Was Charles 1 good at Parliament?

Answer 1

Charles I and his Parliaments were in constant disagreement. Though Charles called many Parliaments they never got along and for a time (called the personal rule) Charles tried to rule without Parliaments. To do so he had to raise money by means other than standard taxation (as only Parliament could levy a tax) and so he tried many things, some of them of dubious legality, to keep the country from going bankrupt.

Eventually though he was forced to call a Parliament because he could not raise enough money. Many of those elected were very unhappy with the way he was running the country and so, instead of giving him the money he needed to put down the Scottish rebels (the Bishops War) they tried and executed his advisers even though they were innocent of any crime. Eventually things got so bad that war broke out between King and Parliament (there is still disagreement about who actually started the war, though I think Parliament was most to blame).

After the King's side was beaten by Cromwell's New Model Army and Charles was captured, he was brought to London and tried for waging war against his own country. Parliament by this time was only a rump of the elected body, many of those loyal to the king having left it over the years, and even many of those who supported the war against Charles did not believe he should be executed and were forceably excluded, not to mention that the House of Lords had no part in it. This Rump Parliament, under the control of the army, had Charles tried and executed, which was very unpopular and led to an invasion by the Scots - even though they were the ones who started the war in the beginning.

Answer 2

no he was not good at Parliament