CHARLES, the second son of James VI. of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, was born at Dumfermline, Nov. 19, 1600, was brought to England shortly after his father's accession to the throne, and was, while yet very young, created duke of York and knight of the Garter; on the death of his brother Henry, in 1612, he became prince of Wales. In 1623 he engaged in a journey to Spain, in company with the marquis of Buckingham, in order to conclude a marriage that had long been pending with the Infanta Maria, the daughter of Philip IV., but the project failed, and shortly after his return he succeeded to the throne by the death of his father, March 27, 1625; he was crowned Feb. 2, 1626. The first great unhappiness of Charles's reign was the evil influence of his favourite Buckingham. The young king had imbibed principles of arbitrary power, which made him regard parliaments only as instruments of taxation, and hence his indignation was extreme when his first parliament brought charges of the gravest nature against the favourite, and declined to vote taxes, although the nation was at war with Spain, until these and other matters of grievance were redressed. By Buckingham's advice they were speedily dismissed, as was a second parliament, which pursued a like course, and the fatal step was taken of attempting to govern without one. Clergymen were found to enlarge on the doctrine of passive obedience, and to declare in express terms that the king had an absolute right to such part of his subjects' property as he chose to takea; judges perverted the law in the same spirit; tunnage and poundage were exacted, although they had only been granted for the late king's life; forced loans were raised, those who refused to pay being imprisoned, or made to serve as soldiers or sailors; martial law also was proclaimed, as if for the purpose of intimidation, and a project entertained of hiring a body of German horse. In the midst of these difficulties a war was entered on with France, which was generally ascribed to some personal resentments of Buckingham, and in which he discharged the Dr. Sibthorp preached a sermon of this nature, ("Apostolical Obedience,") at Northampton, Feb. 22, 1627, from Rom. xiii. 7, "Render therefore to all their dues ;" and Dr. Roger Manwaring, preaching before the king at Whitehall, maintained that "those who refused to pay the loan offended against the law of God, and the king's supreme authority, and became guilty of impiety, disloyalty, and rebellion;" he also affirmed that the authority of parliament was not necessary for the raising of aids and subsidies, and that the slow proceedings of such assemblies were prejudicial to the just designs of princes. His sermons were published under the title, 'Religion and Allegiance;" but they occasioned so much discontent that the king was obliged to suppress them by proclamation. office of general in a way calculated to expose the nation to contempt. The expenses of the war obliged the king to call a third parliament in 1628; their temper was in no manner changed, and, after a sharp struggle, they extorted the famous Petition of Right, in which the exactions and violences of former years were distinctly condemned; but the royal assent was given with such evident marks of reluctance, that a doubt of the king's sincerity was reasonably entertained. Shortly after Buckingham was assassinated by a man who gave as his reason the complaints of the parliament against him. Charles was thus more prejudiced than ever against parliaments, and he found two fitting instruments to his design of absolute monarchy in Bishop Laud and Sir Thomas Went b William Laud, the son of a Berkshire clothier, was born at Reading, Oct. 7, 1573, and was educated at the free-school of that town. He afterwards went to St. John's College, Oxford, and even when a student ventured to question the views of the Puritans, which drew upon him the censure of the vice-chancellor, Abbot, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. He at length became chaplain to Bishop Neile, of Rochester, and was by him introduced to the court of James I. Laud accompanied the king into Scotland in 1617, was active in promoting his views as to the restoration of episcopacy there, and was himself raised to the see of St. David's in 1621. In 1626 he was translated to Bath and Wells, and two years later to London, when he became virtually primate, though he did not receive the title till 1633, his ancient opponent Abbot having fallen into disgrace. Laud had ever had the cause of the Church at heart, and he set himself to work, with more zeal and good intentions than success, to remedy various evils which had sprung up, particularly the systematic disregard of holy places and seasons in which the Puritans indulged, which had reduced many Arms of Archbishop Laud. worth, who had succeeded to much of Buckingham's influence, and who soon earned even greater unpopularity. churches to a condition of ruin, and had in too many places banished all decent order from the public service. About the same time, on the death of the duke of Buckingham, Laud was called to the king's council, and he had thenceforth a much larger share in the direction of public affairs than was suitable to his function. According to his own statement, this was against his will, yet he entered zealously on his new duties, and bore the odium of devising, and assisted