Charles, the second Stuart King of England, was the son of James VI & I of Scotland and England.  He became heir apparent upon the death of his older brother Henry in 1612 and acceded to the throne in 1625, the year of his marriage to Henrietta Maria, the Catholic daughter of Henri IV of France.

As King, the reserved Charles bore himself with dignity.  He was deeply religious, both serious and regular in his devotions, and disliked coarse and drunken behavior.  He loved music, liked drama and the masque, and had an excellent knowledge of painting. 

Yet Charles was also self righteous and self indulgent.  As a believer in the divine right of kings, had a high concept of royal authority.  He also spent much on the arts, inviting the artists Van Dyck and Rubens to work in England, buying a great collection of paintings by Raphael and Titian, and creating the post of Master of the King's Music to supervise his large band of musicians. 

Within two years of his accession, Charles was on very bad terms with Parliament.  His marriage to a Catholic, his financial straits, and his insistence on engaging in simultaneous wars with France and Spain exacerbated his problems. Charles dismissed Parliament in 1629 and spent the next eleven years ruling without it, although he ultimately had to recall it.  By 1642, Charles and Parliament were engaged in civil war.  Six years later, in August 1648, Oliver Cromwell achieved victory.  Because the army believed that permanent peace was impossible with Charles alive, it decided that he should be tried and executed.  In December, Parliament was purged, leaving a small rump totally dependent on the army.  The Rump Parliament established a High Court of Justice in the first week of January 1649, and Charles was charged with high treason on January 20.  He refused to plead, refusing to recognize the legality of the High Court.  He was sentenced to death on January 27 and was beheaded three days later on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House at Whitehall in London.