On the freezing morning of his execution in 1649, Charles I asked for a second shirt so the crowd would not mistake his shivering for fear. This deep dive traces how a sickly, stammering second son, thrust into the role of heir after his brother Henry’s death, grew into a rigid king convinced of his divine right to rule.

We examine the disastrous incognito trip to Spain, his eleven years of rule without Parliament, ship money and distraint of knighthood, the religious clash that sparked the Bishops’ Wars, the execution of the Earl of Strafford, his armed attempt to arrest five members of Parliament, the turning point at Naseby, and his unprecedented trial for treason.

• How childhood frailty may have shaped Charles’s inflexible leadership
• The creative loopholes he used to raise money without Parliament
• Why imposing a prayer book on Scotland triggered war
• The split-second moment at Naseby that helped lose the Civil War
• His defiant defense at trial and his posthumous image as a royal martyr