Small and exquisite, arrogant and haughty, weak willed and highly religious. These are the details which have attached themselves to King Charles I and which to this day, still get used to sum up the man. The most important thing to remember with a 17th century King as Charles I is that there were always two, the King and the man. King Charles I the man is not commonly known, yet it helps correct some of the misconceptions above and helps research into the real King Charles I. Born in 1600, Charles Stuart was the second son of King James I of Scotland. He was born weak, not expected to survive, with rickets and weak legs, a stammer and as such, was left in Scotland when his father journeyed to London to take the English Crown after Elizabeth I’s death. Charles was given love by the noble family left to look after him, who refused the King’s torturous ways to help his son, like by cutting the muscle at the base of his tongue to help with the stammer, or putting weights on his feet to help his joints. His charismatic and strong brother Henry, heir to the throne and Prince of Wales, overshadowed Charles all his childhood life. Eventually his love for Henry and admiration made him determined to overcome his disabilities. Taking up sports like tennis and riding, he strengthened his legs, greatly improved his physical well being and he began to study copiously, reading, writing and trying various remedies for stammers, such as filling his mouth full of pebbles. This improvement gave Charles an inner strength, which was mighty, and a determination leading to stubbornness, which would never leave him. This paid off and soon Charles was a very intelligent young boy, full of vitality, but still painfully shy and reserved. His feeling of inadequacy to his brother and stammer, both made his reserved and shy. The low self-esteem combined to make him appear haughty, in that he would not open up to people, nor speak much. This also made him appear arrogant. In private, Charles would only open up to very close friends, of whom there were few, so hard was it to gain Charles’s trust. Eventually he moved to London with the court, taking a full part as Duke of York, but hating what he saw. James I was disgusting in his personal; habits, but was a marvellously intelligent and able ruler with much subtlety but no charm. He ate sloppy, dribbling and he drank to excess, had a tendency for young men and his court was equally disgusting and rude. This did not appeal one bit to the innocent Charles, who withdrew from court. It fostered in him a strict sense of duty, making him hate excesses like alcohol and smoking, which he never touched (apart from wine) and he saw the ridicule that James’s antics generated. Charles’s only main quality he derived from his father, was to share the belief in Divine Right of Kings, that Kings were placed by God alone and answerable to God only. Charles saw Kingship then as an important duty, which meant that the Monarch should behave accordingly and should never drop his standards, nor appear weak or lacking in leadership. With his brother’s early death, Charles became Prince of Wales and he vowed to change the court and the society from degrading and filthy to exquisite and noble. Despite his strong exercise, Charles was only still five foot five, but he dressed beautifully and behaved so formally that people mistook this for arrogance. Thrust into such an important role and Prince of Wales and eventually King, he found it difficult. He did not want to show any weakness and he wanted to set an example of personal dignity, which he hoped his court would take on. Charles it will be agreed held bucket loads of charm and he could attract a man to his cause simply by his presence. Religious to a tee, Charles unswervingly attended church. Indeed his whole day consisted of strict timetables and when King, his unwillingness to open up and show any personal side in public made him look cold. Behind closed doors he was different. He had married a French Catholic Princess, but initially it was unhappy until the 1630’s, when they began to love each other and had children. Charles loved family life and doted on the children, setting a new closeness for Kings to their children. He also publicly displayed his love for his wife. Socially he was ever concerned with the poor, saving uneaten food from feasts to give to the poor, using the Privy Council to improve the Poor relief Laws and he wanted his nation to be envied around the world, building its navy up and beautifying its churches and palaces. The palaces were not a problem, but people mistook the placing of artefacts like crucifixes and paintings in church as a return to Catholicism. That Charles would ever go back was absurd, he was totally strictly Protestant, eventually dying for this religion. King Charles I In May 1625, James I died and Charles became King at the age of 25. His character was fully formed and he now used his position to banish the things he disliked from the late regime. Gone were jesters, drunkenness in his presence, swearing, womanising and he made his court one of the most formal in Europe. He aimed to make England respected and feared abroad. Charles’s court found etiquette much increased and the new King was very close to government. He would personally read as many despatches as he could, annotating them and would receive his ministers whenever they needed him. However, Charles reserve, caused from his speech, height and shyness made him come across as cold, haughty and strictly formal. Hence no one really got to know Charles save a few very close friends and he lost touch to an extent. Once he had married his Catholic wife Henrietta Maria, Charles settled down in domestic bliss, he stayed faithful to the word and produced many royal children. Charles loved the family life and retired to his family whenever possible, always it was noted, looking at his wife and kissing her, for only with his family could he feel he could truly relax. So this is how Charles appeared to the public; formal, regal, slightly cold, ethereal, but loving to his family and loyal to his friends. To the few who knew him better, he displayed some of his vulnerability, boatloads of charm - which he had in abundance, and his inner feelings. Charles once listened as a friend told how he had tried to speak with a mouthful of pebbles, to cure his stammer. As he finished, Charles told him with concern and advice how he had tried it, but it had not worked. He then told the man that the best way was to form sentences before speaking. He obviously didn’t want to display feelings like this in public by airing his washing in front of everyone, in short, Charles felt vulnerable in public with some of his disabilities, so was very touchy about any criticism or attack on himself or anything he held dear. This sprung from his disabilities and forced him to rely dangerously on the advice of others, who were more sure and strong willed. It is only a shame that some of these men were complete fools. Thus he placed his trust in the Duke of Buckingham and later, in Lord George Digby. As father of the nation, bound to protect its people with his life, Charles felt he alone was responsible for his people’s safety. Therefore with the Parliament demands for more power, which was lawfully his to use to guard his nation, he felt threatened and worried that should he give up power, he would not be able to defend his people adequately. This is shown by his own response: “I will not consent to divest myself of the just power which God and the laws of this kingdom have placed in me for the defence of my people.” Back to Table of Contents -- King or Parliament #3 Back to King or Parliament List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Mark Turnbull. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com