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Er war der zweite Sohn des schottisch-englischen Königs Jakob VI./I. Stuart (1566-1625). Für seine Mutter, Anna von Dänemark, war es eine sehr lange und sehr schwierige Geburt. Man fürchtete noch mehrere Wochen nach der Entbindung um ihr Leben.
"... Charles [Karl I. Stuart], Duke of Albany - had been born at Dunfermline, but he had been so delicate that he had been baptized hurriedly the same day (am 19. November 1600)." (in: Carola Oman: Elizabeth of Bohemia. London 1964 (revised edition), p. 5). Karl blieb immer das Sorgenkind seiner Eltern. "On his first arrival in England [in 1604], the appearance of the second son of their new sovereign had shocked many ladies and gentlemen ... 'When they saw how weak a child he was and not likely to live, their hearts were down.' But bold Sir Robert Carey's equally bold lady had undertaken the charge, and scouted James's suggestion that the string of Charles's tongue ought to be cut, and he must put in iron boots. At nine Charles's legs were not yet quite straight, and he showed no signs of losing his stammer, which was far more pronounced than that of his elder brother. But he had, to everyone's surprise, grown into a most active and demonstrative little boy, with bright golden hair and sapphire-blue eyes. His delighted parents spoilt him as much as possible." (in: Carola Oman: Elizabeth of Bohemia, id., p. 43).
"In the summer of 1604, the young Prince Charles, being sickly and rickety, was brought to England, and, by the Queen’s desire, placed under the care of Lady Carey, the wife of Sir Robert Carey … The Prince, when he arrived in England, was between three and four years old, and in a miserably crippled state, but, under the judicious management of Lady Carey, he daily gained health and strength; and, at last, to the infinite joy of his parents, walked, prattled, and played with ease and sprightliness. On Twelfth Day [6. Januar], 1605, he was formally created Duke of York." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., pp. 665-666).
"Born on November 19, 1600, the prince [Charles] had been a sickly child, who was not expected to live to adulthood. His legs were crooked and he still could not walk well at the age of four. He began to speak only as he approached his third birthday, with a stammer that lasted the rest of his life. It was his dashing brother Prince Henry [Frederik (1594-1612)] - six years Charles's senior, handsome, athletic, clever and strong willed who won the hearts of the people ... Lonely and insecure Charles clung to his older paragon brother. 'Sweet, sweet brother,' he wrote to Henry, 'I will give any thing that I have to you; both my horse, and my books, and my pieces [guns], and my crossbows, or any thing that you would have. Good brother, love me, and I shall ever love and serve you." (in: Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion - The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, id., p. 26).
"... in February 1623, Charles dashed off [in Begleitung des Herzogs von Buckingham] on his great romantic adventure, riding incognito across Europe to save his sister [Elizabeth Stuart] and to woo the teenage princess [Maria of Spain (1606-1646)] with whom he soon pronounced himself 'deeply in love.' In Madrid he watched the Infanta 'as a cat does a mouse'. He repeatedly threw himself in her path. He jumped a high orchard wall to talk to her when she was out gathering flowers. 'No one loved a lady more ardently than he did the Infanta,' Charles professed; 'distance and other obstacles would never lessen it.' But the Infanta said she would rather enter a nunnery than marry a Protestant infidel. In the six months Charles spent in Spain, he was never allowed time with her alone. ... Most problematic were Spain's demands for toleration of Britain's Roman Catholics. ... [Karl I. (oder Charles) und sein Vater Jakob VI./I. waren schließlich bereit, Katholiken in ihrem Königreich zu tolerieren] ... Yet still Spain delayed, demanding next that Catholic toleration had to be put into effect in Britain before the wedding could take place - which would delay the marriage by at least a year. ... In October [1623] they [Karl I. und der Herzog von Buckingham] returned to England, determined to arrange a French marriage for the prince instead." (in: Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion - The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, id., pp. 30-31).
