This bust of King
Charles I is made from bronze. It is life-size. It shows him from mid-chest to
the top of his head with arms missing. He has the familiar long hair, beard and
moustache. He is looking straight forward. The bust was probably created from
the various portraits of King Charles I by Anthony van Dyck. This triple image by vanDyck could
well have been used to create the bust accurately.
The plaque that is attached to the wall of the Banqueting
House, beneath the bust of King Charles I, reads:
His Majesty King Charles I
Passed
Through This Hall And
Out Of A Window Nearly Over
This Tablet To The
Scaffold
In Whitehall Where He Was
Beheaded On 30th January
1649
The Spartacus Educational website (visit link)
gives brief biography:
"Charles was born in Dunfermline, the son of James I and
Anne of Denmark, was born in 1600. He was made the Duke of York at the age of
five and the Prince of Wales in 1616.
When James I died in 1625, his son Charles became king.
Later that year, Charles married Henrietta Maria, the fifteen-year-old daughter
of Henri IV of France. As Henrietta Maria was a Roman Catholic, this marriage
was not very popular with the English people. The Puritans were particularly
unhappy when they heard that the king had promised that Henrietta Maria would be
allowed to practise her religion freely and would have the responsibility for
the upbringing of their children until they reached the age of
13.
The couple had six children, Charles (1630-1685), Mary
(1631-1660), James (1633-1701), Elizabeth (1635-1680), Henry (1640-1660) and
Henrietta (1644-1670).
At this time King Louis XIII was involved in a civil war
against the Protestants (Huguenots) in France. Parliament wanted to help the
Huguenots but Charles refused as he did not want to upset his wife or
brother-in-law. Eventually it was agreed to send a fleet of eight ships to
France. However, at the last moment Charles sent orders that the men should
fight for, rather than against, Louis XIII. The captains and crews refused to
accept these orders and fought against the French.
Parliament was very angry with Charles for supporting
Louis XIII. When he asked for taxes of £1,000,000 they only gave him £150,000.
They also asked Charles to sack his chief minister, George Villiers, Duke of
Buckingham, as they thought he was guilty of giving the king bad advice. Charles
refused and instead dissolved Parliament.
Charles now had a problem. He was very short of money,
but under the terms of the Magna Carta taxes could not be imposed without the
agreement of Parliament. Charles tried raising money in other ways. For example,
he gave orders for Spanish treasure-ships coming from South America to be
robbed.
This venture was not very successful, and in 1626 he was
forced to summon his second Parliament. The Members of Parliament were still
unwilling to grant the taxes Charles wanted. Instead they complained about the
illegal methods that Charles had been using to raise money. Parliament also
demanded a meeting with the king's ministers. Charles refused, declaring that
Parliament had no right to question his ministers. Once again he dissolved
Parliament and imprisoned critics such as Sir John Eliot.
In 1635 the king faced a financial crisis. Unwilling to
summon another Parliament, he had to find other ways of raising money. He
decided to resort to the ancient custom of demanding Ship Money. In the past,
whenever there were fears of a foreign invasion, kings were able to order
coastal towns to provide ships or the money to build ships.
Charles sent out letters to sheriffs reminding them
about the possibility of an invasion and instructing them to collect Ship Money.
Encouraged by the large contributions he received, Charles demanded more the
following year. Whereas in the past Ship Money had been raised only when the
kingdom had been threatened by war, it now became clear that Charles intended to
ask for it every year. Several sheriffs wrote to the king complaining that their
counties were being asked to pay too much. Their appeals were rejected and the
sheriff's now faced the difficult task of collecting money from a population
overburdened by taxation.
In 1637 John Hampden was prosecuted for refusing to pay
the Ship Money on his lands in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. He appeared
before the Court Exchequer and although he was found guilty, the publicity
surrounding the case made him one of the most popular men in
England.
Charles found other ways of raising money. Another
scheme involved selling monopoly rights to businessmen. This meant that only one
person had the right to distribute certain goods such as bricks, salt and soap.
This policy was unpopular as it tended to increase the price of these
goods.
In an attempt to improve his popularity with Parliament,
Charles sent some soldiers to help the Huguenots in France. However, when he
called his third Parliament, they still refused to grant him the taxes that he
wanted. The king sent a message for Parliament to be dissolved. The Speaker
(chairman) tried to close proceedings but a small group of MPs stopped him by
holding him down. The doors were locked to keep the king out and the MPs
continued with their debate. Charles was so angry when he found out what had
happened that he had the MPs involved sent to prison.
In the first five years of his reign Charles summoned
and dissolved Parliament three times. Charles now tried to rule England without
Parliament. For the next eleven years no Parliaments were held.
