King Charles I timeline
Speech Before Execution
Early years
Religion
Oliver Cromwell and His Relationship With Charles
- Cromwell disagreed with Charles' views on religion. Where Cromwell believed in tolerance, Charles did not.
- Charles levied heavy taxes, which Oliver did not like.
- Charles chose to ignore the wishes of Cromwell and his supporters, leading to him being tried for treason.
- From a young age, Charles was devoted to his religion.
- He enjoyed the more ritualistic or High Anglican side of Catholicism.
- Charles believed that kings were appointed by god and that it was there divine right to rule.
- He was born on November 19, 1600.
- Charles was named Duke of Albany at his baptism in December of 1600.
- In 1605, he was named Duke of York.
- During his childhood, Charles suffered from weak ankle joints that slowed his physical development.
- Charles lived in the shadow of his brother Henry, until Henry died of Typhoid when Charles was eleven years old.
- Despite his physical ailments, he was a devoted student who excelled at languages, rhetoric, and theology.
- Charles was named prince of Wales in 1616.
"I shall be very little heard of anybody here...Indeed I could hold my peace very well, if I did not think that holding my peace would make some men think that I did submit to the guilt, as well as to the punishment; but I think it is my duty to God first, and to my country, for to clear myself both as an honest man, and a good King and a good Christian." - King Charles I directly prior to his execution.
- Even in the end, Charles did not believe that he had done anything wrong; rather, he believed that he had done the work of god.
1640
Problems with Parliament
Arrest, Conviction, and Execution
Rise to the Throne
- Charles was arrested and convicted of treason due to the people's dissatisfaction with his rule, saying what he had done was tyrannical and unlawful.
- Found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death by beheading on January 27, 1649, he remained defiant, believing that he had done nothing wrong.
- He was executed on January 30, 1649.
- In collaboration with Archbishop Laud, he insisted upon religious conformity across the Three Kingdoms.
- Parliament impeached Laud and Strafford and condemned them to death, while Charles did little to save them.
- By November 1641, news of Irish uprising had reached London
- Succeeded as the second king of the Stuart dynasty in 1625.
- Became king of the Stuart dynasty in 1625.
- In 1628, Charles' opponents formulated the Petition of Right as a defense against the King's arbitrary use of his power.
- Parliament attacked his religious policy in 1628.