, which were under threat from parliamentary and Scottish Covenanter armies.
38.
Charles I of England put himself into the hands of the Scottish Presbyterian army besieging Newark, and was taken northwards to Newcastle upon Tyne.
39.
Charles I of England was eager to exploit the widening divisions, and apparently viewed Joyce's actions as an opportunity rather than a threat.
40.
Charles I of England was taken first to Newmarket, at his own suggestion, and then transferred to Oatlands and subsequently Hampton Court, while more fruitless negotiations took place.
41.
From Carisbrooke, Charles I of England continued to try to bargain with the various parties.
42.
Charles I of England was moved to Hurst Castle at the end of 1648, and thereafter to Windsor Castle.
43.
Charles I of England walked under guard from St James's Palace, where he had been confined, to the Palace of Whitehall, where an execution scaffold had been erected in front of the Banqueting House.
44.
Charles I of England was separated from spectators by large ranks of soldiers, and his last speech reached only those with him on the scaffold.
45.
Parliament was reinstated, and the monarchy was restored to Charles I's eldest son, Charles II, in 1660.
46.
Partly inspired by his visit to the Spanish court in 1623, Charles I of England became a passionate and knowledgeable art collector, amassing one of the finest art collections ever assembled.
47.
In 1627 and 1628, Charles I of England purchased the entire collection of the Duke of Mantua, which included work by Titian, Correggio, Raphael, Caravaggio, Andrea del Sarto and Andrea Mantegna.
48.
Charles I of England's collection grew further to encompass Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Leonardo da Vinci, Hans Holbein the Younger, Wenceslaus Hollar, Tintoretto and Veronese, and self-portraits by both Albrecht Durer and Rembrandt.
49.
Charles I of England deliberately pursued unpopular policies that brought ruin on himself.
50.
Charles I of England thought he was answerable only to God.