King Charles I
Reigned 1625-49. The younger son of James I and Anne of Denmark, Charles inherited his father's belief in the 'Divine Right of Kings' and his mother's interest in the visual arts. He had a happy domestic life and was the greatest of all British royal art patrons and collectors. His dismissal of Parliament and personal rule, however, along with his imposition of taxes and attempts to impose religious uniformity led eventually to civil war. He was defeated and tried on the charge that he 'traitorously and maliciously levied war against the present Parliament and the people therein represented', and he was executed outside the Banqueting House, Whitehall, on 30 January 1649.
The royal family's support for the slave trade continued with Charles I. In 1632 he granted a licence to a syndicate of traders that gave them royal approval to transport enslaved Africans from Guinea. The removal of Charles I from the throne did not to alter the British participation in the slave trade.
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