Read and translate the last Charles’s speech. What do you think about it? Was the King right? Discuss it

'I must tell you that the liberty and freedom [of the people] consists in having of Government, those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in Government, Sir that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things. If I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the Power of the Sword, I needed not to have come here, and therefore I tell you... that I am the martyr of the people. I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.'

10. Have a talk based on the text with your groupmates, making use of the following questions:

1) Who was James I? How can you characterize him?

2) Why did James I dispute with the Parliament? What was the main reason?

3) What dynasty was Charles I belonged to?

4) How did he look like? What can you say about his character?

5) What was a key problem for both the early Stuart monarchs?

6) What was Charles’s attitude towards religion?

7) Who did Charles marry? What can you say about this marriage?

8) What tensions were there between Charles and Parliament?

9) What measures made Charles very unpopular?

10) What do you know about The Long Parliament? What did it start with?

11) What was Charles’s reaction to the Parliament’s request to impeach bishops and the Queen?

12) Who was Oliver Cromwell?

13) Why did Charles place himself in the hands of the Scottish Army?

14) Why did the Scots return Charles to the Parliament?

15) What is the Rump Parliament? What is it famous for?

16) What was Charles charged with? Did he plead?

17) When, where and how did he die?

18) What happened after Charles’s death? Who became another monarch?

19) What were the Civil Wars in fact? Name their reasons.