In the history of British royalty, the name Charles carries a dark legacy, as his predecessors were responsible for reigns fraught with controversy and defeat.
After the Queen’s death Elizabeth II, his son Charles was proclaimed sovereign monarch of the United Kingdom and fourteen other independent states. At that time he chose Charles III as your real name. Traditionally, he could have chosen any of his four names Charles Philip Arthur George. In the history of British royalty, the name Charles carries a dark legacy, as his predecessors were responsible for reigns fraught with controversy and defeat. King Charles I died under an executioner’s ax in 1649 after losing the English Civil War. Charles II fled abroad only to return and take the throne. With no legitimate heirs, he passed the crown to his brother James. The two experienced a series of political crises that devastated Britain. Check out some of the history of the predecessors of the latest royal boss below.
Charles I
The beginning of Charles I’s reign in 1649 was marked by disputes with Parliament over his authoritarian style of government. He ascended the throne when England was at war with Spain. He also started a confrontation with France. Failed campaigns at these clashes led to a government attempt to oust Buckingham on charges of treason. To prevent this, the king dissolved parliament and tried to introduce taxes and loans to finance campaigns without government approval. The monarch also sparked controversy when he married Henrietta Maria, a Catholic, at a time when antiCatholicism was at its height. In 1629, four years after his reign, the government passed three resolutions condemning the king’s conduct. By the 1640s a civil war was brewing amid controversies over how England, Scotland and Ireland should be governed. The country was divided between parliamentarians and monarchists. In 1645 the first group won a series of battles, forcing Charles I to surrender. He joined the Scots to take advantage of divisions between the nations. A second shortlived civil war ensued as the Scottish invasion was quickly defeated. Forced to surrender again, Charles I was tried, found guilty of treason and removed from the throne. In January 1649 he was beheaded in front of a large crowd in London.
Charles II
The dead king’s son, Charles II, was the rightful heir to the throne. But forces opposed to the monarchy were determined not to let him take the crown. When the Scottish Parliament proclaimed Charles II king, the third and final civil war of the period began. English Parliamentarians invaded Scotland and a series of defeats led to his invading England where he was decisively defeated in 1651. Despite renouncing his allegiance to Scotland, Charles II was forced into exile in France and later in Spain. Tensions between subsequent rulers led to the dissolution of Parliament, and the newly elected House of Commons was divided evenly over monarchist rule. The then king promised to govern in cooperation with Parliament and successfully negotiated the return of the monarchy. In 1665 the Great Plague of London struck. The eruption lasted 18 months and killed an estimated 100,000 people, a quarter of the city’s population at the time. Charles II fled to Salisbury to avoid illness. A few months after the plague, the Great Fire of London engulfed the city. The fire destroyed around 13,200 houses and 87 churches, including St. Paul’s Cathedral. Regarded as a weak king who was more interested in throwing lavish parties than in governing, he dissolved parliament several times in the later years of his reign. In 1685 Charles suffered a sudden stroke and died at the age of 54. The manner of his death and his unpopularity raised suspicions of poisoning.
Charles III
King Charles III ascended the throne at the age of 73 and began his reign with little public acceptance. The revelations of infidelity in his marriage to Princess Diana marked the beginning of his unpopularity, which continues to this day. An Ipsos poll found nearly half of Britons believe Charles should let his son Prince William take over as king. On the other hand, according to a poll by the company YouGov, he ranks seventh among the most popular members of the royal family behind his mother, children, daughterinlaw, father, sister and niece. He has also recently been embroiled in controversy over donations to corporations and the receipt of confidential documents about the inner workings of the UK government.