Charles I did not cooperate or want to work with parliament. He believed very strongly in divine right and abided by it throughout his reign. This is what started the civil war. This however does not mean that Charles should have been sentenced to death. Firstly there was no law in English History that dealt with the trial of a monarch and the order was based on an ancient roman law. The public were not allowed into the court until the charge was read out. This leaves a lingering question as to why they would do this if the y felt that their case against Charles was just.
Charles was not given a fair guilty verdict. There were only 135 judges in the jury some were Parliament, army officers and land owners. Out of the 135 judges only 80 showed up so he automatically had 55 judges pleading not guilty. 68 of the 80 judges said that Charles was guilty. So far in total there were 67 people who found him not guilty. Only 59 judges actually signed the death warrant. The odds were for Charles not being sent to death. The death warrant was not justified because the evidence did not support a guilty verdict.
Charles refused to himself against the charges put forward by Parliament. Finally on 27th January 1649 when Charles refused to defend himself he was sentenced to death at the High Court of Justice meeting in Westminster Hall. The first charge of the case was “That he did ignore the will of Parliament and ruled according to his own will. ” In this particular charge Charles was guilty as he did not consult parliament over important decisions and he only took advice from a small group of people whom he liked. He raised taxes without parliaments consent.
The Essay on Death Penalty 35
This paper will fallow the process of a capital trial from arrest to execution. It will discus the aspects of federal and state law, trial, appeal, and executions. It will go into further detail on arraignment and the trail details of defense and sentencing. The federal law on capital punishment begins with the constitution, which states in the eighth amendment of the bill of rights that, no ...
Charles did not believe he was doing anything wrong because he believed in divine right which meant God had chosen him to be his representative and only God could judge any unjust behaviour; no law of court had a right to pass judgement over him. Anyone who went against this and attempted to restrict his power as king would be defying the will of God and may involve a sacrilegious act. Also Charles’s had the right to decide to rule without Parliament because it was technically within the King’s royal prerogative. The second charge was “That he did wickedly make war on his own subjects. even though Charles went to oxford to raise an army against parliament civil war simply could not be avoided because of the high amount of conflict between Charles and Parliament. When Charles needed money to defend himself against the Scots he had no choice but to go to parliament for help. Now parliament had a hold over King Charles and ordered the Earl of Stratford, one of Charles most important ministers, to execution. Charles retaliated by attempting to arrest five MPS, who were the biggest critics, he failed because they had heard new of this and fled.
Overall the Civil War was the fault of both Parliament and the King. Charge three was “that he was responsible for all the murders, raping’s, burnings. ” parliament controlled the richer and more densely south east so Charles could not have been responsible for ALL of these accusations. The next charge was “That he started war after being defeated. ” Parliament offered him an agreement that they would rule but Charles could keep his monarchy. This offer made by Parliament went against Charles beliefs of divine right so he did not agree.
Charles also surrendered to the Scots after he was defeated. I would not have signed Charles death warrant because it was illegal and wrong. Oliver Cromwell was not fair to the king and some of the charges which were made against him were not right. The death warrant should never been signed because most of the jury did not even bother to turn up because they thought it was not right and out of the ones that did turn up only 59 signed the actual death warrant, one of them being Oliver Cromwell therefore he should never have been sentenced to death.
The Term Paper on English Poet Charles Parliament King
Elizabeth's death- James I - Divine right- The Powder Plot- Petition or Right - Habeas Corpus- Charles I- Scottish Rebellion The Stuarts monarchs quarrelled constantly with Parliament. The first signal of trouble between Crown and Parliament came in 1601, when the Commons were angry over Elizabeth's policy of selling monopolies. But Parliament did not demand any changes. When Elizabeth died, she ...