to execute, many unwarrantable schemes for the improvement of the revenue. He no doubt sincerely believed in the divine right of kings, and all its consequences of absolute lordship over the person and property of the subject; and finding these questioned, an unhappy infirmity of temper induced him to concur in any means, however arbitrary or cruel, which seemed likely to crush opposition, and render his master independent of parliaments. These expedients were successful for a while, but at length they utterly failed, and the king was compelled to call his last parliament, which met Nov. 3, 1640. Early in the following year the archbishop was impeached of treason by the Commons, and sent to the Tower, where he remained, exposed to many hardships, until his death. In March, 1643, charges were exhibited against him, accusing him of designs of overthrowing parliaments, and bringing about union with Rome. Prynne, a barrister, who was his personal enemy, had with malignant industry collected all the evidence of these designs that was procurable, seizing his private papers, and even his Prayer-book, and tampering with them to suit the views of his party; but after all the proofs were so weak, though repeatedly brought forward, that the House of Peers were disinclined to convict him. The Commons, however, were resolved on his destruction, and at last, in November, 1644, with a degree of illegality and cruelty exceeding anything with which they charged him, he was attainted by an ordinance, and, in contempt of a pardon which the king had granted him, was beheaded Jan. 10, 1645, his last words being a solemn denial of the charge of affection for Rome. His body was buried in the church of Allhallows Barking, near the Tower, but in 1663 was removed to his college at Oxford. He had been for several years chancellor of that University, to which he gave many valuable MSS., where he also founded the Greek press, and where many other proofs of his munificent patronage of learning yet remain. He belonged to a wealthy Yorkshire family, but was born in London in 1593. After an education at Cambridge, and foreign travel, he was knighted by James I., and sat in several parliaments for Yorkshire. He made himself conspicuous by his opposition to the measures of the court, was on one occasion chosen sherift to prevent his having a seat in the House of Commons, and at another was imprisoned for refusing to contribute to a forced loan. Ambition, however, was his ruling passion, and he was induced to forsake his party by the offer of a peerage. In 1628 he was created. The parliament was dissolved early in 1629, and the king announced his intention of governing without one, a resolution which he kept, unhappily for himself and for his subjects, for more than eleven years. The most odious and vexatious modes of raising a revenue were resorted tod; the courts of Starchamber and High Com a baron (Wentworth), afterwards a viscount, and soon made lord president of the Council of the North. This had been an arbitrary government from the first; his instructions went beyond those of all former presidents, and, according to Clarendon, were opposed to every principle of law, yet they did not appear to give him power enough, and in 1633 he was removed, by his own wish, to Ireland, where he established a despotism, and also raised an army which was generally supposed to be intended to crush that resistance which it was expected would sooner or later be made to the king's illegal measures in England. When the Scottish troubles commenced, Wentworth dealt with a high hand with such of that nation as had settled in Ulster, and was afterwards summoned to England to take the field against them. He was now created earl of Strafford, but was unpopular with his own army, and unable to effect anything. The Scots manifested extreme hatred against him; they were eagerly seconded by Pym and others, whom he had forsaken so many years before, and he wished to remain at a distance from the parliament; but the king insisted on his attendance, and gave a promise of protection which he was unable to keep. Strafford had hardly taken his seat in the House of Lords, when he was impeached as "that great firebrand," (Nov. 18, 1640,) sent to the Tower, and in the April of the next year convicted of treason, not according to the course of law, but by an attainder to which the peers were forced to agree by popular violence. The king was with great difficulty brought to consent to his execution through the sophistry of Williams, bishop of Lincoln, who drew an odious distinction between his private conscience as a man and his public conscience as a king. Strafford had himself offered his life as a means of peace between the king and his subjects, but apparently did not expect to be taken at his word, as when told that the warrant was signed he exclaimed, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, for in them there is no salvation!" but soon calmed himself. He was beheaded on Tower-hill, May 12, 1641, and he died, as a cotemporary, who had conducted the process against him (Whitelock) says, with charity, courage, and general lamentation." He left a son, William, who was restored to his title by Charles II., and lived till 1695, but took no part in public affairs. In defiance of the act of the last reign (see p. 359), there were created, "monopolies of soap, salt, wine, leather, sea-ccal, and, in |