title: Charles I of England

text: The chief tax Charles imposed was a feudal levy known as ship money, which proved even more unpopular, and lucrative, than tonnage and poundage before it. Previously, collection of ship money had been authorised only during wars, and only on coastal regions. But Charles argued that there was no legal bar to collecting the tax for defence during peacetime and throughout the whole of the kingdom. Ship money, paid directly to the Treasury of the Navy, provided between £150,000 to £200,000 annually between 1634 and 1638, after which yields declined. Opposition to ship money steadily grew, but England's 12 common law judges ruled the tax within the king's prerogative, though some of them had reservations. The prosecution of John Hampden for non-payment in 1637–38 provided a platform for popular protest, and the judges found against Hampden only by the narrow margin of 7–5.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles also derived money by granting monopolies, despite a statute forbidding such action, which, though inefficient, raised an estimated £100,000 a year in the late 1630s. One such monopoly was for soap, pejoratively referred to as "popish soap" because some of its backers were Catholics. Charles also raised funds from the Scottish nobility, at the price of considerable acrimony, by the Act of Revocation (1625), whereby all gifts of royal or church land made to the nobility since 1540 were revoked, with continued ownership being subject to an annual rent. In addition, the boundaries of the royal forests in England were restored to their ancient limits as part of a scheme to maximise income by exploiting the land and fining land users within the reasserted boundaries for encroachment. The programme's focus was disafforestation and sale of forest lands for conversion to pasture and arable farming, or in the case of the Forest of Dean, development for the iron industry. Disafforestation frequently caused riots and disturbances, including those known as the Western Rising.


title: Charles I of England

text: Against the background of this unrest, Charles faced bankruptcy in mid-1640. The City of London, preoccupied with its own grievances, refused to make any loans to him, as did foreign powers. In this extremity, in July Charles seized silver bullion worth £130,000 held in trust at the mint in the Tower of London, promising its later return at 8% interest to its owners. In August, after the East India Company refused to grant a loan, Lord Cottington seized the company's stock of pepper and spices and sold it for £60,000 (far below its market value), promising to refund the money with interest later.


title: Charles I of England

text: Throughout Charles's reign, the English Reformation was in the forefront of political debate. Arminian theology emphasised clerical authority and the individual's ability to reject or accept salvation, which opponents viewed as heretical and a potential vehicle for the reintroduction of Catholicism. Puritan reformers considered Charles too sympathetic to Arminianism, and opposed his desire to move the Church of England in a more traditional and sacramental direction. In addition, his Protestant subjects followed the European war closely and grew increasingly dismayed by Charles's diplomacy with Spain and his failure to support the Protestant cause abroad effectively.


title: Charles I of England

text: In 1633, Charles appointed William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury. They initiated a series of reforms to promote religious uniformity by restricting non-conformist preachers, insisting the liturgy be celebrated as prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer, organising the internal architecture of English churches to emphasise the sacrament of the altar, and reissuing King James's Declaration of Sports, which permitted secular activities on the sabbath. The Feoffees for Impropriations, an organisation that bought benefices and advowsons so that Puritans could be appointed to them, was dissolved. Laud prosecuted those who opposed his reforms in the Court of High Commission and the Star Chamber, the two most powerful courts in the land. The courts became feared for their censorship of opposing religious views and unpopular among the propertied classes for inflicting degrading punishments on gentlemen. For example, in 1637 William Prynne, Henry Burton and John Bastwick were pilloried, whipped and mutilated by cropping and imprisoned indefinitely for publishing anti-episcopal pamphlets.


title: Charles I of England

text: When Charles attempted to impose his religious policies in Scotland he faced numerous difficulties. Although born in Scotland, Charles had become estranged from it; his first visit since early childhood was for his Scottish coronation in 1633. To the dismay of the Scots, who had removed many traditional rituals from their liturgical practice, Charles insisted that the coronation be conducted using the Anglican rite. In 1637, he ordered the use of a new prayer book in Scotland that was almost identical to the English Book of Common Prayer, without consulting either the Scottish Parliament or the Kirk. Although it had been written, under Charles's direction, by Scottish bishops, many Scots resisted it, seeing it as a vehicle to introduce Anglicanism to Scotland. On 23 July, riots erupted in Edinburgh upon the first Sunday of the prayer book's usage, and unrest spread throughout the Kirk. The public began to mobilise around a reaffirmation of the National Covenant, whose signatories pledged to uphold the reformed religion of Scotland and reject any innovations not authorised by Kirk and Parliament. When the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met in November 1638, it condemned the new prayer book, abolished episcopal church government by bishops, and adopted presbyterian government by elders and deacons.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles perceived the unrest in Scotland as a rebellion against his authority, precipitating the First Bishops' War in 1639. He did not seek subsidies from the English Parliament to wage war, instead raising an army without parliamentary aid and marching to Berwick-upon-Tweed, on the Scottish border. The army did not engage the Covenanters, as the king feared the defeat of his forces, whom he believed to be significantly outnumbered by the Scots. In the Treaty of Berwick, Charles regained custody of his Scottish fortresses and secured the dissolution of the Covenanters' interim government, albeit at the decisive concession that both the Scottish Parliament and General Assembly of the Scottish Church were called.


title: Charles I of England

text: The military failure in the First Bishops' War caused a financial and diplomatic crisis for Charles that deepened when his efforts to raise funds from Spain while simultaneously continuing his support for his Palatine relatives led to the public humiliation of the Battle of the Downs, where the Dutch destroyed a Spanish bullion fleet off the coast of Kent in sight of the impotent English navy.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles continued peace negotiations with the Scots in a bid to gain time before launching a new military campaign. Because of his financial weakness, he was forced to call Parliament into session in an attempt to raise funds for such a venture. Both the English and Irish parliaments were summoned in the early months of 1640. In March 1640, the Irish Parliament duly voted in a subsidy of £180,000 with the promise to raise an army 9,000 strong by the end of May. But in the English general election in March, court candidates fared badly, and Charles's dealings with the English Parliament in April quickly reached stalemate. The earls of Northumberland and Strafford attempted to broker a compromise whereby the king would agree to forfeit ship money in exchange for £650,000 (although the cost of the coming war was estimated at around £1 million). Nevertheless, this alone was insufficient to produce consensus in the Commons. The Parliamentarians' calls for further reforms were ignored by Charles, who still retained the support of the House of Lords. Despite the protests of the Earl of Northumberland, the Short Parliament (as it came to be known) was dissolved in May 1640, less than a month after it assembled.


title: Charles I of England

text: By this stage the Earl of Strafford, Lord Deputy of Ireland since 1632, had emerged as Charles's right-hand man and, together with Archbishop Laud, pursued a policy of "Thorough" that aimed to make central royal authority more efficient and effective at the expense of local or anti-government interests. Although originally a critic of the king, Strafford defected to royal service in 1628, in part due to the Duke of Buckingham's persuasion, and had since emerged, alongside Laud, as the most influential of Charles's ministers.


title: Charles I of England

text: Bolstered by the failure of the English Short Parliament, the Scottish Parliament declared itself capable of governing without the king's consent, and in August 1640 the Covenanter army moved into the English county of Northumberland. Following the illness of Lord Northumberland, who was the king's commander-in-chief, Charles and Strafford went north to command the English forces, despite Strafford being ill himself with a combination of gout and dysentery. The Scottish soldiery, many of whom were veterans of the Thirty Years' War, had far greater morale and training than their English counterparts. They met virtually no resistance until reaching Newcastle upon Tyne, where they defeated the English forces at the Battle of Newburn and occupied the city, as well as the neighbouring county of Durham.


title: Charles I of England

text: As demands for a parliament grew, Charles took the unusual step of summoning a great council of peers. By the time it met, on 24 September at York, Charles had resolved to follow the almost universal advice to call a parliament. After informing the peers that a parliament would convene in November, he asked them to consider how he could acquire funds to maintain his army against the Scots in the meantime. They recommended making peace. A cessation of arms, although not a final settlement, was negotiated in the humiliating Treaty of Ripon, signed in October 1640. The treaty stated that the Scots would continue to occupy Northumberland and Durham and be paid £850 per day until peace was restored and the English Parliament recalled, which would be required to raise sufficient funds to pay the Scottish forces. Consequently, Charles summoned what later became known as the Long Parliament. Once again, his supporters fared badly at the polls. Of the 493 members of the Commons returned in November, over 350 were opposed to the king.


title: Charles I of England

text: The Long Parliament proved just as difficult for Charles as had the Short Parliament. It assembled on 3 November 1640 and quickly began proceedings to impeach the king's leading counsellors for high treason. Strafford was taken into custody on 10 November; Laud was impeached on 18 December; Finch, now Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, was impeached the next day, and consequently fled to The Hague with Charles's permission on 21 December. To prevent the king from dissolving it at will, Parliament passed the Triennial Act, which required Parliament to be summoned at least every three years, and permitted the Lord Keeper and 12 peers to summon Parliament if the king failed to do so. The Act was coupled with a subsidy bill, and to secure the latter, Charles grudgingly granted royal assent in February 1641.


