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King Charles’ coronation is set to take place today (May 6) at Westminster Abbey. In the more than millennia-long history of the British monarchy, King Charles is going to be only the third British monarch of the name.
The previous two, the father-son duo of Charles I and Charles II, saw significantly more tumult than Charles III is expected to see in his reign. Charles I reigned through the first two English Civil Wars and went on to become the only monarch to be tried for treason and executed. His son Charles II narrowly escaped capture after military defeat in the third Civil War, only to return a decade later and begin what is now known as the English Restoration.
We tell the story of the English Civil War and the two King Charles who lived (and died) through it.
After the passing of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, her cousin, James Stuart became King James I and united the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland for the first time. This was notable as the three kingdoms had different social and legal norms, and crucially, religious practices – Ireland was predominantly Catholic, and while Scotland and England were both Protestant, their practices varied. James was succeeded by his son, Charles I in 1625.
Charles I was never liked much. His marriage to a Catholic princess, Henrietta Maria of France, fueled suspicions among Protestants who feared that the King would reintroduce Catholic traditions in the Church of England. He was also somewhat of an autocrat – in 1629 he dismissed Parliament and would not recall it for the next 11 years.
At the time, England’s nascent Parliament comprised Lords and landed gentry. While the monarch still had the power to call the Parliament, the Parliament enjoyed significant authority, especially in the area of revenue collection.
In the late 1630s, Charles tried to anglicise the Presbyterian Scottish Church, generating fierce resistance. A Scottish army defeated Charles’ forces and invaded England, forcing him to recall Parliament in 1640 to generate the money for the fighting. Much to his chagrin, instead of helping him, the Parliament tried to restrict his powers.
Amidst the political drama in London, the Irish Catholics rebelled, massacring hundreds of Protestants in the island. This worsened matters in London as the monarch and the Parliament disagreed about how to respond. Things finally came to foot when Charles tried (and failed) to have five members of Parliament arrested in 1642. Fearing for his own safety, Charles fled to the north and started amassing loyal troops, independent of parliamentary approval.
The Civil War broke out between Charles’ supporters (from north, northeastern England) and the Parliamentarians or Roundheads (from the south) in August 1642. In 1643, Charles allied with Irish Catholics and gained a decisive upper hand. But an alliance between the Roundheads and the Scotts in 1644 evened the odds. Major Roundhead victories at Marston Moor (July 1644) and Naseby (June 1645) all but doomed Charles’ cause. He was captured soon after and the first Civil War ended in 1646.
Britain was now under the control of the Parliament which had raised a large standing army (called the New Model Army) under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell.
But even in defeat and capture, Charles was a cunning politician. In 1647, he managed to chalk out a deal with the Scots who were growing increasingly wary of the New Model Army’s presence. Promising not to interfere in the Scots’ Presbyterian faith, in return, Charles asked for the Scots to help him return to the throne. In 1648, the Scots invaded northern England, accompanied by a series of Royalist uprisings in the country.
However, neither the Scots nor the disparate supporters of Charles were any match for Cromwell and his New Model Army. The Second Civil War did not last long and by the end of 1648, pro-Charles forces were all but crushed. What this war did do was push the hardliners into prominence in the Parliament. Concluding that peace could not be reached while Charles was still alive, they put him on trial for treason.
Charles was found guilty and executed by beheading on January 30, 1649 at Whitehall. Till date he remains the only British monarch to have been convicted for treason and executed.
On the back of the might of the New Model Army, a new republican regime was established in England. But both Ireland and Scotland were not happy. Some supporters of Charles regrouped and signed a treaty with the Irish to help restore the monarchy. This prompted Cromwell to lead a vicious campaign in Ireland. The massacre of around 3500 in Drogheda in late 1649 is still remembered bitterly by Irish people, with Cromwell being one of the most hated figures in Ireland.
Meanwhile, Charles II, son of Charles I, was crowned King of Scotland by the Scottish Church in 1650. This prompted Cromwell to undertake another campaign in Scotland, which the New Model Army decidedly won. Charles II, in a final attempt to restore the monarchy, led an invasion of England in 1651, only to suffer another defeat against a huge Parliamentarian army at Worcester.
The young king narrowly escaped to France and the defeat at Worcester drew a close to what came to be known as the English Civil Wars and the larger War of the Three Kingdoms.
The Civil War and his military achievements during it had made Oliver Cromwell the most powerful man in Britain. In 1653, he rose to the position of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, though effectively he had been in power much before that. He tried to consolidate broad support behind the new republican regime. In effect, this was the first instance in modern Europe when a secular ruler had come to power, deriving authority not from divine ordinance but from actual military might.
However, the New Model Army’s strength was also the source of constant uneasiness among the landed aristocracy and clergy of Britain. Cromwell was thus unable to consolidate republican rule as he would have wished to, and his constant dismissal of the Parliament (due to its supposed Royalist bent) did not endear him to many. Thus when Cromwell died of illness in 1658, support for the regime quickly fell.
Finally in 1660, upon the request of the reconvened Parliament, Charles II returned to England as King and began a period that is known as the Restoration. He ended 11 years of republican rule, disbanded the New Model Army, and promised amnesty and religious tolerance to former enemies. Charles would rule till his death in 1685 and oversee a period of relative stability and growing prosperity, convening the Parliament for over 17 continuous years from 1661 to 1679.
Incidentally, Charles II was the king who, upon his marriage to Catherine of Braganza in May 1662, received the island of Bombay as dowry. He transferred its control to the East India Company.