"The King [Karl I. Stuart] could delay a showdown as long as he could avoid meeting a Parliament. And for eleven years he managed to do so, though each year that passed made it less likely that he would emerge unscathed should circumstances compel him once again to summon his Lords and Commons. At last, in 1638, he made his fatal mistake. A disastrous attempt to impose an English-style Prayer Book on the Presbyterian Scots led to a war which bankrupted his government and, with his troops routed, left him no option but to seek fresh supplies from the assembly he had tried so hard to do without." (in: Christopher Falkus: The Life and Times of Charles II, p. 22).
Karl war 1,63 m groß, liebte sich mit dunklen Farben zu kleiden, galt als bescheiden und trug Juwelen und Schmuck eigentlich nur bei offiziellen Angelegenheiten. Seine große Liebe war seine Gattin Henriette Maria von Frankreich.
"By his twenties, he was recognised as one of the most accomplished horsemen of the age." (in: Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion - The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, id., p. 26).
"No one could fault Charles's courage in battle. 'He was very fearless in his person,' and his physical strength and fitness stood him in great stead, for he was never ill 'throughout all the fatigues of the war [the Civil War since 1642].' But in his decision-making, his followers lamented, he had a fatal lack of 'enterprise': the readiness to undertake difficult or dangerous ventures." (in: Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion - The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, id., p. 246).
"Conscience and honor were still [in 1646] Charles's supreme principles. 'If I cannot live as a king,' he wrote to one of his followers, 'I shall die like a gentleman' ..." (in: Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion - The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, id., p. 251).
Ihre große Liebe zueinander hatte dramatische politische Folgen: "Theirs was one of the greatest romances of all time: dramatic, emotional, and of vast historical importance. During the 1630s, Charles and Henriette's love defined British court culture, driving an exceptional flowering of the arts. For the royal pair this was a period of blissful happiness. Careless of popular disapproval, they instituted vigorous repression of their puritan and parliamentarian opponents. It was a course that would lead ultimately to revolution." (in: Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion - The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, id. foreword).
Die Bedeutung der Religion für die Mächtigen laut Karl I. Stuart: "Believe it, religion is the only firm foundation of all power. That cast loose, or depraved, no government can be stable. For where was there ever obedience where religion did not teach it?" (in: Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion - The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, id., p. 259).
Sein Name ist verbunden mit dem blutigen Bürgerkrieg in England: "This 'cruel and unnatural' war, as both sides (die Royalisten und ihre republikanischen Gegner] described it, forms one of the bloodiest and most dramatic periods of British history ... For this was a war unlike any previous one in the modern world - a confrontation not between rival claimants to a nation's throne, contesting questions of dynastic succession, but between an autocratic king and his rebellious subjects, who insisted they had essential rights and liberties that could not be overridden. England's parliamentarians broke new ground in taking up arms for their ideals: to combat both religious repression and political injustices, the most intolerable of which was taxation imposed by the king's authority, without parliamentary representation. In the resulting maelstrom, radical ideas rose to orthodoxy: a monarch ruled not by absolute, God-given right, the parliamentarians declared, but only 'with a limited power ... according to the laws of the land ... for the good and benefit of the people.' If he abused this trust, if his government was unjust, if he sought despotically 'to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people', then it was the people's right to abolish his rule and set up a new government. As the Civil War drew to its bitter end and King Charles I was defeated and then executed as a traitor to his people, his opponents formed a grand resolve. The very existence of a king, they declared, was 'unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous', utterly incompatible with 'the just freedom and liberty of the people'. And so they created a new nation-state, 'the Commonwealth of England': the first modern republic, established 'without King or House of Lords', governed by the people, for the people. In Britain this great new political order was short-lived. ... But the world had been changed forever. The parliamentarians' new ideals of liberty and republicanism, once raised, could not be laid to rest. Puritan settlers, fleeing from Charles I's repressive rule during the 1630s, had already carried their values into North America. A century later, when another British king sought to impose taxes there without parliamentary representation, the stage was set for these ideals to revive. The result was the American Revolutionary War and the foundation of 'a new nation, conceived in liberty', as Abraham Lincoln put it." (in: Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion - The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France., id., foreword).
"... at 2 p. m. on Tuesday, January 30, 1649, ... the king stepped out of the Banqueting House at Whitehall to be beheaded as a traitor to his country and his people." (in: Katie Whitaker: A Royal Passion - The turbulent marriage of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, id., p. 268).
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