Hie principal advisers now were the queen, Bishop Laud, and Went worth, created earl of Strafford. The state of things now established, and which may be described as the complete subjugation of the consti tution by the prerogative of the crown, lasted for nearly eight years. The only memorable attempt at resistance was that made by Hemp den, who refused to pay his aasesament of ship-money, and whose case was argued before the twelve judges in April 1637, and decided in favour of the crown. Meantime however the opposition of the people of Scotland to the Episcopal form of church government, which had for some time been established among them, suddenly burst out into a dame. The first disturbances took place at Edinburgh, in the end of July 1637, and by the beginning of the following year the whole country was In a state of Insurrection against the royal authority. in these circumstances Charles called together his fourth parliament, which met on the 13th of April 1640. The temper which the mem• bens showed however Induced him to dissolve it on the 5th of May following. But the Scotch army having entered England on the 20t1 of August, he again found himself forced to have recourse to the representatives of the people. The result was, the meeting on the 3r1 of November of a fifth parliament, which is generally known under the name of the Long Parliament.
The first proceedings of this assembly amounted to entering into complete alliance with the Soottialt insurgents. By one bill after another the king was stripped of all the most objectionable of hi, prerogatives. The Commons also voted that no bishop shall have any vote In parliament nor bear any sway in temporal affairs, and that nc clergyman shall be in the commission of the peace. Of his advisers Laud was sent to the Tower, and Strafford was executed in conformity with en act of attainder, his assenting to which has always beet regarded as one of the great stains on the character of Charley. Law also was executed after he had remained a prisoner in the l'uwei more than four years. After having yielded everything else however Charles refined his meat to the Militia Bill, which was presentee to him in February 1642, the object of which was to transfer all thi military power of the kingdom into the hands of the parliament. Thy first blood drawn in the civil war which followed was at the indecialvi tattle of F.. Igehill, fought on Sunday, the 23rd of October, in the year. After this the war extended itself over the whole kingdom Yor some time success "seemed to incline to the royal aide, and at the beginning of the year 1644, throughout both tho west and the nortl of England, all opposition to the king was nearly subdued. In Februar of that year however another Scottish army crossed the border, an; on the 2nd of July, at Manton Moor, the royalists sustained a dam from the combined Scottish and parliamentary force, which proved fatal blow to the king'. affairs. The brilliant of the 31arqui of Montrose in Scotland, at the end of this year and the beginning he next, were thrown away in the circumstance. iu which his royal salter now was At length, on the 14th of June /615 was fought the stile of Naseby, which may be said to have finished the war. On he 5th of May 1646 Charles delivered himself up to the Scotch army vamped before Newark, who on the 30th of January 1047 gave him ,p to the commissioners of the English parliament. On the and of use be was forcibly taken by Cornet Joyce out of the hands of the ommisaioners, and carried to the army than lying at Triplow ileath, nd now in open rebellion against their old masters of the parliament.
)n the 16th of August ha was brought by the army to HampWn Court, rem which be made his escape on the 11th of November, and eventu Ily sought refuge with Hammond, the parliamentary governor of the ale of Wight. Here he was detained a close prisoner in Carishrook Nettle till the 30th of November 1648, when ho was seized by Colonel ewer, and carried to Hunt Castle, on the opposite coast of Hampshire, ie an order of the oouncil of officers In the army. Meanwhile risings
a his favour, which bad been attempted in various parts of the logdom, were all suppressed without difficulty by the now dominant nouy. An army in the Presbyterian interest, which was advancing rum Scotland under the conduct of the Duke of Hamilton, was met in the 17th of August at Langdale near Preston by Cromwell, who titer completely routing it penetrated as far as Edinburgh, and educed everything to subjection in that quarter. On the 6th of Nteember, Colonel Pride took possession of the House of Commons, with a strong detachtnent of soldiers, and cleared it by force of all the lumbers, except the minority of about 150, who were in the lode sendent interest. On the 23rd the king was brought in custody to Nindaor, and on the 15th of January 1649 ,to St. James's. On the 10th he was brought to trial in Westminster Hall, before what was lesignated the High Court of Justice. Sentence of death was pro nounced against him on the 27th, and he was executed by decapitation m a scaffold erected in front of the Banqueting House at Whitehall, it two in the afternoon of the 30th.
Charles I. had eight children by Qnoen Henrietta, of whom six survived him, namely, Charles, prince of Wales, and James, duke of York, afterwards kings of England; Henry, afterwards created duke of Gloucester ; Mary, married to William, prince of Orange, by whom the became mother of William, afterwards king of England; Elizabeth, who died a prisoner in Carisbrook Castle, 8th of September, 1650, in her fifteenth year; and Henrietta Maria, who married Philip, duke of OrItSans,frotn whom, through a daughter, is descended the royal family of Sardiuia. • The literary works attributed to King Charles have been collected and published under the title of 'Reliquire Sacra Carolime.' A list of them may be found in Horace Walpole's 'Royal and Noble Authors.' They consist chiefly of letters and a few state papers, and of the famous ' Eikon Basilike,' which first appeared immediately after the death of the king: but his claim to the authorship of this work has been much disputed, and is now generally considered to have been disproved, though the Rev. Dr. Ch. Wordsworth in his work entitled, ' Who wrote the Eikon Budlike,' and the replies which he published in answer to the reviews of that work, has strongly contended that the Eikon' was the production of the king. Charles however was certainly one of the most elegant and forcible English writers of his time, and a great friend to the fine arts, which be encouraged in the early part of his reign.
(The original authorities for the history of the reign of Charles I. are very numerous. Among those of greatest importance may ba mentioned Itushworth's 'Historical Collections ;' Whitelock's 'Memo rial, of English Affairs;' Clarendou'e 'Ilistery of the Grand Rebellion ; ' and May's History of the (Long) Parliament ; ' to which must bo added, both for its invaluable mass of original letters, as well as for the 'Elucidations' of the editor, Carlyle's 'Letters of Oliver CromwelL' An important recent addition to the documentary matter is the collection of letters despatched weekly by Charles to his queen during the whole of the year 1646, and printed under the editorial care of Mr. J. Bruce, by the Camden Society, 1856. The general reader will find perhaps a sufficiently ample detail of the event* of the time In the histories of 'lapin, Hume, and Lingard, and be will do well to read the recent aeries of work, on this period by Id. Guizot, as exhibiting Charles and his opponents from a point of view somewhat different from that of the English historians, and also as giving the running commentary of a thoroughly well-informed historian and statesman, who has him self lived and taken part in a revolutionary struggle in many respects bearing no faint resemblance to that of the reign of Charles 1. It will be enough to mention the volumes of Brodie, Godwin, D'Isneli, etc., as among the more recent works on the reign of Charles 1.)