The last time a leader refused to let Parliament sit it was Charles I – and it directly led to the English Civil War.

The irresponsible choice took by Boris Johnson is not by chance. Boris Johnson had the approval of the queen? No, it’s unbelivable! It’s more likely the queen ordered Johnson to suspend the Parliament.

…it’s time to abolish the monarchy.

After all, the monarchy was already abolished after the execution, because of the trial of high treason, of king Charles in 1649.

The story began when Charles quarrelled with the Parliament of England, which sought to curb his royal prerogative.

Charles was the second son of King James VI of Scotland. His father was a fanatic of witchcraft persecution, considering this as a branch of theology.  He went in Denmark (can you hear a Shakesperean echo?) to attend the North Berwick witch trials, and imported the attitude to the first major persecution of witches in Scotland under the Witchcraft Act 1563. He wrote on the matter a treaty like Daemonologie (1597), a tract inspired by his personal involvement that opposed the practice of witchcraft and personally supervised the torture of women accused of being witches.

The other James’ obsession was the divine right of kings, and he wrote too on the subject some treaties like The True Law of Free Monarchies and Basilikon Doron (Royal Gift), in which he sets out the divine right of kings, explaining that kings are higher beings than other men for Biblical reasons.

Charles, the son of this enlightened man, was determined to govern according to these ideas. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, created the perception his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch. His religious policies, coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic, generated the mistrust of Reformed groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters.

He supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics and negated his aid to Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years’ War. Following the suggestion Richard Montagu, his attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops’ Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments, and helped precipitate his own downfall and the advent of the Republic lead by Oliver Cromwell.

Unfortunately, the monarchy was restored by the son of Charles I, Charles II, the king of the Restoration, who profited of the political crisis after Cromwell’s dead.

Charles II dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, and ruled alone until his death in 1685.