The king's main adviser was William Laud, the Archbishop
of Canterbury. Laud argued that the king ruled by Divine Right. He claimed that
the king had been appointed by God and people who disagreed with him were bad
Christians. Laud believed that Church reforms had gone too far. Anglicans tended
to support the policies of Laud but the Puritans strongly disagreed with him.
When Laud gave instructions that the wooden communion tables in churches should
be replaced by stone altars. Puritans accused Laud of trying to reintroduce
Catholicism.
Laud also upset the Presbyterians in Scotland when he
insisted they had to use the English Prayer Book. Scottish Presbyterians were
furious and made it clear they were willing to fight to protect their religion.
In 1639 the Scottish army marched on England. Charles, unable to raise a strong
army, was forced to agree not to interfere with religion in Scotland. Charles
also agreed to pay the Scottish war expenses.
Charles did not have the money to pay the Scots and so
he had to ask Parliament for help. The Parliament summoned in 1640 lasted for
twenty years and is therefore usually known as The Long Parliament. This time
Parliament was determined to restrict the powers of the king.
The king's two senior advisers, William Laud and Thomas
Wentworth were arrested and sent to the Tower of London. Charged with treason,
Wentworth's trial opened on 22nd March, 1641. The case could not be proved and
so his enemies in the House of Commons, led by John Pym, Arthur Haselrig and
Henry Vane, resorted to a Bill of Attainder. Charles I gave his consent to the
Bill of Attainder and Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, was executed on 12th
May 1641.
Parliament then passed a law that gave members control
over the king's ministers. Charles I was furious and decided it was time to
retaliate. On 4 January 1642, Charles sent his soldiers to arrest Arthur
Haselrig, John Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles and William Strode. The five men
managed to escape before the soldiers arrived. Members of Parliament no longer
felt safe from Charles and decided to form their own army. After failing to
arrest the Five Members, Charles fled from London. Aware that Civil War was
inevitable, Charles began to form an army.
Religion was an important factor in deciding which side
people supported. The king's persecution of Puritans meant that most members of
this religious group supported Parliament, whereas most Anglicans and Catholics
tended to favour the royalists. Large landowners often persuaded their workers
to join their army. Landowners living in the north and south-west of England and
Wales tended to side with the king, whereas people living in London and the
counties in the south-east of England mainly supported
Parliament.
On 22nd August, 1642, the royal standard was raised at
Nottingham. This started three years of bitter fighting. The war effectively
came to an end with the defeat of the Royalist forces at Naseby. The battle was
a disaster for Charles. About 1,000 of his men were killed and another 4,500 of
his most experienced troops were taken prisoner. After Naseby, Charles was never
able to raise another army strong enough to defeat the parliamentary army in a
major battle.
Charles continued to rally support from his base in
Oxford. In January 1647, Charles fled to Scotland where he was captured and
handed over to the parliamentary army. Charles was imprisoned in Hampton Court,
but in November 1647 he escaped and managed to raise another
army.
This time Charles was able to persuade the Scots to
fight on his side. In August 1648 Cromwell's parliamentary army defeated the
Scots and once again Charles was taken prisoner.
In January 1649, Parliament decided to charge Charles I
with "waging war on Parliament." It was claimed that he was responsible for "all
the murders, burnings, damages and mischiefs to the nation" in the Civil
War.
The jury included members of Parliament, army officers
and large landowners. Some of the 135 people chosen as jurors did not turn up
for the trial. For example. General Thomas Fairfax, the leader of the
Parliamentary Army, did not appear. When his name was called, a masked lady
believed to be his wife, shouted out, " He has more wit than to be
here."
This was the first time in English history that a king
had been put on trial. Charles believed that he was God's representative on
earth and therefore no court of law had any right to pass judgement on him.
Charles therefore refused to defend himself against the charges put forward by
Parliament.
Charles pointed out that in December 1648, the army had
expelled several members of' Parliament. Therefore, Charles argued, Parliament
had no legal authority to arrange his trial. The arguments about the courts
legal authority to try Charles went on for several days. Eventually, on 27
January, Charles was given his last opportunity to defend himself against the
charges. When he refused he was sentenced to death. His death warrant was signed
by the fifty-nine jurors who were in attendance.
On the 30 January, Charles was taken to a scaffold built
outside Whitehall Palace. Charles wore two shirts as he was worried that if he
shivered in the cold people would think he was afraid of dying. Troopers on
horseback kept the crowds some distance from the scaffold, and it is unlikely
that many people heard the speech that he made just before his head was cut off
with an axe."