Less than 50 years after the dawn of the Stuart era, Charles I made history – possibly not in the way he had hoped – by becoming the first British monarch to be executed for treason. But how and why did this historical event come about?

This lesson contains:

• Introduction to the English Civil War and the necessary vocabulary and terms required to confidently study the topic.
• A closer look at the concepts of politics and monarchy in the early Stuart era and the first half of the 17th century.
• The relationship between monarchy and parliament and how this power dynamic developed from succession of James I in 1603 to the beheading of Charles I in 1649.