In December 1642 Charles I expressed his regret to the marquess of Hamilton for being ‘ill at words’; it was not the only time he made such an apology. This is, however, in itself a commonplace rhetorical technique, and, like his similar confessions of laziness in writing, should not necessarily be taken at face value. If his letters are not masterpieces of English prose, they are often very carefully structured and phrased, being, as they were, a key means of establishing political and personal relationships, raising money, gaining support, putting across contentious arguments, or enforcing his will. Letters in his own hand, considered especially important both by himself and by their recipients, are particularly revealing of the ways in which the king shaped his language to achieve his ends. This chapter is concerned less with what may be seen as ‘official’ rhetoric (the wording found in declarations, proclamations, speeches and public correspondence) than with the linguistic and literary formation of the king's personally written correspondence.

Despite Charles's often reiterated desire to be ‘rightly vnderstood’, like many modern politicians he appears to have believed that if his policies faced opposition, the fault lay not in the policies, but in their opponents' faulty perception of them: if properly comprehended, they could not fail to win support from all but the wilfully ill-affected.