AR Shilling

Struck: 1639-1640
Mint: Tower Mint
Size: 29.3mm
Weight: 5.44g
Die Axis: ~160°
Grade: gF
Ref: S.2799; Type 4.4

Obv: CAROLVS D G MAG BRI FRA ET HI REX; Crowned bust left.
Rev: CHRISTO AVSPICE REGNO; Shield with combined arms of England, France, Scotland, and Ireland over a cross moline.
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Charles I became king of England in 1625. Three months later, he married Henrietta Maria of France, a 15-year-old Catholic princess who refused to take part in English Protestant ceremonies of state.

Charles's reign was rocky from the outset. His good friend George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, openly manipulated parliament, creating powerful enemies among the nobility. Religious tensions also abounded. Charles, a High Anglican with a Catholic wife, aroused suspicion among his Protestant countrymen. As a result of these tensions, Charles dissolved parliament three times in the first four years of his rule. In 1629, he dismissed parliament altogether. Meanwhile, religious oppression in the kingdom drove Puritans and Catholics to the North American colonies.

Following the rise of unrest in Scotland, the king was forced to call parliament back into session to obtain funds for war. He faced military insurrection in Ireland in November 1641. Facing another quarrel with parliament, Charles attempted to have five legislators arrested. In 1642, civil war broke out in England. The royalist faction was defeated in 1646 by a coalition of Scots and the New Model Army. Charles surrendered to the Scottish forces, who then handed him over to parliament. He escaped to the Isle of Wight in 1647, using his remaining influence to encourage discontented Scots to invade England. Parliamentarian general Oliver Cromwell defeated the royalist invaders within a year, ending the Second Civil War. Charles was tried for treason and found guilty. He was beheaded in London, England, on January 30, 1649.