The Personal Rule of Charles I

by Kevin Sharpe

In 1625 Charles I succeeded to the throne of a nation heavily involved in a European war and deeply divided by religious controversy. Within four years he had transformed the political landscape of Britain, dissolved parliament, and begun a period of eleven years of personal rule. The nature of the King's government and the circumstances of its eventual collapse are central to an understanding of the origins of the English Civil War that followed. Kevin Sharpe's massive and authoritative analysis, based on a decade of research across a vast range of manuscript and printed sources, amounts to the most significant contribution to the history of early Stuart government since Gardiner's four-volume classic work in 1877.

Sharpe presents an entirely fresh picture of Charles I and his annexation of power. He analyzes the personality, principles, and policies of a monarch who, after summoning more parliaments in his first year of rule than his predecessors had for a century, determined to govern without them. He assesses Charles' program of reform in central and local government and in church and state, and he discusses the years of peace and prosperity it engendered. He also examines priorities in foreign affairs and their impact on domestic policy. Sharpe subtly evaluates the degree of cooperation and opposition elicited and provoked by personal rule, and he analyzes the Scottish rebellion of 1637 that occasioned its undoing.

The book yields rich new insights into the history of the reign, politics and religion, foreign policy and finance, the court and the counties, and attitudes and ideas. It provides a substantial reevaluation of the character of the king, the importance of parliaments, and the process of government without them. And it represents a critical new perspective on the origins of the political struggle that ended on the battlefields of the English Civil War.

Genres: History, Biography, European History, Politics, Nonfiction

1018 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giving up on this one about 1/3 of the way in. Yes, I wanted to know more about this most interesting period of history and yes, the author warns us that there will be heavy sledding, but I thought I could tough it out and failed. Just too too much of inter cabinet inter religious struggles- certainly giving everyone there fair say - for 100s and 100s of pages. Great, but I have learned my interest in that time period is limited. plus the book is so big that I found it hard to read- it won't lay down on the table no matter how I contort it. o well.

[Andrew Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

A behemoth of a book, there's no faulting its exhaustive research, and for the most part its language is accessible. There are few shibboleths of the personal rule / lead up to the Civil War period that it doesn't challenge, and while I'm not convinced about all its revisionist arguments its certainly given me a lot to think about. The trickiest parts to follow are around the impact of foreign affairs, though that's mostly a reflection of the regularly and rapidly shifting diplomatic factionalising.