Why was Charles I executed

Charles I succeeded his father James I in 1625 as King of England and Scotland. During Charles’ reign, his actions frustrated his Parliament and resulted in the wars of the English Civil War, eventually leading to his execution in 1649.

• Charles married the Catholic Henrietta Maria in the first year of his reign, offending many English Protestants.
• He dissolved Parliament when faced with opposition, effectively ruling alone on a number of occasions - only reassembling Parliament to raise funds when he ran out of money.
• He lost popular support over public welfare issues such as the imposition of drainage schemes in The Fens which affected thousands. ​

Trial and Conviction ‘This Court doth adjudge that he the said Charles Stuart, as a Tyrant, Traitor, Murderer and Public Enemy to the good people of this Nation, [and] shall be put to death, by the severing of his head from his body’.After his defeat by Parliament in the Civil Wars, Charles I was imprisoned and on 20 January 1649 the High Court of Justice at Westminster Hall put him on trial for treason. The cantankerous King refused to cooperate, did not enter a plea or recognise the legitimacy of the court. Yet just seven days later, the judges returned a guilty verdict and passed the sentence of execution:

For the next three days Charles was kept under house arrest at St James’s Palace. 59 signatures were collected for his death warrant and politicians pushed through legislation to prevent his son, Charles (later Charles II), from succeeding him. He said goodbye to his two youngest children, Elizabeth…