title: Charles I of England

text: Strafford had become the principal target of the Parliamentarians, particularly John Pym, and he went on trial for high treason on 22 March 1641. But the key allegation by Sir Henry Vane that Strafford had threatened to use the Irish army to subdue England was not corroborated, and on 10 April Pym's case collapsed. Pym and his allies immediately launched a bill of attainder, which simply declared Strafford guilty and pronounced the sentence of death.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles assured Strafford that "upon the word of a king you shall not suffer in life, honour or fortune", and the attainder could not succeed if Charles withheld assent. Furthermore, many members and most peers opposed the attainder, not wishing, in the words of one, to "commit murder with the sword of justice". But increased tensions and an attempted coup by royalist army officers in support of Strafford and in which Charles was involved began to sway the issue. The Commons passed the bill on 20 April by a large margin (204 in favour, 59 opposed, and 230 abstained), and the Lords acquiesced (by 26 votes to 19, with 79 absent) in May. On 3 May, Parliament's Protestation attacked the "wicked counsels" of Charles's "arbitrary and tyrannical government". While those who signed the petition undertook to defend the king's "person, honour and estate", they also swore to preserve "the true reformed religion", Parliament, and the "rights and liberties of the subjects". Fearing for his family's safety in the face of unrest, Charles reluctantly assented to Strafford's attainder on 9 May after consulting his judges and bishops. Strafford was beheaded three days later.


title: Charles I of England

text: Also in early May, Charles assented to an unprecedented Act that forbade the dissolution of the English Parliament without its consent. In the following months, ship money, fines in distraint of knighthood and excise without parliamentary consent were declared unlawful, and the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission were abolished. All remaining forms of taxation were legalised and regulated by the Tonnage and Poundage Act. The House of Commons also launched bills attacking bishops and episcopacy, but these failed in the Lords.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles had made important concessions in England, and temporarily improved his position in Scotland by securing the Scots' favour on a visit from August to November 1641 during which he conceded to the official establishment of presbyterianism. But after an attempted royalist coup in Scotland, known as "The Incident", Charles's credibility was significantly undermined.


title: Charles I of England

text: Ireland's population was split into three main sociopolitical groups: the Gaelic Irish, who were Catholic; the Old English, who were descended from medieval Normans and also predominantly Catholic; and the New English, who were Protestant settlers from England and Scotland aligned with the English Parliament and the Covenanters. Strafford's administration had improved the Irish economy and boosted tax revenue, but had done so by heavy-handedly imposing order. He had trained up a large Catholic army in support of the king and weakened the Irish Parliament's authority, while continuing to confiscate land from Catholics for Protestant settlement at the same time as promoting a Laudian Anglicanism that was anathema to presbyterians. As a result, all three groups had become disaffected. Strafford's impeachment provided a new departure for Irish politics whereby all sides joined together to present evidence against him. In a similar manner to the English Parliament, the Old English members of the Irish Parliament argued that while opposed to Strafford they remained loyal to Charles. They argued that the king had been led astray by malign counsellors, and that, moreover, a viceroy such as Strafford could emerge as a despotic figure instead of ensuring that the king was directly involved in governance.


title: Charles I of England

text: Strafford's fall from power weakened Charles's influence in Ireland. The dissolution of the Irish army was unsuccessfully demanded three times by the English Commons during Strafford's imprisonment, until lack of money eventually forced Charles to disband the army at the end of Strafford's trial. Disputes over the transfer of land ownership from native Catholic to settler Protestant, particularly in relation to the plantation of Ulster, coupled with resentment at moves to ensure the Irish Parliament was subordinate to the Parliament of England, sowed the seeds of rebellion. When armed conflict arose between the Gaelic Irish and New English in late October 1641, the Old English sided with the Gaelic Irish while simultaneously professing their loyalty to the king.


title: Charles I of England

text: In November 1641, the House of Commons passed the Grand Remonstrance, a long list of grievances against actions by Charles's ministers committed since the beginning of his reign (that were asserted to be part of a grand Catholic conspiracy of which the king was an unwitting member), but it was in many ways a step too far by Pym and passed by only 11 votes, 159 to 148. Furthermore, the Remonstrance had very little support in the House of Lords, which the Remonstrance attacked. The tension was heightened by news of the Irish rebellion, coupled with inaccurate rumours of Charles's complicity. Throughout November, a series of alarmist pamphlets published stories of atrocities in Ireland, including massacres of New English settlers by the native Irish who could not be controlled by the Old English lords. Rumours of "papist" conspiracies circulated in England, and English anti-Catholic opinion was strengthened, damaging Charles's reputation and authority. The English Parliament distrusted Charles's motivations when he called for funds to put down the Irish rebellion; many members of the Commons suspected that forces he raised might later be used against Parliament itself. Pym's Militia Bill was intended to wrest control of the army from the king, but it did not have the support of the Lords, let alone Charles. Instead, the Commons passed the bill as an ordinance, which they claimed did not require royal assent. The Militia Ordinance appears to have prompted more members of the Lords to support the king. In an attempt to strengthen his position, Charles generated great antipathy in London, which was already fast falling into lawlessness, when he placed the Tower of London under the command of Colonel Thomas Lunsford, an infamous, albeit efficient, career officer. When rumours reached Charles that Parliament intended to impeach his wife for supposedly conspiring with the Irish rebels, he decided to take drastic action.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles suspected, probably correctly, that some members of the English Parliament had colluded with the invading Scots. On 3 January 1642, Charles directed Parliament to give up five members of the Commons—Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles, William Strode and Sir Arthur Haselrig—and one peer, Lord Mandeville, on the grounds of high treason. When Parliament refused, it was possibly Henrietta Maria who persuaded Charles to arrest the five members by force, which he intended to do personally. But news of the warrant reached Parliament ahead of him, and the wanted men slipped away by boat shortly before Charles entered the House of Commons with an armed guard on 4 January. Having displaced the Speaker, William Lenthall, from his chair, the king asked him where the MPs had fled. Lenthall, on his knees, famously replied, "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here." Charles abjectly declared "all my birds have flown", and was forced to retire empty-handed.


title: Charles I of England

text: The botched arrest attempt was politically disastrous for Charles. No English sovereign had ever entered the House of Commons, and his unprecedented invasion of the chamber to arrest its members was considered a grave breach of parliamentary privilege. In one stroke Charles destroyed his supporters' efforts to portray him as a defence against innovation and disorder.


title: Charles I of England

text: Parliament quickly seized London, and Charles fled the capital for Hampton Court Palace on 10 January, moving two days later to Windsor Castle. After sending his wife and eldest daughter to safety abroad in February, he travelled northwards, hoping to seize the military arsenal at Hull. To his dismay, he was rebuffed by the town's Parliamentary governor, Sir John Hotham, who refused him entry in April, and Charles was forced to withdraw.


title: Charles I of England

text: In mid-1642, both sides began to arm. Charles raised an army using the medieval method of commission of array, and Parliament called for volunteers for its militia. The negotiations proved futile, and Charles raised the royal standard in Nottingham on 22 August 1642. By then, his forces controlled roughly the Midlands, Wales, the West Country and northern England. He set up his court at Oxford. Parliament controlled London, the south-east and East Anglia, as well as the English navy.


title: Charles I of England

text: After a few skirmishes, the opposing forces met in earnest at Edgehill, on 23 October 1642. Charles's nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine disagreed with the battle strategy of the royalist commander Lord Lindsey, and Charles sided with Rupert. Lindsey resigned, leaving Charles to assume overall command assisted by Lord Forth. Rupert's cavalry successfully charged through the parliamentary ranks, but instead of swiftly returning to the field, rode off to plunder the parliamentary baggage train. Lindsey, acting as a colonel, was wounded and bled to death without medical attention. The battle ended inconclusively as the daylight faded.


title: Charles I of England

text: In his own words, the experience of battle had left Charles "exceedingly and deeply grieved". He regrouped at Oxford, turning down Rupert's suggestion of an immediate attack on London. After a week, he set out for the capital on 3 November, capturing Brentford on the way while simultaneously continuing to negotiate with civic and parliamentary delegations. At Turnham Green on the outskirts of London, the royalist army met resistance from the city militia, and faced with a numerically superior force, Charles ordered a retreat. He overwintered in Oxford, strengthening the city's defences and preparing for the next season's campaign. Peace talks between the two sides collapsed in April.


title: Charles I of England

text: The war continued indecisively over the next couple of years, and Henrietta Maria returned to Britain for 17 months from February 1643. After Rupert captured Bristol in July 1643, Charles visited the port city and laid siege to Gloucester, further up the river Severn. His plan to undermine the city walls failed due to heavy rain, and on the approach of a parliamentary relief force, Charles lifted the siege and withdrew to Sudeley Castle. The parliamentary army turned back towards London, and Charles set off in pursuit. The two armies met at Newbury, Berkshire, on 20 September. Just as at Edgehill, the battle stalemated at nightfall, and the armies disengaged. In January 1644, Charles summoned a Parliament at Oxford, which was attended by about 40 peers and 118 members of the Commons; all told, the Oxford Parliament, which sat until March 1645, was supported by the majority of peers and about a third of the Commons. Charles became disillusioned by the assembly's ineffectiveness, calling it a "mongrel" in private letters to his wife.


title: Charles I of England

text: In 1644, Charles remained in the southern half of England while Rupert rode north to relieve Newark and York, which were under threat from parliamentary and Scottish Covenanter armies. Charles was victorious at the battle of Cropredy Bridge in late June, but the royalists in the north were defeated at the battle of Marston Moor just a few days later. The king continued his campaign in the south, encircling and disarming the parliamentary army of the Earl of Essex. Returning northwards to his base at Oxford, he fought at Newbury for a second time before the winter closed in; the battle ended indecisively. Attempts to negotiate a settlement over the winter, while both sides rearmed and reorganised, were again unsuccessful.


title: Charles I of England

text: At the battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645, Rupert's horsemen again mounted a successful charge against the flank of Parliament's New Model Army, but elsewhere on the field, opposing forces pushed Charles's troops back. Attempting to rally his men, Charles rode forward, but as he did so, Lord Carnwath seized his bridle and pulled him back, fearing for the king's safety. The royalist soldiers misinterpreted Carnwath's action as a signal to move back, leading to a collapse of their position. The military balance tipped decisively in favour of Parliament. There followed a series of defeats for the royalists, and then the siege of Oxford, from which Charles escaped (disguised as a servant) in April 1646. He put himself into the hands of the Scottish presbyterian army besieging Newark, and was taken northwards to Newcastle upon Tyne. After nine months of negotiations, the Scots finally arrived at an agreement with the English Parliament: in exchange for £100,000, and the promise of more money in the future, the Scots withdrew from Newcastle and delivered Charles to the parliamentary commissioners in January 1647.


