James VI and I

From Textus Receptus

James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciary, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union.

He succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother Mary, Queen of Scots, was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government until 1583. In 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue.^[] He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known as the Jacobean era after him, until his death in 1625 at the age of 58. After the Union of the Crowns, he based himself in England (the largest of the three realms) from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617, and styled himself "King of Great Britain and Ireland".^[] He was a major advocate of a single parliament for both England and Scotland. In his reign, the Plantation of Ulster and British colonisation of the Americas began.

At 57 years and 246 days, his reign in Scotland was longer than any of his predecessors. He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced great difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and repeated conflicts with the English Parliament. Under James, the "Golden Age" of Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such as William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Francis Bacon contributing to a flourishing literary culture.^[] James himself was a talented scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie (1597), True Law of Free Monarchies (1598), and Basilikon Doron (1599). He sponsored the translation of the Bible that was named after him: the Authorised King James Version.^[] Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed "the wisest fool in Christendom", an epithet associated with his character ever since.^[] Since the latter half of the 20th century, historians have tended to revise James's reputation and treat him as a serious and thoughtful monarch.^[]

Childhood

Portrait of James as a boy, after Arnold Bronckorst, 1574

Birth

James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII. James was the first cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth I. Mary's rule over Scotland was insecure, for both she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. During Mary's and Darnley's difficult marriage,<ref>Guy, pp 236–7, pp 241–2, p 270.</ref> Darnley secretly allied himself with the rebels and conspired in the murder of the Queen's private secretary, David Rizzio, just three months before James was born.<ref>Guy, pp 248–50.</ref>

[[File:King James I of England and VI of Scotland by Arnold van Brounckhorst.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Portrait of James as a boy, after Arnold Bronckorst, 1574]]

James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and as the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. He was baptised "Charles James" on 17 December 1566 in a Catholic ceremony held at Stirling Castle. His godparents were Charles IX of France (represented by John, Count of Brienne), Elizabeth I of England (represented by James's aunt, Jean, Countess of Argyll), and Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (represented by Philibert du Croc, the French ambassador). Mary refused to let the Archbishop of St Andrews, whom she referred to as "a pocky priest", spit in the child's mouth, as was then the custom.<ref>Donaldson, p 99.</ref>

James's father, Darnley, was murdered on 10 February 1567 during an unexplained explosion at Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge for Rizzio's death. James inherited his father's titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross. Mary was already an unpopular queen, and her marriage on 15 May 1567 to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering Darnley, heightened widespread bad feeling towards her.<ref>Elizabeth I wrote to Mary: "My ears have been so astounded, my mind so disturbed and my heart so appalled at hearing the horrible report of the abominable murder of your late husband and my slaughtered cousin, that I can scarcely as yet summon the spirit to write about it ... I will not conceal from you that people for the most part are saying that you will look through your fingers at this deed instead of avenging it and that you don't care to take action against those who have done you this pleasure." Historian John Guy nonetheless concludes: "Not a single piece of uncontaminated evidence has ever been found to show that Mary had foreknowledge of Darnley's murder." Guy, pp 312–13. In historian David Harris Willson's view, however: "That Bothwell was the murderer no one can doubt; and that Mary was his accomplice seems equally certain." Willson, p 18.</ref> In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle; she never saw her son again. She was forced to abdicate on 24 July in favour of the infant James and to appoint her illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, as regent.<ref>Guy, pp 364–65.</ref>

Regencies

The care of James was entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar, "to be conserved, nursed, and upbrought"<ref>Letter of Mary to Mar, 29 March 1567. "Suffer nor admit no noblemen of our realm or any others, of what condition soever they be of, to enter or come within our said Castle or to the presence of our said dearest son, with any more persons but two or three at the most." Quoted by Stewart, p 27.</ref> in the security of Stirling Castle.<ref>Willson, p 18; Stewart, p 33.</ref> James was crowned King of Scots at the age of thirteen months at the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling, by Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, on 29 July 1567.<ref>Croft, p 11.</ref> The sermon at the coronation was preached by John Knox. In accordance with the religious beliefs of most of the Scottish ruling class, James was brought up as a member of the Protestant Church of Scotland. The Privy Council selected George Buchanan, Peter Young, Adam Erskine, and David Erskine as James's preceptors or tutors. As the young king's senior tutor, Buchanan subjected James to regular beatings but also instilled in him a lifelong passion for literature and learning.<ref>Croft, pp 12–13.</ref> Buchanan sought to turn James into a God-fearing, Protestant king who accepted the limitations of monarchy, as outlined in his treatise De Jure Regni apud Scotos.<ref>CroftTemplate:Page needed; FraserTemplate:Page needed.</ref>

