The timeline below is available as a downloadable activity sheet in the Resources section.

• 1625 Charles I becomes King. He marries the unpopular French Catholic Queen, Henrietta Maria
• 1629 Charles closes Parliament for 11 years when it refuses to let him raise taxes
• 1640 The King is forced to recall Parliament to fund a war against Scotland
• 1641 Parliament issues a list of complaints against the King
• 1642 Charles declares war against Parliament. He attempts to raise money by selling the Crown Jewels!
• 1644 After the Battle of Marston Moor, the King loses control of the north of England
• 1645 The Treaty of Uxbridge – an unsuccessful attempt to end the first war peacefully
• 1645 The New Model Army is established, with Oliver Cromwell second in command to Sir Thomas Fairfax
• 1645 The Royalists are defeated at the Battle of Naseby
• 1646 The King surrenders
• 1649 After a second outbreak of conflict, Charles is executed at Whitehall, London
• 1649 Oliver Cromwell becomes head of England’s only republic
• 1650 Charles’s son, Charles Prince of Wales, attempts a failed uprising
• 1653 Cromwell declares himself Lord Protector. England’s republic is replaced by a military Dictatorship
• 1658 Cromwell dies and is succeeded by his unpopular son Richard
• 1660 Charles II is restored to the English throne.