Charles I

Charles I succeeded his father in 1625 and he had the same ancient view of monarchy his father had. He was married to a French woman, Henrietta Maria and had a lavish life. He built the Banqueting House (that has a lot of paintings made by Rubens’s students) with the taxes of his people and continued to levy heavy taxes. The Parliament presented him the Petition of Rights in 1628 in which they stated that he had to have the permission of the Parliament to levy taxes and to arrest a person (Habeas corpus) or to take money from the people (forced loans). The king signed it but then he dissolved the Parliament for 11 years. In that time he levied other taxes and extended the Ship Money tax to all cities not only to the coastal ones. His wife was Catholic and he favoured them so he appointed William Laud as Archbishop and sent him to Scotland to make the Scots convert to Anglicanism but they refused so then the king wanted to send an army led by Stratford to make them convert but he needed money so he asked the Parliament for it. The Parliament was summoned but they refused him. He then resummoned them and they presented a new Petiton of Rights with some addendums such as a request of impeachment of the Archbishop, a request to summon the Parliament at least three times in a year but he refused and tried to break in the Parliament to arrest some parlamentaries but they escaped and found protection in the people. Civil war broke out in 1642.

In the Civil war there were two sides. One consisted in the king with his supporters(Cavaliers) and the other in the Puritans(Roundheads). The leader of the Roundheads was Oliver Cromwell, leader of the New Model Army. The New Model Army was formed by three major groups, the first was the Independents with Cromwell himself that wanted a constitutional monarchy, then there were the Levellers who wanted to abolish privileges given by birth and wanted the universal male suffrage and the Diggers who were farmers and were against the enclosures. The king was won by the Scots that gave him to Cromwell in 1649 and he was tried for treason against his people ( he made plans with the Catholic Irish to attach Parliament) and was beheaded.

The royal family was exiled and they went to France. Cromwell became the leader and started a republic called Commonwealth that became in a short time a Puritan tyranny after Cromwell abolished the House of Lords creating a Rump Parliament. He was interested in peace and trade. He made peace with the Scots but tried to make the Irish convert and when they refused he had them all killed in a blood bath. Irish lands were given to his supporters and he enacted a law called Navigation Acts that said that trades to and from England had to be made with English ships, act that impoverished the Flanders that revolted against England but failed. The Carabbean became english and England continued to expand his monopoly of the sea.