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He came to power after Elizabeth I (who spent too much money and left the government in debt)
He believed kings should have absolute power and argued with parliament over money and how much power parliament should have over the king
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· Charles always wanted money from parliament to fight wars with France and Spain. When they didn’t give it to him, he dissolved parliament
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1628 Petition of Right- parliamanet forced him to sign it, which gave more power to parliament
· Charles ignored the petition but it was an important step because it said the law was higher than the king
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1629 dissolved parliament

 1641 parliament passed law to limit royal power
 Protests against Charles and he fled north
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Civil war- Charles and the Royalists (Cavaliers) against the Puritans
1646 Oliver Cromwell defeated Charles’s Cavaliers
 1649 Charles put on trial for treason and subsequently put to death- this was the first time that a ruler was put on trial and executed

 1649 Cromwell abolished House of Lords and monarchy and established a commonwealth
 Drafted a constitution but it was not used- he tore it up and ran the country as a dictator
 1649 Cromwell had to put down a revolt in Ireland
Cromwell favored religious tolerance (including
Jews) except for Catholics

 Restored monarchy = Restoration
 Charles restored the theater, events, arts
(things the Puritans had banned)
 1679 - Established habeas corpus- the law gave prisoners the right to obtain a writ or document ordering the prisoner to be brought before a judge (instead of the king deciding the sentence)

 1685- Charles died and James II became kinghe was a Catholic king and he moved against the English protestants
 Glorious revolution- bloodless overthrow of
James in 1688 when James’s protestant daughter and husband, William of Orange in the Netherlands

 Constitutional monarchy- laws limit the power of the ruler
 Bill of rights, which the U.S. uses to create its own
Bill of Rights later
 Habeas corpus- can’t imprison anyone without a trial
 Checks and balances system
 Cabinet system- cabinet was the link between the monarchy and parliament
 Leader of the cabinet is the leader of the majority party in parliament and also prime minister
 After 1688 there was no British monarch and king was unable to rule without consent of parliament