title: Charles I of England

text: Parliament held Charles under house arrest at Holdenby House in Northamptonshire until Cornet George Joyce took him by threat of force from Holdenby on 3 June in the name of the New Model Army. By this time, mutual suspicion had developed between Parliament, which favoured army disbandment and presbyterianism, and the New Model Army, which was primarily officered by congregationalist Independents, who sought a greater political role. Charles was eager to exploit the widening divisions, and apparently viewed Joyce's actions as an opportunity rather than a threat. He was taken first to Newmarket, at his own suggestion, and then transferred to Oatlands and subsequently Hampton Court, while more fruitless negotiations took place. By November, he determined that it would be in his best interests to escape—perhaps to France, Southern England or Berwick-upon-Tweed, near the Scottish border. He fled Hampton Court on 11 November, and from the shores of Southampton Water made contact with Colonel Robert Hammond, Parliamentary Governor of the Isle of Wight, whom he apparently believed to be sympathetic. But Hammond confined Charles in Carisbrooke Castle and informed Parliament that Charles was in his custody.


title: Charles I of England

text: From Carisbrooke, Charles continued to try to bargain with the various parties. In direct contrast to his previous conflict with the Scottish Kirk, on 26 December 1647 he signed a secret treaty with the Scots. Under the agreement, called the "Engagement", the Scots undertook to invade England on Charles's behalf and restore him to the throne on condition that presbyterianism be established in England for three years.


title: Charles I of England

text: The royalists rose in May 1648, igniting the Second Civil War, and as agreed with Charles, the Scots invaded England. Uprisings in Kent, Essex, and Cumberland, and a rebellion in South Wales, were put down by the New Model Army, and with the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Preston in August 1648, the royalists lost any chance of winning the war.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles's only recourse was to return to negotiations, which were held at Newport on the Isle of Wight. On 5 December 1648, Parliament voted 129 to 83 to continue negotiating with the king, but Oliver Cromwell and the army opposed any further talks with someone they viewed as a bloody tyrant and were already taking action to consolidate their power. Hammond was replaced as Governor of the Isle of Wight on 27 November, and placed in the custody of the army the following day. In Pride's Purge on 6 and 7 December, the members of Parliament out of sympathy with the military were arrested or excluded by Colonel Thomas Pride, while others stayed away voluntarily. The remaining members formed the Rump Parliament. It was effectively a military coup.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles was moved to Hurst Castle at the end of 1648, and thereafter to Windsor Castle. In January 1649, the Rump House of Commons indicted him for treason; the House of Lords rejected the charge. The idea of trying a king was novel. The Chief Justices of the three common law courts of England—Henry Rolle, Oliver St John and John Wilde—all opposed the indictment as unlawful. The Rump Commons declared itself capable of legislating alone, passed a bill creating a separate court for Charles's trial, and declared the bill an act without the need for royal assent. The High Court of Justice established by the Act consisted of 135 commissioners, but many either refused to serve or chose to stay away. Only 68 (all firm Parliamentarians) attended Charles's trial on charges of high treason and "other high crimes" that began on 20 January 1649 in Westminster Hall. John Bradshaw acted as President of the Court, and the prosecution was led by Solicitor General John Cook.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles was accused of treason against England by using his power to pursue his personal interest rather than the good of the country. The charge stated that he, "for accomplishment of such his designs, and for the protecting of himself and his adherents in his and their wicked practices, to the same ends hath traitorously and maliciously levied war against the present Parliament, and the people therein represented", and that the "wicked designs, wars, and evil practices of him, the said Charles Stuart, have been, and are carried on for the advancement and upholding of a personal interest of will, power, and pretended prerogative to himself and his family, against the public interest, common right, liberty, justice, and peace of the people of this nation." Presaging the modern concept of command responsibility, the indictment held him "guilty of all the treasons, murders, rapines, burnings, spoils, desolations, damages and mischiefs to this nation, acted and committed in the said wars, or occasioned thereby." An estimated 300,000 people, or 6% of the population, died during the war.


title: Charles I of England

text: Over the first three days of the trial, whenever Charles was asked to plead, he refused, stating his objection with the words: "I would know by what power I am called hither, by what lawful authority...?" He claimed that no court had jurisdiction over a monarch, that his own authority to rule had been given to him by God and by the traditional laws of England, and that the power wielded by those trying him was only that of force of arms. Charles insisted that the trial was illegal, explaining that, The court, by contrast, challenged the doctrine of sovereign immunity and proposed that "the King of England was not a person, but an office whose every occupant was entrusted with a limited power to govern 'by and according to the laws of the land and not otherwise'."


title: Charles I of England

text: At the end of the third day, Charles was removed from the court, which then heard over 30 witnesses against him in his absence over the next two days, and on 26 January condemned him to death. The next day, the king was brought before a public session of the commission, declared guilty, and sentenced. Fifty-nine of the commissioners signed Charles's death warrant.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles's execution was scheduled for Tuesday, 30 January 1649. Two of his children remained in England under the control of the Parliamentarians: Elizabeth and Henry. They were permitted to visit him on 29 January, and he bade them a tearful farewell. The next morning, he called for two shirts to prevent the cold weather causing any noticeable shivers that the crowd could have mistaken for fear: "the season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation."


title: Charles I of England

text: He walked under guard from St James's Palace, where he had been confined, to the Palace of Whitehall, where an execution scaffold had been erected in front of the Banqueting House. Charles was separated from spectators by large ranks of soldiers, and his last speech reached only those with him on the scaffold. He blamed his fate on his failure to prevent the execution of his loyal servant Strafford: "An unjust sentence that I suffered to take effect, is punished now by an unjust sentence on me." He declared that he had desired the liberty and freedom of the people as much as any, "but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having government ... It is not their having a share in the government; that is nothing appertaining unto them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things." He continued, "I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be."


title: Charles I of England

text: At about 2:00 p.m., Charles put his head on the block after saying a prayer and signalled the executioner when he was ready by stretching out his hands; he was then beheaded in one clean stroke. According to observer Philip Henry, a moan "as I never heard before and desire I may never hear again" rose from the assembled crowd, some of whom then dipped their handkerchiefs in the king's blood as a memento.


title: Charles I of England

text: The executioner was masked and disguised, and there is debate over his identity. The commissioners approached Richard Brandon, the common hangman of London, but he refused, at least at first, despite being offered £200. It is possible he relented and undertook the commission after being threatened with death, but others have been named as potential candidates, including George Joyce, William Hulet and Hugh Peters. The clean strike, confirmed by an examination of the king's body at Windsor in 1813, suggests that the execution was carried out by an experienced headsman.


title: Charles I of England

text: It was common practice for the severed head of a traitor to be held up and exhibited to the crowd with the words "Behold the head of a traitor!" Charles's head was exhibited, but those words were not used, possibly because the executioner did not want his voice recognised. On the day after the execution, the king's head was sewn back onto his body, which was then embalmed and placed in a lead coffin.


title: Charles I of England

text: The commission refused to allow Charles's burial at Westminster Abbey, so his body was conveyed to Windsor on the night of 7 February. He was buried in private on 9 February 1649 in the Henry VIII vault in the chapel's quire, alongside the coffins of Henry VIII and Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The king's son, Charles II, later planned for an elaborate royal mausoleum to be erected in Hyde Park, London, but it was never built.


title: Charles I of England

text: Ten days after Charles's execution, on the day of his interment, a memoir purportedly written by him appeared for sale. This book, the "Eikon Basilike" (Greek for the "Royal Portrait"), contained an "apologia" for royal policies, and proved an effective piece of royalist propaganda. John Milton wrote a Parliamentary rejoinder, the "Eikonoklastes" ("The Iconoclast"), but the response made little headway against the pathos of the royalist book. Anglicans and royalists fashioned an image of martyrdom, and in the Convocations of Canterbury and York of 1660 King Charles the Martyr was added to the Church of England's liturgical calendar. High church Anglicans held special services on the anniversary of his death. Churches, such as those at Falmouth and Tunbridge Wells, and Anglican devotional societies such as the Society of King Charles the Martyr, were founded in his honour.


title: Charles I of England

text: With the monarchy overthrown, England became a republic or "Commonwealth". The House of Lords was abolished by the Rump Commons, and executive power was assumed by a Council of State. All significant military opposition in Britain and Ireland was extinguished by the forces of Oliver Cromwell in the Third English Civil War and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Cromwell forcibly disbanded the Rump Parliament in 1653, thereby establishing the Protectorate with himself as Lord Protector. Upon his death in 1658, he was briefly succeeded by his ineffective son, Richard. Parliament was reinstated, and the monarchy was restored to Charles I's eldest son, Charles II, in 1660.


title: Charles I of England

text: Partly inspired by his visit to the Spanish court in 1623, Charles became a passionate and knowledgeable art collector, amassing one of the finest art collections ever assembled. In Spain, he sat for a sketch by Velázquez, and acquired works by Titian and Correggio, among others. In England, his commissions included the ceiling of the Banqueting House, Whitehall, by Rubens and paintings by other artists from the Low Countries such as van Honthorst, Mytens, and van Dyck. His close associates, including the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Arundel, shared his interest and have been dubbed the Whitehall Group. In 1627 and 1628, Charles purchased the entire collection of the Duke of Mantua, which included work by Titian, Correggio, Raphael, Caravaggio, del Sarto and Mantegna. His collection grew further to encompass Bernini, Bruegel, da Vinci, Holbein, Hollar, Tintoretto and Veronese, and self-portraits by both Dürer and Rembrandt. By Charles's death, there were an estimated 1,760 paintings, most of which were sold and dispersed by Parliament.


