44 Facts About Charles I of England

1.

Charles I of England was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life.

FactSnippet No. 415,731
2.

Charles I of England believed in the divine right of kings, and was determined to govern according to his own conscience.

FactSnippet No. 415,732
3.

Charles I of England supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics such as Richard Montagu and William Laud, and failed to aid continental Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years' War.

FactSnippet No. 415,733
4.

From 1642, Charles I of England fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War.

FactSnippet No. 415,734
5.

Charles I of England surrendered to a Scottish force and after lengthy negotiations between the English and Scottish parliaments he was handed over to the Long Parliament in London.

FactSnippet No. 415,735
6.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,736
7.

Charles I of England became an adept horseman and marksman, and took up fencing.

FactSnippet No. 415,737
8.

Charles I of England, who turned 12 two weeks later, became heir apparent.

FactSnippet No. 415,738
9.

Charles I of England delayed the opening of his first Parliament until after the marriage was consummated, to forestall any opposition.

FactSnippet No. 415,739
10.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,740
11.

Charles I of England's became pregnant for the first time, and the bond between them grew stronger.

FactSnippet No. 415,741
12.

The provocation was too much for Charles I of England, who dissolved Parliament and had nine parliamentary leaders, including Sir John Eliot, imprisoned over the matter, thereby turning the men into martyrs and giving popular cause to their protest.

FactSnippet No. 415,742
13.

The next 11 years, during which Charles ruled England without a Parliament, are known as the Personal Rule or the "eleven years' tyranny".

FactSnippet No. 415,743
14.

Large fiscal deficit had arisen during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I Notwithstanding Buckingham's short-lived campaigns against both Spain and France, Charles had little financial capacity to wage wars overseas.

FactSnippet No. 415,744
15.

Charles I of England was still the least taxed country in Europe, with no official excise and no regular direct taxation.

FactSnippet No. 415,745
16.

Chief tax Charles imposed was a feudal levy known as ship money, which proved even more unpopular, and lucrative, than tonnage and poundage before it.

FactSnippet No. 415,746
17.

Charles I of England derived money by granting monopolies, despite a statute forbidding such action, which, though inefficient, raised an estimated £100, 000 a year in the late 1630s.

FactSnippet No. 415,747
18.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,748
19.

When Charles I of England attempted to impose his religious policies in Scotland he faced numerous difficulties.

FactSnippet No. 415,749
20.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,750
21.

Charles I of England continued peace negotiations with the Scots in a bid to gain time before launching a new military campaign.

FactSnippet No. 415,751
22.

Consequently, Charles I of England summoned what later became known as the Long Parliament.

FactSnippet No. 415,752
23.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,753
24.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,754
25.

Charles I of England suspected, probably correctly, that some members of the English Parliament had colluded with the invading Scots.

FactSnippet No. 415,755
26.

In one stroke Charles I of England destroyed his supporters' efforts to portray him as a defence against innovation and disorder.

FactSnippet No. 415,756
27.

Charles I of England raised an army using the medieval method of commission of array, and Parliament called for volunteers for its militia.

FactSnippet No. 415,757
28.

Charles I of England regrouped at Oxford, turning down Rupert's suggestion of an immediate attack on London.

FactSnippet No. 415,758
29.

Charles I of England became disillusioned by the assembly's ineffectiveness, calling it a "mongrel" in private letters to his wife.

FactSnippet No. 415,759
30.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,760
31.

Charles I of England put himself into the hands of the Scottish presbyterian army besieging Newark, and was taken northwards to Newcastle upon Tyne.

FactSnippet No. 415,761
32.

Charles I of England was eager to exploit the widening divisions, and apparently viewed Joyce's actions as an opportunity rather than a threat.

FactSnippet No. 415,762
33.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,763
34.

From Carisbrooke, Charles I of England continued to try to bargain with the various parties.

FactSnippet No. 415,764
35.

Charles I of England was moved to Hurst Castle at the end of 1648, and thereafter to Windsor Castle.

FactSnippet No. 415,765
36.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,766
37.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,767
38.

Charles I of England 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.

FactSnippet No. 415,768
39.

At about 2:00 p m, 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 in one clean stroke.

FactSnippet No. 415,769
40.

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.

FactSnippet No. 415,770
41.

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, del Sarto and Mantegna.

FactSnippet No. 415,771
42.

Charles I of England's collection grew further to encompass Bernini, Bruegel, da Vinci, Holbein, Hollar, Tintoretto and Veronese, and self-portraits by both Durer and Rembrandt.

FactSnippet No. 415,772
43.

Charles I of England deliberately pursued unpopular policies that brought ruin on himself.

FactSnippet No. 415,773
44.

Charles I of England had nine children, two of whom eventually succeeded as king, and two of whom died at or shortly after birth.

FactSnippet No. 415,774