CHARLES I., King of England, the third son of James I. and Anne, daughter of Frederick II., king of Denmark, was born at Dun fermline, in Fifeshire, North Britain, on the 19th of November 1600.
James's second son, Robert, having died in infancy, and his eldest, Prince Henry, in his nineteenth year, in 1612, Charles became heir apparent to the crown. lie was not however created Prince of Wales till the 1st (other authorities say the 4th) of November 1616. His title before this was Duke of York and Cornwall.
Almost the only transaction in which Charles figured before he ascended the throne was the extraordinary expedition to Spain made at the suggestion and in the company of the Duke of Buckingham, in the year 1623, to conclude in person the negotiations for his marriage with the Infanta Maria, a business which had occupied his father for nearly the preceding seven years. The affair was probably prevented from being brought to the intendecLconclusion by this very journey. After it was broken oft', Charles and his father directed their views to a French match, the negotiation for which was in progress when James lied, on the 27th of March 1625. The new king's marriage with the Princess Henrietta .Maria, the youngest daughter of Henri IV., was Solemnised by proxy,- at Paris, on the 11th of May.
At the accession of Charles, circumstances and the minds of men were ripe for a renewal of that struggle between the popular and the monarchical principles of the constitution which his predecessor had with difficulty put down, when it broke out in the parliament assem bled in 1620. Charles began his reign by retaining as his chief adviser his fathers favourite, the unpopular. unprinelphel and incapable 'look 'imbue. At the same time the diflicultiro in which he was involved by the war that bad jest been entered into with Spain, offered to the popular rarty an opportunity of pursuing their objects, which seemed too promising to be oeglected.
The reign commenced accordingly with a contest between the king and the parliament. the latter firmly refusing to grant the supplies demanded by his Majesty until they had obtained both a minus of pieronion sad a limited= of the prerogative. Charles, on his part, net the resistance of the parliament both by insisting upon preserving the prerogative entire, and by boldly puttiog it in form In the eosins of this first contest throe parliaments were successively called together and dismissed. The first mat 13th of June 1025, and was
dissolved 12th of August in the earns year; the second met 6th of February 1626, and was dissolved, before it had parsed a single act, 1411 of Juno; the third mat 17th of March la% was suddenly pro rogued 26th of low, was celled together for a second session 20th of January 1629, and was finally dissolved 10th of March of the mine year. All this time the proceedings of the king continued to be of the most arbitrary character. Money was collected from the people by form; the influence of the crown was exercised in the moat open manner to overawe the judge& in cases in which the liberty of the subject was concerned ; the first privilege of parliament itself was violated by the seizure of members of the House of Commons, and their commitment to prima, for words alleged to have been 'pekoe by them in debate. or is Charles free from the charge of having resorted to mann/erring and subterfuge to escape from the demands with which he was pressed. Ile is especially exposed to the charge of ends insincerity and indirectness by his conduct in the affair of the Petition of Rights, which was paned in the first session of his third parliament, and to which he war eventually compelled to give his assent. This was the greatest, indeed it may be said the only victory obtained by the popular party in the course of the struggle; and it was rendered ineffectual for the present by the temporary Emcees of the king in the plan which he at length adopted of governing without parliaments. Immediately before entering on this line of policy he wisely made first, on the 14th of April 1629 with France, which power he had entered (in July into a foolish war, every operatioc in which was a disgraceful failure; and secondly, on the 5th of November 1630 with Spain, the war with which hid not been more creditable to his arms. Meanwhile also the assassination of Buckingham, on the 23rd of August 162i, had rid him of this evil adviser.