title: Charles I of England

text: In the words of John Philipps Kenyon, "Charles Stuart is a man of contradictions and controversy". Revered by high Tories who considered him a saintly martyr, he was condemned by Whig historians, such as Samuel Rawson Gardiner, who thought him duplicitous and delusional. In recent decades, most historians have criticised him, the main exception being Kevin Sharpe, who offered a more sympathetic view that has not been widely adopted. Sharpe argued that the king was a dynamic man of conscience, but Professor Barry Coward thought Charles "the most incompetent monarch of England since Henry VI", a view shared by Ronald Hutton, who called him "the worst king we have had since the Middle Ages".


title: Charles I of England

text: Archbishop William Laud, whom Parliament beheaded during the war, described Charles as "A mild and gracious prince who knew not how to be, or how to be made, great." Charles was more sober and refined than his father, but he was intransigent. He deliberately pursued unpopular policies that brought ruin on himself. Both Charles and James were advocates of the divine right of kings, but while James's ambitions concerning absolute prerogative were tempered by compromise and consensus with his subjects, Charles believed he had no need to compromise or even to explain his actions. He thought he was answerable only to God. "Princes are not bound to give account of their actions," he wrote, "but to God alone".


title: Charles I of England

text: The official style of Charles I as king in England was "Charles, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc." The style "of France" was only nominal, and was used by every English monarch from Edward III to George III, regardless of the amount of French territory actually controlled. The authors of his death warrant called him "Charles Stuart, King of England".


title: Charles I of England

text: As Duke of York, Charles bore the royal arms of the kingdom differenced by a label Argent of three points, each bearing three torteaux Gules. As the Prince of Wales, he bore the royal arms differenced by a plain label Argent of three points. As king, Charles bore the royal arms undifferenced: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland). In Scotland, the Scottish arms were placed in the first and fourth quarters with the English and French arms in the second quarter.


title: Charles I of England

text: Charles had nine children, two of whom eventually succeeded as king, and two of whom died at or shortly after birth.


The 2024 United States presidential election will be the 60th quadrennial presidential election, scheduled for Tuesday, November 5, 2024. It will be the first presidential election after electoral votes are redistributed according to the post-2020 census reapportionment. Incumbent president Joe Biden stated in January 2022 his intent to run for reelection to a second term, with Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate. As of , Biden has not yet committed to a reelection campaign. After repeatedly suggesting he would run, former president Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president for a second nonconsecutive term on November 15, 2022.


title: 2024 United States presidential election

text: In the United States, general elections follow caucuses and primary elections held by the major parties to determine their nominees. The winner of the 2024 presidential election is scheduled to be inaugurated on January 20, 2025.


text: Article Two of the United States Constitution states that for a person to serve as president, the individual must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, and have been a United States resident for at least 14 years. Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the various political parties of the United States, which is awarded through a process such as a primary election. The primary elections are usually indirect elections where voters cast ballots for a slate of party delegates pledged to a particular candidate. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf. The presidential nominee typically chooses a vice presidential running mate to form that party's ticket, which is then ratified by the delegates at the party's convention.


text: Similarly, the general election in November is also an indirect election, in which voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors then directly elect the president and vice president. If no candidate receives the minimum 270 electoral votes needed to win the election, a contingent election will be held in which the House of Representatives will select the president from the three candidates who received the most electoral votes (this last happened in 1825), and the Senate will select the vice president from the candidates who received the two highest totals (this last happened in 1837). The presidential election will occur simultaneously with House of Representatives elections, Senate elections, and .


text: The election has been the subject of attention by analysts and commentators, as it will be the first U.S. presidential election to occur after the reapportionment of votes in the United States Electoral College, which will follow the 2020 United States census. This realignment of electoral college votes will remain through the 2028 election. Reapportionment will be conducted again after the 2030 United States census.


text: Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution specifies that the president must be at least 35 years of age, a natural-born US citizen, and been a resident of the US for 14 years. The Twenty-second Amendment forbids any former presidents from being elected president more than twice. Both incumbent president Biden and former president Donald Trump are eligible to seek a second term. If Trump is elected, he would become the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to win a second non-consecutive term.


text: As of October 17, 2022, a New York Times/Sienna College poll shows Americans are most concerned about the state of the economy and the rate of inflation, and 49% of likely voters intend to vote for Republicans and 45% for Democrats in the 2022 congressional elections. The percentage of voters who consider the economy the most important issue increased to 44%, from 36% in July.


text: The COVID-19 pandemic left behind significant economic effects which could persist into the 2024 presidential election. The high visibility governors received during their responses to the pandemic has been viewed as having given them a boost in possible 2024 contention, in contrast to the significant advantage senators have had in recent cycles.


text: The" Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization" decision in June 2022, which overturned the 1973" Roe v. Wade" decision and permitted U.S. states to fully ban abortion for the first time in nearly 50 years, has made abortion a more significant issue. In the 2024 election, the topic of abortion is expected to play a role in the Republican primary. Potential candidates are divided on the matter, with former Vice President Mike Pence supporting a nationwide ban on abortion, whereas other potential candidates have struck a moderate tone and suggested that the matter should remain the decision of state governments.


text: As of December 2022, rising criminal activity and gun violence has put a stress on communities, law enforcement and political parties. The 2024 field is projected to respond to rising crime rates differently on partisan lines. President Biden has advocated for an assault weapons ban, as well as federal funding to train and deploy more police.


text: Donald Trump did not concede defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, citing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Republican officials in the Trump administration and in Congress have supported attempts to overturn the election. Trump continues to deny the results of the election . Both Biden and Trump have indicated that they intend to run for president in 2024, suggesting a potential rematch of the 2020 election, which would be the first rematch since the 1956 election.


text: Concerns have been raised by election security experts that officials who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election may attempt to impede the voting process or refuse to certify election results. In the 2022 United States elections, the majority of Republican candidates in five battleground states falsely claimed or implied that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate. Election legitimacy was a major political issue during the 2022 elections, and it is credited for unexpectedly strong Democratic performance that year. According to the New York Times, by November 9, nearly 200 'election deniers' had been elected to office. In August 2022, Ali Alexander, who organized one of the many rallies preceding the January 6 United States Capitol attack, stated that he would be returning to the Capitol building in 2025 'for whatever the Congress certifies.'


text: Incumbent president Joe Biden declared his intent in January 2022 to run for re-election, keeping vice president Kamala Harris as his running mate. However, On September 15, he told Scott Pelley in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview that he has not yet committed to run. In a private conversation with civil-rights activist Al Sharpton on October 3, Biden reportedly told him that he is seeking re-election. On October 11, he told Jake Tapper in an interview on CNN that he would decide whether or not to run after the 2022 midterm elections. He is the oldest person to assume the office at age 78, and he would be 82 at the end of his first term. If re-elected, he would be 86 at the end of his second term. During late 2021, as Biden was suffering from low approval ratings in the polls, there was speculation that he would not seek re-election. If this occurs, Vice President Harris and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg could be considered likely candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, both having run for president in 2020. Some prominent Democrats have publicly urged Biden not to run, including U.S. Representatives Dean Phillips and Carolyn Maloney and former U.S. Representative and 2022 South Carolina gubernatorial nominee Joe Cunningham, though Maloney later apologized and said that Biden should run again. There is speculation that Biden will face a primary challenge from a member of the Democratic Party's progressive faction. If Biden is not the presidential re-nominee in 2024, it will be the first election since 1968 in which an eligible incumbent president was not the eventual nominee of their party after Lyndon B. Johnson, and if he chooses not to seek reelection, it will be the first election since 1928 in which an eligible incumbent president did not seek reelection after Calvin Coolidge.


text: Donald Trump was defeated by Biden in 2020 and is currently eligible to run again in 2024. Currently he is seeking to become the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms, after only Grover Cleveland (who did so by winning the 1892 United States presidential election). and is now considered an early frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination after his 2024 announcement on November 15, 2022. However, there are multiple factors working against Trump: the hearings held by the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack have damaged public opinion towards him, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis raised more campaign funds in the first half of 2022, and in 2022 the FBI searched Trump's estate at Mar-a-Lago.


text: Trump announced in March 2022 that if he runs for re-election and wins the Republican presidential nomination, his former vice president Mike Pence will not be his running mate. If Trump runs against President Biden again, it will be the first presidential rematch since 1956 after Dwight D. Eisenhower successfully ran for reelection against Adlai Stevenson II; and if Trump wins, he will be the first person to lose a presidential election and then win a rematch of that election since Grover Cleveland in 1892. The last president to run after leaving office was Theodore Roosevelt, who chose not to run in 1908 before coming in second in 1912 as the presidential nominee of the Progressive Party, although Herbert Hoover briefly sought the Republican presidential nomination at several national conventions subsequent to leaving office in 1933.


text: Trump filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on November 15, 2022, and announced his candidacy in a speech at Mar-a-Lago the same day.


text: Additionally, John Bolton floated a 2024 run in early December of 2022, saying "I'm prepared to get in the race". Bolton served as Trump's national security advisor from April of 2018 to September 2019, until being fired by Trump. According to NPR, Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley, thought "As for Bolton, his "priorities and policies just don't line up with the president," Gidley said. "There is no one issue here ... they just didn't align on many issues", leading to Trump asking for Bolton's resignation.


text: the following individuals have announced exploratory committees to look into running for president within the previous six months.


