Charles I
Charles I was king of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
History
Charles was the second son of James I. He became heir apparent after his elder brother died in 1612.
Following the death of his father in 1625, he succeeded the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
He largely avoided involvement in the Thirty Years' War.
At the same time, he attempted to enforce Anglicanism on Scotland, leading to the First Bishops' Wars in 1639. Scottish Covenanters mobilized and occupied northern England, forcing Charles to negotiate the Treaty of Berwick. He also summoned the Scottish Parliament to ratify the treaty; beyond ratifying it they attempted to establish a limited constitutional monarchy.
Charles summoned the so-called Short Parliament to raise funds for a Second Bishops' War. This proved ineffective, and they were dismissed after a month. Emboldened by this failure, the Covenanters re-invaded in 1640. The Treaty of Ripon established a new truce, which was confirmed in the Treaty of London. While this cemented important concessions for the Covenanters, more importantly it compelled summoning the so-called Long Parliament.
This conflict in Scotland bled into Ireland, where the Irish Rebellion sparked the Eleven Years' War between the English and Confederate Ireland.
In 1642, the Parliamentarians began to call up a militia. They established effective control in London, while Charles moved the Royalist court to Oxford. The First English Civil War continued in stalemate until 1645, when the Battle of Naseby was won by the Parliament's new standing army, the New Model Army. Following negotiations, the Scottish army handed Charles over to the Parliamentarians.
A brief Second English Civil War erupted on Charles' behalf in 1648; it was quickly ended in the Battle of Preston.
Colonel Thomas Pride commanded a purge of all member of Parliament that were critical of the New Model Army or sympathetic to Charles. Cromwell centralized power over the so-called Rump Parliament and put Charles on trial for treason. His claims of immunity were dismissed; he was eventually found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed.