Page 10 - December2001

264 ATI ONAI" E L:TT' Di\ E L-I-,LETIi\ December 2001
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The

TIRAVGC Story or

Charles I

One of the strangest paradoxes in the field of but-
ton collecting is that Charles I, possibly the most immor-
talized man on Victorian buttons? was beheaded as a "tyrant.
murderer, and enemy of the nation". The answer is probably
because he was a very handsome man who was further
glarnorized by the famous artist Van Dyke, who was
commrssroned by the court to paint portraits of the royal
family. By the time button makers designed their but-
tons, the real story of Charles I had, in all probabiliry
been forgotten.
Charles, the second son of James I (who
authorized the King James l'ersion of the
Bible) was born in Scotland in 1600. His
older brother died in I 612 and Charles
became the Prince of Wales. He
became King of Scotland, Ireland,
and England in 1625 upon the death
of his father.
Charles was a very sfubborn man who was con-
vinced of the dir,'inity of the king and the supreme
authority of the Anglican Church. All during his
tumultuous reign, Charles had a running battle with
Parliament and the forces of Oliver Cromwell. When the
unrest became ornerwhelming, Charles would dissolve the
Parliament and arrest and irnprison sorne of the leaders. This
practice became so corrunon that five parliaments \l'ere
installed and dissolved in only a few years.
Although Charles was a Stuart and
the grandson of the tragic Mary
Queen of Scots, he tried to
impose the liturgy of the
Anglican Church on the people
of Scotland in I 637 . This so
enraged the Scots, who were
denied the right to practice
Presbyterianism, that the f-rrst of many civil
wars ensued. In the end. the Scots were victorious and \\rere