March 27: Charles I

On this date in 1625 Charles I ascended the English throne upon the death of James I. Some facts about Charles I.

1. At his birth, Charles was the "spare" rather than the heir - he had an elder brother, Henry Frederick, but Henry died at the age of 18, probably from typhoid, so Charles became heir apparent at the age of 12.
2. As a young child, Charles was weak and sickly and when his father, James I, became king and left Dunfermline for London, the family left Charles behind. Only when he was able to walk the length of the great hall at Dunfermline Palace without assistance was he deemed well enough to join them. He was slow learning to speak as well, and had a stammer for the rest of his life. It's thought Charles had rickets, and that was the cause of his physical problems. He eventually recovered and became an adept sportsman.
3. James I wanted his son to marry Maria Anna of Spain in order to achieve peace with Spain. Charles travelled to Spain incognito with one of his father's men to negotiate the match but negotiations failed as one of the conditions would have been for Charles to become a Catholic, which would not have gone down well with the British Parliament or the public.
4. In the end, Charles married Henrietta Maria of France, who was 15 years old. She was a Catholic, too, so Charles delayed opening Parliament until the marriage was done and dusted, so they couldn't object.
5. When Charles was crowned, his wife wasn't crowned with him - she refused to take part in a protestant ceremony.
6. Charles and Parliament never had a good relationship. Aside from the Catholic/Protestant religious tensions, Parliament disagreed with the amount of money Charles spent on waging war. Charles dissolved parliament three times in the first four years of his rule. In 1629, he dismissed parliament altogether. This meant he had to levy taxes on the people to fund his warmongering, which, unsurprisingly, made him unpopular.
7. All this eventually led to the English Civil War, eventually won by the Parliamentarians in 1648. The Rump Parliament was formed. After the Chief Justices of Courts deemed the accusation against Charles I as unlawful, the Rump Parliament passed a bill creating a separate court for Charles’s trial and declared the bill an act without the need for royal assent. On 27 January 1649, Charles I was declared guilty of high treason and sentenced to death.
8. He was executed on 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall, London. He requested an extra shirt to wear to his death, because it was likely to be cold and he didn't want to be seen shivering with the cold and have the crowd think he was afraid.
9. Nobody knows who the executioner was. The regular executioner had refused to do it, although it's possible he changed his mind after death threats. Whoever it was wore a hood and did not say the customary words, "Behold the head of a traitor!" possibly because his voice would have been recognised. All we know is that he must have been experienced at cutting people's heads off because he did it in one stroke.
10. After this, England became a republic ruled by Oliver Cromwell, but in 1660, the monarchy was restored to Charles I’s eldest son, Charles II.

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