With the death of the Queen her eldest son, the then Prince of Wales, acceded to the throne. It was confirmed shortly after the passing of Elizabeth II on Thursday that the new monarch would take the title King Charles III.
And as Charles begins his new role many questions are being asked about what kind of king he will be. He has previously been involved in political issues, especially those on environmental policies and climate change.
This has led some to believe he will seek to change things under his sovereignty. However in 2018 when asked if he would be an activist king he said: "I'm not that stupid."
However the same cannot be said for the two King Charles who preceded him. For while both were on the throne hundreds of years ago their reign came at one of the most turbulant times in British history - and even resulted in one being beheaded.
So who were they and what happened to them?
Charles I
Charles I was born in Fife on 19 November 1600, the second son of James VI of Scotland (from 1603 also James I of England) and Anne of Denmark. He became heir to the throne on the death of his brother, Prince Henry, in 1612. He succeeded, as the second Stuart King of Great Britain, in 1625.
However during his reign he carried out a series of actions which annoyed Parliament and resulted in the civil wars, first with the Scots from 1637, in Ireland from 1641, and then England (1642-46 and 1648). The wars deeply divided people at the time, and while historians disagree about the real causes of the conflict, it is clear that Charles was not a successful ruler.
Charles was reserved (he had a stammer), self-righteous and had a high concept of royal authority, believing in the divine right of kings. He was a good linguist and a sensitive man of refined tastes spending a lot of time on the arts.
He married Catholic Henrietta Maria in the first year of his reign which offended many English Protestants. He believed that the heads of the church should be treated with deference. This was a Catholic idea and something that the Puritan’s did not like.
When he didn't get his way he dissolved Parliament so effectively ruled alone on a number of occasions. Charles dissolved parliament three times between 1625 and 1629. In 1629, and resolved to rule alone. As Parliament was the only place he could access money officially he was forced to raise revenue by non-parliamentary means which made him increasingly unpopular. At the same time, there was a crackdown on Puritans and Catholics and many emigrated to the American colonies.
Unrest in Scotland - because Charles attempted to force a new prayer book on the country - put an end to his personal rule. He was forced to call parliament to obtain funds to fight the Scots. In November 1641, tensions were raised even further with disagreements over who should command an army to suppress an uprising in Ireland. Charles attempted to have five members of parliament arrested and in August 1642, raised the royal standard at Nottingham. Civil war began.
The Royalists were defeated in 1645-1646 by a combination of parliament's alliance with the Scots and the formation of the New Model Army. In 1646, Charles surrendered to the Scots, who handed him over to parliament. He escaped to the Isle of Wight in 1647 and encouraged discontented Scots to invade. This 'Second Civil War' was over within a year with another royalist defeat by Parliamentarian general Oliver Cromwell. Convinced that there would never be peace while the king lived, a rump of radical MPs, including Cromwell, put him on trial for treason. He was found guilty and beheaded on January 30, 1649.
Charles II
The eldest surviving son of Charles I, Charles was eight years old when Civil War broke out. His father ordered him to seek the safety of France.
The Scots were horrified when Charles I was executed in 1649, and while England became a republic, they proclaimed his son king, and invited him to come to Scotland. Agreeing to Presbyterian demands that he sign the National Covenant, he did so.
Cromwell then marched north, defeated the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar on 3 September 1650, capturing part of southern Scotland. On 1 January 1651, the Scots crowned Charles II at Scone.
In July, the English army marched into Fife and then captured Perth, while the Scottish forces headed south into England, where they were defeated at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. Charles II escaped, and fled to France once more. The English, meanwhile, moved on to take Stirling and Dundee.
By 1 October, Scottish resistance was effectively at an end, and the English government announced that England and Scotland were to be one commonwealth. This union took effect from 1652, although the acts of union did not become law until 1657.
Charles II spent the next nine years in exile, until in 1660 he was invited back to London and restored to his father's throne. He always recalled with distaste his time in Scotland. The Presbyterians had lectured him constantly about morality and told him that kings were merely the vassals of God, like everyone else and not divine in their own right as he believed.
Charles II had a reputation as a party king and was known as the Merry Monarch because of the wild life at his court. He recognised at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses but had no legitimate children. Charles died after a stroke in 1685 and was succeeded by his brother, James.
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