Stephen Roberts

Richard Cust

Jan Broadway

A Calendar of the Docquets of Lord Keeper Coventry 1625-1640

Charles I was a complex man whose career intersected with some of the most dramatic events in English history. He played a central role in provoking the English Civil War, and his execution led to the only republican government Britain has ever known. Historians have struggled to get him into perspective, veering between outright condemnation and measured sympathy. Richard Cust shows that Charles I was not ‘unfit to be a king’, emphasising his strengths as a party leader and conviction politician, but concludes that, none the less, his prejudices and attitudes, and his mishandling of political crises did much to bring about a civil war in Britain. He argues that ultimately, after the war, Charles pushed his enemies into a position where they had little choice but to execute him.

Charles I

Charles I has often been portrayed as unfit to rule, with historians blaming him for the events surrounding the Civil War. In this Biography Richard Cust looks and addresses their judgements of the king - that he was an uncounselled ruler, insufficiently popular,more effective as a party leader than as a monarch, a fatal combination of the obsinate,unrealistic and untruthful.

Richard Cust

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