ten his return from Scotland the King had yielded to the provisions of 'The Grand Re monstrance': but now, learning 14 the impending impeachment of his Queen. who had sought as sistance from Rome, he planned the sudden coup of appearing in the Commons with an armed force, and. accusing Pym, Hampden. Hollis, Ilaselrig. and Strode of treason, demanded their arrest and delivery to him.
Intense excitement ensued; shouts of 'Privi lege of Parliament' were raised; the indicted members, forewarned, had taken refuge in the City, and the King retired with undignified threats. The country was aroused. Parliament and the nation were declared jn peril, and London prepared to defend itself. Alet with his own weapons. the alarmed King fled with his family to Hampton Court. Seven months later he raised the royal standard at Nottingham. August 22. 1642, and civil war commenced and proceeded. although arbitration was vainly attempted from time to time. The Royalists at first were the victors; but after several reverses the Parliamentary forces ac quired experience and discipline, and Cromwell and Fairfax annihilated the royal army at Naseby. dune 14, 1645. Guerrilla warfare con tinued until Charles gave himself up to the Scottish army at Newark, on May 5. 1646. No gotiations were fruitlessly renewed, and he was delivered to the English Parliament, who as signed him a residence at I folmby House, near Northampton. After four months, his qualified reply to a Parliamentary proposal resulted in his conveyanee by Cornet 'Joyce to Hampton Court. Ile continued his intrigues and opposi tion to all propositions. and, after three months, escaped to the Isle of Wight, where he lamed to receive aid the governor of Carisbrooke Castle, but was imprisoned. Cromwell and the Independents lost patience. and compelled Parliament to pass an act of treason against further negotiation with the King, who was removed to Hurst Castle. The Seats and English Presbyterians, deeming the regal person sacred and inviolable, thought to rescue him, but were defeated, and their representatives ex pelled from Parliament. which appointed a court to judge the King. Ile was removed from Hurst Castle to Windsor. on December 23, 1648, and on January 20, 1649, was taken to Westminster Hall. where the court was opened with great solemnity. Charles repudiated its legality, and refused to plead. On the 27th he was sentenced to death as a tyrant, murderer. and enemy of
the nation, by sixty-seven out of the hundred and thirty-five judges (Gardiner, ciri/ War, IV., .293, 30S-1:31. Scotland protested. the royal family entreated. France and the Nether lands interceded, in vain. After a pathetic part ing from two of his children, he calmly prepared tor death and Lore himself with dignity. Ile was beheaded at Whitehall. January 30, 1619. The last words of his speech on the scaffold were, "I must tell you that liberty and freedom consist in having of government those laws by which the lives and the goods of the people may be most their own. it is not having share in the government, sirs: is nothing pertaining to them," a sentiment that was plagiarized by the opponents of Chartism (q.v.) as late as 154S.
In private character Charles was a man of culture. kind, of irreproachable life, and of great physical mirage; but in political affairs he was unscrupulous and blindly obstinate in his belief in the 'divine right of kings.' By Charles 11.'s personal edict at the Restoration, until its can cellation by Parliament in 1859, January :30 re ceived special observances in the Anglican Church as "the day of the martyrdom of the Blessed King Charles I." After his death appeared Eikon Basilikc: The Portraiture of Ills Sacred Majesty in His Solitude and Sufferings, attribut ed to the King, but written by Bishop Gamlen, who. in 1651, published at The Hague R(liquia; Sacra! Carolina-, The Works of that Great 311,11 arch and Glorious Martyr. Ding Charles I. The best works on the reign are: Gardiner, History of England, 1603-'12 (10 vols„ London and New York. new edition 1883-84), and his Civil War (4 vols., London. New- York, and Bombay, 1.894 97), containing full citation of the original sources: also his Puritan Revolution (London, 1876) ; Chancellor. Charles I.. 1600-25 (London, 1886) ; Harris, Life and Works (London. 1758); Skelton, Life of Charles 1. (London, 1898) ; son, Life of Milton (7 vols., London, 1873-94) ; and Disraeli, Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I. (5 vols.. London. 1828-31). Original materials are contained in: Letters of Charles I. to Henrietta Maria (London, 1836) ; Clarendon. Great /,',he/lion (6 vols., Oxford, 1888) : Whitelocke, Memorials (4 vols., new edi tion, Oxford. 18531: Gardiner. Constitutional Documents (Oxford, 1889) ; and the ralcadars of State Papers, edited by Hamilton (London, 1890-93).