Charles I

I was not bred for a crown; my elder brother Henry was our hope. When he died, the burden fell upon a quieter, stammering younger son. In 1625 I succeeded to the three kingdoms and took to wife Henrietta Maria. Her Catholic faith aroused suspicion; my own devotion inclined to bishops, order, and ceremony. I prized concord through uniform worship, and I cherished the arts—the eye teaches majesty as surely as proclamation.

Parliament pressed hard upon the purse and sword. I assented to the Petition of Right in 1628, yet would not surrender lawful prerogatives. From 1629 I ruled without Parliament for eleven years, levying ship money and setting Archbishop Laud to reform the Church toward decency and the beauty of holiness.

My new prayer book for Scotland met riot and the Covenanters’ arms; the Bishops’ Wars drained treasure and forced the calling of the Long Parliament. It unmade much and, under clamour, sent Strafford to his death. In January 1642 I sought five members in the Commons; they had flown. War followed. Marston Moor and then Naseby broke my cause. I yielded to the Scots in 1646, faced a new court after renewed rising in 1648, refused to plead, and was beheaded before the Banqueting House.