10137 - English King Charles I, 1649

Charles I was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles believed in the divine right of kings and ruled as such leading to quarrels with both the English and Scottish parliaments. Charles fought their armies during the English Civil War (1642-45) and was ultimately defeated. He surrendered but refused to accept his captors’ demands for a constitutional monarchy. Charles escaped and the Royalists rose in May 1648, igniting the Second Civil War. By August Parliament’s New Model Army put down the uprising making a return to mediation Charles’s only recourse. Parliament voted to continue negotiations but Oliver Cromwell and the army opposed any further talks with a “bloody tyrant.” In January 1649 Charles was tried for high treason, convicted, and beheaded.