Charles I of England

Born the second son in the House of Stuart in 1600, Charles became heir in 1612 when his older brother died. After a failed eight-month courtship in Spain and his father's death, he took the throne in 1625 and married Henrietta Maria of France. He immediately collided with Parliament over taxes and royal power, insisting he answered to God alone - levying money without consent, supporting high Anglican ritual that reeked of Rome to Puritans, and bungling aid to Protestant Europe during the Thirty Years' War. His attempt to impose Anglican practice on Scotland sparked the Bishops' Wars and unraveled his control. By 1642 he was fighting Parliament's armies in open civil war. Defeated in 1645, he fled Oxford, surrendered to Scottish forces, was handed to the English Parliament, escaped briefly, then was retaken and held on the Isle of Wight. In January 1649 they tried and convicted him for high treason, then took his head - abolishing the monarchy until his son reclaimed it eleven years later.