CHARLES I

CROMWELL

• King Charles I was a very unpopular King.
• He tried to rule England without Parliament. Parliament was a group of men voted for by the people. They helped the King pass laws and raise taxes.
• The King taxed people without Parliament’s permission to fund a war with the Scots. Most Englishmen didn’t want to get involved in this war.
• Eventually, in 1642, the King and Parliament declared war on each other. Everyone in the country was forced to choose sides: Royalist (or Cavalier) for the King or Parliamentarian (or Roundhead) for Parliament. This is the ‘English Civil War’.
• This was the first war with proper guns. There were many battles and many people were killed. Two battles were fought at Newbury and there was a big siege at Reading. Soldiers marched all over Berkshire on the roads to and from London.
• Parliament won the war. Oliver Cromwell took over and the King was taken as a prisoner to Caversham Park.
• He was tried and sentenced to death by the ‘regicides’. Two of these were Members of Parliament from Berkshire: Daniel Blagrave from Southcote, near Reading, and Henry Marten of Longworth & Hinton Waldrist, near Faringdon.
• King Charles was taken to Maidenhead to see his two youngest children for the last time. This was at the Greyhound Inn.
• He was later taken to London and, on 30th January 1649, he had his head cut off!
• Parliament ruled without a King for 11 years, but there was lots of arguing. Eventually, King Charles’ son, Charles II, was asked to come back and rule England. He had Henry Marten imprisoned at Windsor Castle and then Chepstow Castle. Daniel Blagrave fled to Aachen, on the French-German Border.