text: Stern has said that actor Bradley Cooper will be his running mate, although Cooper has not publicly spoken about Stern's claim.


text: Reportedly, rapper Kanye West has claimed on Twitter that he has talked with Trump about being his running mate for 2024. West has not said if Trump has accepted or declined his offer, and Trump has not responded to these claims from West.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Karim Mostafa Benzema (born 19 December 1987) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for and captains La Liga club Real Madrid. A creative and prolific forward, Benzema is regarded as one of the best strikers of all time. He is Real Madrid's all-time second-highest goalscorer and top assist provider. Benzema has won 23 trophies with Real Madrid, including four La Liga, two Copa del Rey and five UEFA Champions League titles.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Born in Lyon to Algerian parents, Benzema began his career with hometown club Olympique Lyonnais in 2005, contributing sporadically to three Ligue 1 title wins. In 2008, he was named the league's Player of the Year and in the Team of the Year having finished as the league's top goalscorer and winning his fourth league title and first Coupe de France. In 2009, Benzema was the subject of a then-French record football transfer when he joined Real Madrid in a deal worth €35 million. After struggling to establish himself in his debut season, he eventually achieved a consistent goalscoring rate with the club, notably being part of a highly rated trio alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale — dubbed "BBC" — who were integral to four Champions League wins from 2014 to 2018.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Following Ronaldo's departure in 2018, Benzema transitioned from the false 9 position into a sole striker. He was named in the La Liga Team of the Season for four consecutive years from 2018 to 2022, won La Liga Best Player twice and the Pichichi Trophy for the first time in 2022. Benzema finished as Champions League top scorer as he won his fifth title in 2022.


title: Karim Benzema

text: A French international, Benzema won the 2004 UEFA European Under-17 Championship and made his senior debut for France in 2007, at age 19. He has since earned over 95 caps, including scoring in three and appearing in four major tournaments, and ranks as France's fifth-highest all-time top goalscorer. Benzema was controversially left out of the squad for the 2010 World Cup and did not play for France for over five years after being implicated in a blackmailing scandal in 2015; he later returned to the squad before announcing his international retirement in December 2022. He has been named French Player of the Year by France Football four times. For his performances in 2021 and 2022, Benzema was awarded the UEFA Player of the Year and the Ballon d'Or, becoming the fifth French player to have won the Ballon d'Or. At 34 years and 302 days old, he is the second-oldest winner of the award.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema began his football career at his hometown club Bron Terraillon SC at the age of eight. While at the club, he was nicknamed "Coco" by friends and, after scoring two goals in an under-10 match against the Lyon youth academy, began attracting attention from the biggest club in the city. According to Serge Santa Cruz, who was president of Bron Terraillon in the 1990s, Lyon officials had visited him directly in an attempt to sign the youngster; however, Santa Cruz refused. After talking with Benzema's father, the club allowed the player to undergo a trial with Lyon. Following the trial, Benzema officially joined Lyon and was inserted into the club's academy.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema quickly ascended up the youth categories in the academy. He served as a ballboy during Lyon senior team matches and performed well in school being described as a student who was "discreet and respectful". At under-16 level, Benzema scored 38 goals in the "Championnat National des 16 ans", the domestic league for under-16 youth players in France. Ahead of the 2004–05 season, Benzema was promoted to the club's reserve team, which was playing in the Championnat de France amateur, the fourth division of French football. Despite only playing with the team during the autumn campaign, he scored a team-high ten goals as the Lyon reserve team finished second in its group.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema was called up to the senior team for the first time under manager Paul Le Guen during the break leading up to the second half of the season. As is customary with new players arriving at Lyon, the young striker had to stand up and speak to his new teammates, which at that time included the likes of Michael Essien, Sylvain Wiltord, Florent Malouda and Eric Abidal. While speaking, Benzema was subjected to jokes and laughter, which prompted the youngster to declare, "Do not laugh, I'm here to take your place." He made his professional debut on 15 January 2005 against Metz, appearing as a substitute for Pierre-Alain Frau. Lyon won the match 2–0 as Benzema provided the assist of the second goal scored by Bryan Bergougnoux. He signed his first professional contract the same month, agreeing to a three-year deal. After making three more appearances as a substitute, on 2 April Benzema made his first professional start in a 1–0 win over Lens. He finished the campaign with six appearances as Lyon won their fourth-straight league title.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema began the 2005–06 season under the tutelage of new manager Gérard Houllier. Under Houllier, he struggled for meaningful minutes due to the presence of newly signed Brazilian striker Fred, as well as Sylvain Wiltord. Benzema made his season debut on 2 October 2005 in a league win over Rennes, appearing as a substitute. On 6 December, he made his UEFA Champions League debut in Lyon's final group stage match against Norwegian club Rosenborg. On his competition debut, he scored his first professional goal in a 2–1 win. A month later, Benzema scored his first professional double in a 4–0 win over Grenoble in the Coupe de France. On 4 March 2006, Benzema scored his first professional league goal against Ajaccio in a 3–1 win.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema began earning more playing time in the 2006–07 season and made his competitive season debut in the 2006 Trophée des Champions against Paris Saint-Germain. In the French Supercup, Benzema converted a penalty which drew the match at 1–1. Lyon later won the league curtain-raiser 5–4 on penalties. Benzema opened the league campaign on a quick note scoring in the team's first match of the season against Nantes. Three weeks later, on 26 August 2006, Benzema appeared as a substitute and scored two goals in a 4–1 away win over Nice. He also converted two goals in the Champions League group stage against Romanian outfit Steaua București and Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv. After appearing regularly during the autumn campaign, on 10 November, Benzema suffered a severe thigh injury. The injury resulted in the striker missing three months of action before returning in February 2007. Benzema failed to score a goal until the final league match of the season against Nantes as Lyon recorded its sixth consecutive league title.


title: Karim Benzema

text: For the 2007–08 season, with Florent Malouda, John Carew and Sylvain Wiltord all departing from the club, Benzema switched to the number 10 shirt and was inserted into the lead striker role. After forming a special relationship with new manager Alain Perrin, he responded with 31 goals in 51 games. He topped the league with 20 goals, scored four goals in the Champions League, one in the Coupe de la Ligue and totaled six goals in six Coupe de France matches, helping Lyon win their first ever double. Some of his more dazzling performances that season included a hat-trick against Metz on 15 September, an equalizing goal in the 90th minute from a free kick against Derby du Rhône rivals Saint-Étienne, and a goal against Lens that was nominated for goal of the season by fans.


title: Karim Benzema

text: In the Champions League, Benzema scored an important double against Rangers at Ibrox Stadium on the last match day of the group stage. The 3–0 victory assured Lyon progression to the knockout rounds. In the knockout rounds, Lyon faced Manchester United and Benzema continued to score, this time it was from outside the penalty box in the first leg match which ended in a 1–1 draw and United eventually won the tie 1–2 on aggregate. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and players praised Benzema for his performance. Lyon club president Jean-Michel Aulas later accused Ferguson of tapping-up Benzema.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 13 March 2008, Benzema extended his contract with Lyon until 2013 with a one-year extension option. After signing his new contract, Benzema became one of the highest paid footballers in France. For his efforts that season, he was named the Ligue 1 Player of the Year, selected to the Team of the Year and awarded the Trophée du Meilleur Buteur for being the league's top scorer. He won the 2008 Bravo Award given to the most outstanding young footballer playing in Europe, and was also shortlisted by French magazine "France Football" for the 2008 Ballon d'Or award, eventually won by Cristiano Ronaldo.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema got off to a good start for the 2008–09 season, scoring twice in Lyon's opening league match against Toulouse. The following three weeks, he scored goals against Rhône-Alpes rivals Grenoble and Saint-Étienne and scored a goal against Nice, converting a penalty in the dying seconds. Lyon won all three matches. As a result of his early goals, Lyon club president Jean-Michel Aulas quelled the many transfer rumors surrounding Benzema by placing a €100 million price tag on the striker. He was also nominated alongside Franck Ribéry to be featured on the French cover of the video game "FIFA 09".


title: Karim Benzema

text: He scored his seventh goal of the league on 29 October, scoring in the 2–0 win over Sochaux. Benzema scored again the following weekend in a 2–0 win over Le Mans. He was among the top scorers in the Champions League group stage, scoring five goals, a double against Steaua București, two goals in two matches against Fiorentina, and a goal against the eventual group winners Bayern Munich on the final match day.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Following the winter break, Benzema endured a rough patch going scoreless the first three games before recording his 11th goal of the season against Nice in a 3–1 victory. Two weeks later, he scored his 12th goal against Nancy in a 2–0 victory. The next nine matches, both Benzema and Lyon's form dwindled losing four matches, drawing three and winning only two with Benzema scoring only two goals in that stretch, both of them against Le Mans in a 3–1 victory. The bad form resulted in Lyon losing their grip on first-place position and eventually falling out of the title race, thus ending their streak of seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles. Benzema was a part of four of those title runs.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Despite losing the title, Benzema got back on track scoring his 15th and 16th goals of the season on 17 May in a 3–1 away victory over rivals Marseille, the first goal being a penalty. He scored his 17th goal the following weekend against Caen in a 3–1 victory moving him into third place among Ligue 1 top scorers.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 1 July 2009, it was announced that Lyon had reached an agreement with Spanish club Real Madrid for the transfer of Benzema. The transfer fee was priced at €35 million with the fee rising to as much as €41 million based on incentives. On 9 July, Benzema successfully passed his medical and signed his contract, a six-year deal, later that afternoon. He was presented officially as a Real Madrid player later that night at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, similarly to the previous signings of Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo. Benzema made his Real Madrid debut on 20 July in the club's opening pre-season friendly against Irish club Shamrock Rovers in Dublin, appearing as a half-time substitute. He scored the lone goal in the club's 1–0 win, scoring in the 87th minute. On 24 August, Benzema netted two goals in Real Madrid's 4–0 victory over Norwegian club Rosenborg in an annual friendly tournament organized for the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy. The goals brought his total tally in the pre-season with Real Madrid to five, making him the joint top scorer alongside fellow striker Raúl.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema made his league debut for Madrid on 29 August 2009 against Deportivo La Coruña. He started the match, but was substituted out in the second half as Madrid won 3–2. A month later, he scored his first goal for the club in a 5–0 victory against newly promoted Xerez. After missing the mid-week match against Villarreal, against Tenerife at the weekend, Benzema scored his first double for Madrid in a 3–0 home victory. He made his Champions League debut for the club on 30 September in a group stage tie against Marseille. After failing to score a goal in the month of October, in the team's first match in November against Italian club Milan in the Champions League, Benzema scored the opener to give Madrid a 1–0 lead. His goal was later cancelled out by a Ronaldinho penalty.


