Peacock

A king who dressed divine authority in magnificent display.

Charles I was famously obsessed with the grandeur and pageantry of monarchy, commissioning lavish portraits by Van Dyck and staging elaborate court masques to project an image of God-given, untouchable regality. He cultivated an aesthetic of divine kingship with extraordinary deliberateness — every portrait, every ceremony, every gesture was crafted to dazzle and intimidate. Yet beneath the magnificent plumage lay a fatal rigidity: his refusal to compromise with Parliament over the nature of royal authority ultimately cost him his throne and his head.