Claim: Charles I's wife was French.

Charles I -LRB- 19 November 1600 -- 30 January 1649 -RRB- was monarch of the three kingdoms of England , Scotland , and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649 .   Charles was the second son of King James VI of Scotland , but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603 , he moved to England , where he spent much of the rest of his life . He became heir apparent to the English , Irish , and Scottish thrones on the death of his elder brother , Henry Frederick , Prince of Wales , in 1612 . An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Anna culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiations . Two years later , he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France instead .   After his succession , Charles quarrelled with the Parliament of England , which sought to curb his royal prerogative . Charles believed in the divine right of kings and thought he could govern according to his own conscience . Many of his subjects opposed his policies , in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent , and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch . His religious policies , coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic , generated the antipathy and mistrust of reformed groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters , who thought his views too Catholic . He supported high church ecclesiastics , such as Richard Montagu and William Laud , and failed to aid Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years ' War . His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops ' Wars , strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments and helped precipitate his own downfall .   From 1642 , Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War . After his defeat in 1645 , he surrendered to a Scottish force that eventually handed him over to the English Parliament . Charles refused to accept his captors ' demands for a constitutional monarchy , and temporarily escaped captivity in November 1647 . Re-imprisoned on the Isle of Wight , Charles forged an alliance with Scotland , but by the end of 1648 Oliver Cromwell 's New Model Army had consolidated its control over England . Charles was tried , convicted , and executed for high treason in January 1649 . The monarchy was abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England was declared . The monarchy was restored to Charles 's son , Charles II , in 1660 .