Today is the Feast Day of King Charles I, father of nine children and the only post-reformation Saint of the Anglican Church. Charles was the King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625 until his execution by parliament on January 30, 1649. He is considered a martyr by Anglicans due to his “Christian Kingship” and “defender of the Anglican faith.”

A few of King Charles’s last words, right as he placed his head on the guillotine-block were, “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.” This was the abolishment of the English Monarchy.

Charles appointed Laud as Bishop of the Church in an attempt to thwart Calvinism. Calvinistic doctrine could have taken the Church into a bold new world. The problem, though, was that most of the Calvinists of that time were Presbyterian in polity and government, and thier standard of worship included many Anabaptistic leanings. The king could not win the hearts of the newly formed Scottish and English Puritans. The Puritans went as far as creating their own confessions and catechisms (Westminster) in spite of the fact that the Prayer Book and 39 Articles of Religion (with Calvinistic theology included) had been established for almost a century.

After the execution, Oliver Cromwell, a very radical Puritan, assumed control over England and became “Lord Protector” of England. The puritan polity did not last long and the Monarchy proved its strength and historical momentum by re-establishing itself in 1660.