The whole of Charles I's reign must be regarded as a prolonged
struggle between the King and the nation. Under the Tudors and James
I the royal power had been growing more and more despotic, while at
the same time the progress of the Protestant Reformation and of
Puritanism had encouraged freedom of thought.
Between these opposite forces a collision was inevitable, since
religious liberty always favors political liberty. Had Charles known
how to yield in time, or been sincere in the concessions which he did
make, all might have gone well. His duplicity was his ruin. Though
his death did not absolutely destroy the theory of the Divine Right of
Kings, yet it gave it a blow from which it never recovered.