title: Karim Benzema

text: In late November, Benzema began appearing mainly as a substitute as manager Manuel Pellegrini preferred Gonzalo Higuaín in the lead striker role. To coincide with his benching, the striker was also being criticized by the Spanish media for his under-performance and difficulties settling in the country as he had not yet begun learning the Spanish language. He was even declared the "new Anelka" by a Spanish newspaper "Marca" blogger, referring to former Real Madrid striker Nicolas Anelka who had a tumultuous year at the club before being sold. Benzema was defended by his compatriot Zinedine Zidane, who admitted "after two months, I was also criticized" and that Benzema was "a talented player and talented players in Madrid must win".


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 5 December, Benzema appeared as a substitute for Rafael van der Vaart and scored the third goal in a 6–0 romp of Almería. The day after the match against Almería, Benzema responded to the criticism by stating, "I am totally integrated and very happy at Real Madrid", and, "Yes, I have improved my adaptation. I have a new home and I'm learning Spanish to understand myself better with my teammates." After nearly a month coming off of the bench, he started alongside Higuaín away to Valencia on 12 December. A week later, Benzema returned to the bench. Following an injury to Higuaín in early January 2010, Pellegrini inserted Benzema back into the starting lineup. After failing to score in his first two starts in the absence of Higuaín, against Deportivo La Coruña on 30 January, he scored a double in an important 3–1 away win. Following the return of Higuaín, Benzema was relegated back to a substitute's role and finished the campaign by making eight consecutive appearances off the bench. Included in one of those appearances was his final goal of the season against Athletic Bilbao in a 5–1 win.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Ahead of the 2010–11 season, Benzema switched to the number 9 shirt as Real Madrid were under the tutelage of new incoming manager José Mourinho. The striker immediately drew the ire of Mourinho who declared to reporters during a pre-season media session that "Benzema must understand that he is extremely talented, but that in itself is not enough", while also stating that "[Madrid] need a striker who is sparky, not one that is listless". Mourinho sentiments were later echoed by incoming France national team coach Laurent Blanc who acknowledged that Benzema was "not used to working". Blanc also stated that the striker needed to shed weight in order to fulfill his potential.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Due to Mourinho preferring Ronaldo and Higuaín as his forwards, Benzema began the campaign as a substitute coming off the bench in the team's opening league match of the season against Mallorca. Following the September international break, he made his first start in a 1–0 win over Osasuna. On 21 September, Benzema made a substitute appearance and scored his first goal of the season in a 3–0 home win against Espanyol. Afterwards, the striker failed to score a domestic goal for nearly two months.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 10 November, Benzema scored his second goal of the campaign against Real Murcia in the 2010–11 edition of the Copa del Rey. In late November, Benzema was inserted into the starting eleven following a severe back injury to Higuaín, along with the team's lack of senior strikers. In his first match since being inserted into the starting lineup permanently, he scored his first Champions League goal of the season in a group stage fixture against Dutch club Ajax. In Madrid's final group stage tie against French outfit Auxerre, Benzema scored his first hat trick for the club in a 4–0 win. The first goal he scored was Real Madrid's 300th goal in the Champions League era. Two weeks later, Benzema converted another hat trick, this time in an 8–0 thrashing of Levante in the Copa del Rey. In late January, for the first time in his Real Madrid career, Benzema scored goals in back-to-back matches. On 23 January, he scored the only goal in a 1–0 win at home against Mallorca. Three days later, Benzema repeated his efforts scoring the only goal in a win over Sevilla in the first leg of the team's Copa del Rey semi-final tie. Real Madrid later advanced to its 37th Copa del Rey final in club history after beating Sevilla 2–0 in the second leg.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Following the arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor on loan, Benzema went unused in two consecutive league matches in February 2011. He returned to the starting lineup on 19 February and embarked on a run in which he scored ten goals in eight matches. Included in those ten goals were doubles in three straight matches against Málaga, Racing de Santander and Hércules, as well as a goal in the first leg of Madrid's Round of 16 tie against former club Lyon. The strike against his hometown club was the 100th goal of his professional career, and also the first goal for Real Madrid at the Stade de Gerland in six years, though despite the honours associated with netting the goal, Benzema did not celebrate out of respect for his former club.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 19 March, he scored the opener in the "El Derbi madrileño" as Real Madrid went on to win the match 2–1. Despite his form, Benzema appeared in only one of the four highly anticipated matches against "El Clásico" rivals Barcelona, in which the two clubs met in the league, the 2011 Copa del Rey Final and the Champions League knockout stage. In between those clashes, on 23 April 2011, Benzema scored a goal in a 6–3 win over Valencia. On 30 April, he scored a goal in the team's 3–2 loss to Real Zaragoza. It was the only match of the campaign that Real Madrid lost, in which Benzema scored. To close out the campaign, Benzema scored another double in an 8–1 win over Almería. He finished the campaign second on the team behind Ronaldo with 26 goals as Real Madrid captured the Copa del Rey giving Benzema his first honour with the club. For his performances during the campaign, particularly during the second half, Benzema was praised by Mourinho, club officials Florentino Pérez and Emilio Butragueño, as well as national team manager Laurent Blanc.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Prior to the start of the 2011–12 season, Benzema, taking the advice of compatriots Blanc and Zidane, ventured to Merano, Italy, to attend a high performance clinic where he underwent treatment to reduce his weight. The spell at the clinic was ultimately a success after the striker arrived at pre-season lighter. While at the clinic, Benzema also underwent physical training to build up his muscle mass. The striker was impressive in the pre-season scoring eight goals in seven matches. His performances during the pre-season resulted in Mourinho naming him the starting lead striker for the new campaign. Mourinho was later credited with Benzema's transformation, but denied full responsibility and, instead, gave credit to the striker himself.


title: Karim Benzema

text: In the second leg of the 2011 Supercopa de España against Barcelona, and with Madrid trailing 4–3 on aggregate late in the match, Benzema scored the equalizing goal to even the tie at 4–4. However, six minutes later, a Lionel Messi strike gave Barcelona the supercup. In the team's second league match of the season against Getafe, Benzema scored a double in a 4–2 victory. After going goalless in three consecutive league matches, he scored his third league goal of the campaign against Rayo Vallecano in a 4–2 win. In the team's ensuing match against Ajax in the Champions League, Benzema scored Madrid's third goal in a 3–0 home win. In the club's next Champions League match against Lyon, Benzema scored again by netting the opener in a 4–0 win against Lyon.


