Charles I and his Parliament

The English Reformation made religion the business of the Government, and left the country deeply divided. Charles and his Parliament disagreed bitterly on what form of religion the country should adopt, and also on Charles’s manner of rule, which his opponents claimed was arbitrary and cruel. When Charles stopped consulting Parliament entirely, the crisis came to a head.

Although Charles gave in to his Parliament in 1640, continued criticism goaded him into a strategic mistake which soured relations with Parliament to the point of civil war. By 1646 it was turning against him. The Scots betrayed him into Westminster’s hands, and after a brief and biased trial he was found guilty of treason and executed in January 1649.

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