KING CHARLES I OF ENGLAND
Charles I, was born in Dunfermline Palace in Scotland, in 1600.
He was the second surviving son of James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, and became heir after the death of his brother.
In 1625, he became King.
Disagreement between parliament and the King started immediately.
Charles inherited his father’s belief that King’s were granted the right to rule by God.
He refused to explain his foreign policy to the first parliament of his reign.
Things only worsened with the second parliament, which he disbanded.
The King’s relationship with his third and fourth parliaments, was even tenser.
The King once again disbanded parliament, he then ruled for eleven years, without calling any parliament whatsoever.
When he eventually called a Parliament again, relations did not improve.
The country was in deep financial trouble.
In 1641 the Commons passed the Grand Remonstrance to the King.
This listed everything that had gone wrong since his reign started.
Charles I ordered the arrest of a member of the House of Lords, and multiple members of the Commons.
Both the Royalists and Parliamentarians, started assembling their armies.
The beginning of the English Civil War had begun.
Initially the Royalist cause was strong.
Charles I made Oxford’s Christ Church College his base, putting the city at the centre of the conflict.
However, in 1645 they lost a series of crucial battles.
By spring 1646, the King had to flee in disguise.
However, the king was captured, and taken to London’s Hampton Court.
An escape plot managed to get the king successfully out of London, though not to his intended destination of Jersey.
Instead, he arrived on the Isle of Wight, where the governor was loyal to Parliament……
Charles was moved to Windsor Castle, at the end of 1648 and the following year was brought before the high court of justice.
King Charles I was charged with treason.
Charles refused to plead, rejecting the legality of the court.
He was sentenced to death, on 30th January 1649, at Whitehall
He wore two shirts to the execution, to stop the chill weather from making him shiver.
He did not want to appear to have any fear in front of the crowd.
His last words were –
“I shall go from corruptible,
to an incorruptible Crown,
where no disturbance can be.”
Then he was b-headed, with one clean stroke of the axe.
Charles spirit left his body that day, bit it remains forever tethered to this earthly realm.
Charles I’s ghost, is thought to wander the halls of Christ Church College.
Some sightings report he is missing a vital body part due to his gruesome eXecution…. his head.
How students managed to recognise the former monarch, without his head remains unanswered….
There has also been sightings of the King’s spirit in the Bodleian Library.
The King was denied leave, to borrow books from the library in 1645, so this could be a late rebellion against the decision.
It is claimed that his ghost runs around the upper reading room at night, and removes a book ~ to only read one line before returning it.
It is well documented that King Charles also haunts Painswick Court House.
He stayed there during the Siege of Gloucester in 1643.
His ghost has been seen on numerous occasions in the grounds of the Court House, along with some of his men.
The ghostly Cavaliers have also been observed suiting up for battle.
The sound of their armour being put on is quite clearly heard by those who have witnessed it – however, no words are uttered by the soldiers, themselves…..
