16. Charles believed in the Divine Right of Kings… but not everyone else did.
Although he would have been devastated at Henry’s death, Charles would have been encouraged by his father’s belief in the Divine Right of Kings. This doctrine sees all monarchs as having been chosen by God, and subject to no authority apart from Him. According to this belief, Henry’s death would have been no accident, but a deliberate act of God to make Charles king. As we saw earlier in this list, James’s belief in the Divine Right of Kings meant that he point-blank refused to listen to Parliament or other authorities, and more or less did what he liked.
Encouraged both by the divine intervention that saw him become heir and the education programme James designed for him, Charles embraced the Divine Right of Kings wholeheartedly. This inevitably brought him into conflict with Parliament, who took their authority not from God but the Magna Carta of 1215. Magna Carta enshrined civil liberties, most famously including the right of people not to be imprisoned without trial. It also prevented the king raising taxes without the consent of the people. After putting up with James’s autocratic behaviour for so long, Parliament’s patience had worn very thin by Charles’s reign.