title: Karim Benzema

text: In November 2011, Benzema scored five goals; three in the league and two in Europe. In the league, he converted his three goals in wins over Osasuna and Valencia, while he scored his two Champions League goals in a 6–2 group stage win over Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb. On 10 December 2011, Benzema scored the opener in Madrid's 3–1 defeat to Barcelona in the "El Clásico". The goal, scored just 21 seconds into the match, was the fastest goal ever scored in a match between the two rivals. Three days after his record-breaking goal, for his performances during the 2011 calendar year, Benzema was named the "France Football" French Player of the Year, beating out Barcelona defender Eric Abidal and Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. He became only the second French player based in Spain to win the award, and also the second Real Madrid player to capture it. Zidane was the first to achieve both honorable mentions. Benzema expressed gratitude at winning the award, stating, "It is a pleasure to win an individual trophy. When I see the previous winners – Zidane, Henry and other major players – it makes me proud to join them on the list." In the team's next match after winning the award, against Sevilla, Benzema assisted two goals in a 6–2 triumph.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema opened the 2012 portion of the campaign in positive form. He scored goals against Granada and Málaga. Benzema scored against the latter club in the Copa del Rey in each leg of the Round of 16. The 4–2 aggregate win advanced Real Madrid to the quarter-finals where the club faced Barcelona. After failing to score in the first leg, which ended 2–1 in favour of "Barça", in the second leg on 25 January 2012, Benzema scored his third goal of the season against the "Blaugrana", but Madrid failed to win the tie losing 4–3 on aggregate. On 12 February, Benzema scored his first league goal in over a month against Levante. A week later, he scored a double in a 4–0 shutout of Racing Santander. On 24 March, Benzema scored two goals in a league win over Real Sociedad. The two goals made him the top French scorer in La Liga history surpassing Zidane. Three days later, Benzema scored another double in a 3–0 first leg away win over Cypriot club APOEL in the Champions League quarter-finals. On 29 April, Benzema put in a masterful performance scoring two goals and assisting another in a 3–0 win over Sevilla. The double was his seventh of the season and allowed Madrid to close in on its first "Primera Division" title in four years. "Los Blancos" captured their 32nd league title the following week cruising to a 3–0 win over Athletic Bilbao. Benzema appeared as a second-half substitute in the match.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On the first matchday of the Champions League, Benzema scored an equalizer against Manchester City in 3–2 win at Santiago Bernabéu. On 4 October 2012, Benzema scored a bicycle kick goal off a cross by Kaká in a 4–1 win against Ajax in Amsterdam. On 18 December, one day before his 25th birthday, his fine form saw him earn the award for best French footballer of 2012, for the second year running. On 2 March 2013, Benzema opened the scoring against Barcelona in the league game at the Santiago Bernabéu. Real went on to win the game 2–1, the second time they beat Barcelona in a week.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Ahead of the 2013–14 season, Benzema became part of a trio alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and newly signed Gareth Bale — dubbed "BBC". Benzema started the season by scoring in a 2–1 win over Real Betis at the Santiago Bernabéu. After four matches without scoring (two with Real Madrid and two with France), he returned to goal-scoring form by netting twice in a 6–1 away win over Galatasaray in Champions League. On 18 January 2014, he scored his 100th goal for Madrid in a 5–0 victory at Real Betis. On 23 March, Benzema scored two goals against fierce rivals Barcelona in "El Clásico" at the Bernabéu from two crosses by Ángel Di María, taking his goal tally in La Liga to 17 goals, though Barcelona won the match 4–3.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema was part of Real Madrid's starting eleven in the 2014 Copa del Rey Final on 16 April at the Mestalla Stadium, and assisted Di María's opening goal before Gareth Bale hit the winner for Madrid in a 2–1 victory. One week later, on 23 April, Benzema scored the only goal of the game to win the first leg of a Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich, 1–0. The club went on to win the final in May. Real Madrid's attacking trio of Bale, Benzema and Cristiano, dubbed "BBC", finished the season with 97 goals.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 6 August 2014, Real Madrid announced that Benzema had signed a new five-year deal that will keep him at the club until 2019. On 12 August 2014, Benzema played the whole 90 minutes in Real Madrid's 2–0 win against Sevilla in Cardiff to claim the UEFA Super Cup. On 16 September, Benzema scored Real Madrid's 1,000th goal in European competition after netting a goal in a 5–1 victory over FC Basel in the first match of the Champions League group stage. He scored the winning goal in Real Madrid's 2–1 away victory against Ludogorets Razgrad in the Champions League after coming on as a second-half substitute. The next weekend, he scored a brace in the 5–0 victory against Athletic Bilbao in La Liga. In 2014, Benzema won France Football's award for French Player of the Year for the third time; only Thierry Henry has won this award on more occasions.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema was chosen as La Liga Player of the Month for October 2014, with his manager Carlo Ancelotti winning the equivalent award. He scored three of Real Madrid's 13 goals of the month, in which they won three matches and only conceded just one goal. On 8 December 2015, Benzema scored a hat trick in an 8–0 thrashing against Malmö FF. On 20 December, he scored another hat trick in a 10–2 victory over Rayo Vallecano. He was a regular starter when the team won the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League.


title: Karim Benzema

text: In December 2016, Benzema was called up in Real Madrid's squad for 2016 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. In the semi-final match against América on 15 December, Benzema scored in the last moments of the first half, helping the team to progress in the final by winning 2–0. In the final three days later against Kashima Antlers, Benzema opened the score in the 9th minute, and also assisted Ronaldo's second goal, as Real Madrid won 4–2 in extra time after the regular time finished 2–2 to claim their second title. It was Benzema's tenth title with Real Madrid, and finished the competition as joint-second topscorer with two goals in two matches.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 15 February 2017, in the first leg of 2016–17 UEFA Champions League round of 16 against Napoli, Benzema scored Real Madrid's first goal in an eventual 3–1 home win, which was his 51st goal in this competition, overtaking Thierry Henry on the list of all-time Champions League top scorers. It was his first goal in six matches and for this performance he was voted Man of the Match. He was a regular starter, and scored the last goal of the season which gave him eleven for the campaign, when Madrid won the 2016–17 La Liga and the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 20 September 2017, Benzema signed a contract extension that will keep him at the club until 2021. Later on 6 March of the following year, Benzema made his 100th UEFA Champions League appearance by playing in the 2–1 win at Parc des Princes against Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of 2017–18 UEFA Champions League round of 16 as Real Madrid progressed to the next round 5–2 on aggregate. Benzema played his 400th match in all competitions for Real Madrid on 31 March in the 3–0 win at Las Palmas, captaining the team and netting the second goal with a penalty. On 1 May, Benzema scored twice in a 2–2 draw against Bayern Munich in the return leg of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League semi-final, as Real progressed to the final on a 4–3 aggregate. On 26 May, Benzema scored the first goal of the match in 2018 UEFA Champions League Final by intercepting Loris Karius's throw in a 3–1 victory over Liverpool, when Madrid won their third consecutive and 13th overall Champions League title.


title: Karim Benzema

text: With the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus in July 2018, Benzema became Real Madrid's new goal-getter – scoring 30 goals in all competitions in 2018–19 as the club's top scorer for the campaign. His prominence in Real Madrid's squad significantly increased.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 7 November 2018, Benzema scored a brace in the 5–0 win at Viktoria Plzeň in the UEFA Champions League group stage, reaching the 200th goal milestone with the club, becoming only the seventh Madrid player to achieve the feat. He scored three goals in six matches, all of them against Plzeň, helping Real Madrid topping Group G. Later on 13 February of the following year, in the first leg of the competition's round of 16, Benzema scored the opener of a 2–1 away win over Ajax, reaching 60 Champions League goals, becoming only the fourth player to do so.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema scored Madrid's first competitive goal of the 2019–20 season on 17 August in the 3–1 away win over Celta Vigo in the opening La Liga match. Later, on 6 November, he scored a brace in Madrid's 6–0 crushing of Galatasaray, achieving two new milestones: he become the second player after Lionel Messi to score in 15 consecutive Champions League seasons and also the third Madrid player to score 50 goals in the competition. His performances were praised by manager Zinedine Zidane, who called him a legend and also compared him with Cristiano Ronaldo. Three days later, in the next league match, he scored a first-half brace in a 4–0 win at Eibar, overtaking Ferenc Puskás as the club's sixth all-time goalscorer in La Liga with 157 goals from 323 appearances. In February 2020, Benzema extended his contract with Real Madrid until 2022. On 1 March, he made his 500th appearance for Real Madrid in a 2–0 home win over Barcelona in El Clásico, becoming the fourteenth player in the club's history to achieve this milestone. At the end of the season, Real Madrid won the 2019–20 La Liga, while scoring over 20 goals.


title: Karim Benzema

text: When La Liga restarted after a three-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Benzema scored a brace against Valencia in Real Madrid's second game back at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium on 18 June – his first goals at Madrid's new temporary home ground. Benzema's brace saw him surpass Ferenc Puskás as Real Madrid's fourth All-Time Top Scorer with 304 goals.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 16 July, Benzema's brace against Villarreal secured Real Madrid's 34th La Liga title, after a 2–1 win at the Di Stefano – their 10th consecutive league win after the lockdown. On 7 August, Benzema scored Madrid's only goal at the Etihad as they went crashing out of the Champions League to Manchester City (2–4 on aggregate) to end the campaign. For the second consecutive season, Benzema finished as the club's top scorer with 27 goals in all competitions.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema opened his goal account for 2020–21 on 4 October, away to Levante in La Liga, netting his 250th goal for Real Madrid in all competitions. On 27 October, he scored an acrobatic over-the-head goal in a 2–2 draw against Borussia Mönchengladbach at Borussia-Park in the Champions League, to become the second player in history after Lionel Messi to score in 16 consecutive Champions League seasons. On 9 December, he scored a brace in a 2–0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach to send Real Madrid to the Champions League knockout stages as group winners. On 21 April, Benzema scored a brace and assisted another in a 3–0 away win at Cádiz, which meant he scored against all 35 teams he has played against in La Liga.


title: Karim Benzema

text: With the departure of Sergio Ramos to PSG, Benzema was promoted as Real Madrid's vice-captain for the 2021–22 season under Ancelotti. On 14 August, Benzema scored a brace against Alaves as Los Blancos kicked off the league season with a 1–4 away win to sit at the top of the table. Benzema's first half volley was the first official goal under Ancelotti in his second stint. Six days later, Benzema signed a contract extension with Real Madrid, keeping him at the club until 2023.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema scored his first hat-trick in three seasons in a 5–2 win over Celta Vigo on 12 September as Madrid returned to the Bernabeu for the first time since March 2020. Wearing the armband, Benzema was the first Madrid captain to score a hat-trick since Raul in 2008. One week later, Benzema and Vini Jr would combine twice in the last few minutes against Valencia at the Mestalla to complete a comeback to earn Madrid their first win at the Mestalla in four seasons. On 22 September, Benzema scored a brace and provided another two assists in a 6–1 win over Mallorca at the Bernabeu. Benzema's brace allowed him to become only the fourth Madrid player in history to score 200 La Liga goals after Di Stefano, Raul and Cristiano Ronaldo. On 28 September, Benzema became the first the player in history to score in 17 consecutive Champions League seasons after scoring his first penalty in the competition in a 1–2 home loss against Sheriff in the group stage.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 22 October, Benzema scored Madrid's 1000th Champions League goal at the Bernabéu against Shakhtar Donetsk. In the process, Benzema scored his 291st and 292nd goals for the club, making him their fourth highest all-time top scorer, overtaking Santillana. With his goal against Sevilla in La Liga on 28 November, he became the highest French goalscorer in club football matches, overtaking Thierry Henry. On 8 January, Benzema scored his 300th goal for Madrid, converting a penalty in a 4–1 win at home in La Liga against Valencia.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 9 March, he scored a hat-trick within 17 minutes in a remarkable comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16. At the age of 34, Benzema became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League. With the three goals, Benzema brought his tally to 309, overtaking Alfredo Di Stéfano as Real Madrid's third-highest all-time goalscorer. On 14 March, Benzema scored a brace in a La Liga match against Mallorca and broke Henry's record, becoming all-time top French goalscorer with 413 goals. On 6 April, he scored another hat-trick in the Champions League in a 3–1 away win over Chelsea in the first leg of the quarter-finals. Benzema became only the second player (after Cristiano Ronaldo) to score back-to-back hat-tricks in successive Champions League knockout matches. One week later in the second leg at the Santiago Bernabéu, Benzema scored a 96th minute header in extra time which proved pivotal, as Madrid lost to Chelsea 2–3 on the night but qualified for the semi-finals 5–4 on aggregate.


