7. In 1642 Charles tried to arrest his 5 greatest enemies, causing an outcry and the English Civil War.
Given his dire financial straits and flimsy grip on power, Charles had no option but to agree to the Grand Remonstrance. However, in 1642 he made a desperate gamble, possibly goaded by Henrietta Maria, who told him ‘to pull these rogues out by the ears or never see my face again’. On January 4, he burst into Parliament demanding that five of his greatest enemies in the Commons be given up to him on the charge of High Treason. Luckily for them, the five members got wind of Charles’s plan, and escaped by boat before he arrived.
Charles had played his hand, and lost. No monarch had ever entered the House of Commons, and in doing so he breached statutes about parliamentary privilege. It seemed that everything Parliament had accused Charles of was correct. Within weeks, armed commoners arrived at Westminster, trying to arrest Henrietta Maria. But like the 5 members, the royal family realised their danger, and fled to Hampton Court, then Greenwich. Civil war was afoot in England once more. Henrietta Maria fled to France via Dover with the children, whilst Charles travelled to Nottingham to rally his supporters to defend his rights in battle.