title: Karim Benzema

text: On 30 April 2022, he helped Real clinch their 35th Spanish title with a goal in a 4–0 win against Espanyol at the Bernabéu. On 4 May, he scored a decisive goal from the penalty spot in extra time in the second leg against Manchester City and helped Real Madrid reach their 17th European Cup final. By the end of the 2021–22 La Liga season, Benzema won his first Pichichi Trophy with 27 goals in 32 matches. On 28 May, he won his fifth Champions League title after a 1–0 win over Liverpool in the final, and finished the tournament as top scorer with 15 goals in total. On 31 May, Benzema was named the inaugural Champions League player of the season. On 13 August, he was nominated for the Ballon d'Or, widely considered a favourite to win it. In recognition of his performances that season, Benzema was awarded the Ballon d'Or on 17 October.


title: Karim Benzema

text: By scoring in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt on 10 August 2022, Benzema brought his tally to 324 goals, overtaking Raúl as Real Madrid's all-time second-highest goalscorer.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema is a former France youth international having earned caps at all levels for which he was eligible, excluding the under-16 team. He is a member of the group, commonly known in France as the "Génération 1987", a youth class that produced current internationals Hatem Ben Arfa, Jérémy Ménez and Samir Nasri, alongside himself. Benzema was the last of the four to make his youth international debut under coach Philippe Bergeroo and officially joined the team ahead of the 2004 UEFA European Under-17 Championship that was played on home soil. In the competition, he appeared in two matches. On his tournament debut, Benzema scored the opening goal in a 3–1 win over Northern Ireland. His lone other appearance in the competition was in a 1–0 group stage win over Spain as France went on to win the tournament defeated the same team in the final.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema was a regular starter in the team at under-18 level. He made his debut with the team at a local tournament in the Czech Republic. Benzema scored his first goal at under-18 level in the competition against Poland in the team's final group stage match. In the final against the hosts, he scored the opening goal in a 2–0 win as France were declared champions of the competition. On 30 September 2004, Benzema was one of three goalscorers in France's 3–0 away win over Norway. In the team's next match against Russia, he scored a double in a 3–1 victory. Due to France winning the 2004 U17 European title, the under-18 team was allowed participation in the 2005 Meridian Cup. Benzema was called up to the team for the competition and played in all four matches, scoring a tournament-high five goals as France were crowned champions of the tournament. He opened the tournament by scoring two goals in a 7–0 victory over Cameroon. After going scoreless in the team's next match against Sierra Leone, Benzema responded by scoring a goal in a shutout victory over Nigeria and netting another double in a 4–1 win against Egypt. On 19 May 2005, in the team's final match of the season against Slovakia, Benzema scored all four goals in a 4–1 victory. He finished the under-18 campaign with 18 appearances and a team-high 14 goals and was, subsequently, praised by Bergeroo who, following the campaign, declared that Benzema was "quite efficient".


title: Karim Benzema

text: The foursome of Benzema, Ben Arfa, Ménez and Nasri returned to international play together for under-19 duty. The four were joined by Issiar Dia, Blaise Matuidi and Serge Gakpé with the objective of winning the 2006 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. The team opened the campaign with two friendly matches against Norway. Over the course of the two matches, Benzema scored one goal, which came in the first match, a 4–0 win. In the first round of qualification for the UEFA-sanctioned tournament, he scored his only goal in the final group match against Austria. France won the match 2–0, which resulted in the team progressing to the Elite Round. In the ensuing round, France were placed in a relatively easy group alongside Scotland, Bulgaria, and Belarus. In the opening group game against Bulgaria, Benzema scored a double converting a penalty and scoring in play as France won 4–0. Both of his goals were scored within a minute of each other. After surprisingly drawing 0–0 with Belarus, France faced Scotland in the final group stage match. Benzema opened the scoring in the 11th minute, but his goal was cancelled out by Steven Fletcher in the second half. The match ultimately finished 1–1 and, despite finishing the round undefeated, France were eliminated after being beaten on points by the "Scots".


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema made his under-21 debut for "Les Espoirs" under coach René Girard in the team's first match following the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship against Belgium. He started the match and was replaced at half-time by Yoann Gourcuff. He featured in qualification matches for the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship and appeared as a starter and substitute in the first leg and second leg, respectively, of the team's surprising defeat to Israel in the qualifying playoffs. Despite still being eligible to represent the under-21 team until 2009, his appearance in the second leg defeat to Israel was Benzema's last with the team and he finished his under-21 career with five appearances and no goals. Prior to representing France at senior international level, Benzema was courted by the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) who sought for the player to represent Algeria at senior international level. In December 2006, the striker was approached by former federation president Hamid Haddadj and then-national team coach Jean-Michel Cavalli, but turned down the invitation citing his desire to continue his international career with France. Benzema later told French radio station "Radio Monte Carlo" "Algeria is my parents' country and it is in my heart, but football-wise, I will only play for the French national team".


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema was called up for the first time to the senior national team by Raymond Domenech on 9 November 2006 for the team's friendly match against Greece that would be played on 15 November. Benzema described the call-up as "a reward", while also stating "I am pleased, of course, me and my family. A (the senior national team), is the national team's highest honor". Two days before the match, he was forced to withdraw from the team due to a thigh injury, which he suffered while playing domestically for Lyon. After failing to make the squad for the team's February 2007 match against Argentina, Benzema returned to the team in March for a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying match against Lithuania and a friendly against Austria. After failing to appear in the qualifier, he made his international debut on 28 March 2007 against Austria. Benzema appeared as a half-time substitute for Djibril Cissé and scored the only goal of the match after a free-kick from Samir Nasri. On 13 October, Benzema scored a double in a 6–0 win against the Faroe Islands. After appearing regularly in the team for the rest of the 2007–08 season, he was named to the 23-man squad to participate in UEFA Euro 2008.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Benzema made his debut in the competition on 9 June 2008 in the team's opening match against Romania. Benzema started the match, but was substituted out for Nasri in the second half after a frustrating performance. The match finished 0–0 and Benzema was, subsequently, criticized by the French media for his performance with newspaper "Le Point" declaring that Benzema was "unrecognizable" and that he "symbolized the impotence of France in the attack". The newspaper also cited his lack of international experience for his subdued performance. In the team's next group game against the Netherlands, Benzema played no part in the 4–1 defeat. He returned to the team in its final group game against Italy and was given a place in the starting lineup. However, France lost 2–0 and were eliminated from the competition.


title: Karim Benzema

text: In November 2008, Benzema, among several other young players in the team, was accused of being insolent during the team's campaign at the European Championship. The accusation came from international teammate William Gallas who inserted the charge in his autobiography. Though most of Gallas' accusations were directed at Nasri, during the competition, it was reported by newspaper "Le Parisien" that several of the national team players described Benzema as "arrogant" and that the striker was scolded by midfielder Claude Makélélé following the team's loss to the Netherlands.


title: Karim Benzema

text: Despite the reports from after Euro 2008, Benzema remained a regular in the team and, ahead of qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, switched to the number ten shirt after previously wearing the number nine. In the team's first match following its elimination from Euro 2008, Benzema scored a goal in a 3–2 friendly win over Sweden in Gothenburg. Two months later, he scored another goal in a 3–1 victory against Tunisia at the Stade de France. On 5 June 2009, Benzema converted the only goal of the match, a penalty shot, in a 1–0 win over Turkey at the Stade de Gerland, his home stadium. He scored his first World Cup qualification goals in victories over the Faroe Islands and Austria in October 2009. His cap against Austria would be his last of the Domenech era as he failed to make France's preliminary 30-man squad for the World Cup. Domenech cited Benzema's struggle for form with his new club Real Madrid, rather than his alleged involvement in a sex scandal as his reason for leaving the striker out. Prior to the list being unveiled, Benzema informed "Radio Monte Carlo" that if he was not selected he would be "very disappointed, but not killed" and "I will support the France team no matter what".


title: Karim Benzema

text: Following the World Cup, Benzema returned to the national team under the reign of new coach Laurent Blanc. Blanc, an admirer of Benzema, sought to build the attack around the striker and, after going almost a year without representing France, Benzema made his return to the team in its 2–1 defeat to Norway in Oslo. Alongside Gourcuff, Benzema led the team in scoring in qualifying for UEFA Euro 2012, netting three. He scored his three goals in wins over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg, and Albania. On 17 November 2010, Benzema scored the opening goal in France's 2–1 win over England at Wembley Stadium. In the team's next match against Brazil in February 2011, he scored the only goal for France in a 1–0 win. After appearing regularly in qualifying for Euro 2012, on 29 May 2012, Benzema was named to the squad to participate in the competition. On 5 June, in the team's final warm-up friendly ahead of the European Championship, Benzema scored two goals in a 4–0 shutout win over Estonia. At Euro 2012, Benzema started the team's opening match against England, which ended in a 1–1 draw. In the team's ensuing group stage match against the Ukraine, he assisted both the goals in a 2–0 win.