In 1568 Mary escaped from prison, leading to a brief period of violence. The Earl of Moray defeated Mary's troops at the Battle of Langside, forcing her to flee to England, where she was subsequently imprisoned by Elizabeth. On 23 January 1570, Moray was assassinated by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh.<ref>Spottiswoode, John, History of the Church in Scotland, vol. 2, Oliver & Boyd (1851), 120, (gives date in Old Style)</ref> The next regent was James's paternal grandfather, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, who a year later was carried fatally wounded into Stirling Castle after a raid by Mary's supporters.<ref>Croft, p 13.</ref> His successor, John Erskine, 1st Earl of Mar, died soon after banqueting at the estate of James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, where he "took a vehement sickness", dying on 28 October 1572 at Stirling. Morton, who now took Mar's office, proved in many ways the most effective of James's regents,<ref>Stewart, p 45; Willson, pp 28–29.</ref> but he made enemies by his rapacity.<ref name=croft15>Croft, p 15.</ref> He fell from favour when the Frenchman Esmé Stewart, Sieur d'Aubigny, first cousin of James's father Lord Darnley, and future Earl of Lennox, arrived in Scotland and quickly established himself as the first of James's powerful male favourites.<ref>Stewart, pp 51–63.</ref> Morton was executed on 2 June 1581, belatedly charged with complicity in Lord Darnley's murder.<ref>David Calderwood wrote of Morton's death: "So ended this nobleman, one of the chief instruments of the reformation; a defender of the same, and of the King in his minority, for the which he is now unthankfully dealt with." Quoted by Stewart, p 63.</ref> On 8 August, James made Lennox the only duke in Scotland.<ref>Stewart, p 63.</ref> Then fifteen years old, the king was to remain under the influence of Lennox for about one more year.<ref>Willson, p 35.</ref>

==

Personal rule in Scotland

Although a Protestant convert, Lennox was distrusted by Scottish Calvinists, who noticed the physical displays of affection between favourite and king and alleged that Lennox "went about to draw the King to carnal lust".<ref name=croft15>Croft, p 15.</ref> In August 1582, in what became known as the Ruthven Raid, the Protestant earls of Gowrie and Angus lured James into Ruthven Castle, imprisoned him,<ref>James's captors forced from him a proclamation, dated 30 August, declaring that he was not being held prisoner "forced or constrained, for fear or terror, or against his will", and that no one should come to his aid as a result of "seditious or contrary reports". Stewart, p 66.</ref> and forced Lennox to leave Scotland. After James was freed in June 1583, he assumed increasing control of his kingdom. He pushed through the Black Acts to assert royal authority over the Kirk and between 1584 and 1603 established effective royal government and relative peace among the lords, ably assisted by John Maitland of Thirlestane, who led the government until 1592.<ref>Croft, p 17, p 20.</ref> One last Scottish attempt against the king's person occurred in August 1600, when James was apparently assaulted by Alexander Ruthven, the Earl of Gowrie's younger brother, at Gowrie House, the seat of the Ruthvens.<ref>Stewart, pp 150–157.</ref> Since Ruthven was run through by James's page John Ramsay and the Earl of Gowrie was himself killed in the ensuing fracas, James' account of the circumstances, given the lack of witnesses and his history with the Ruthvens, was not universally believed.<ref>"The two principal characters were dead, the evidence of eyewitnesses was destroyed and only King James' version remained". Williams, 61; George Nicolson reported: "It is begun to be noted that the reports coming from the King should differ". Stewart, p 154. Pauline Croft calls the Gowrie plot "the most obscure of all Scottish noble conspiracies". Croft, p 45.</ref>

In 1586, James signed the Treaty of Berwick with England. That and the execution of his mother in 1587, which he denounced as a "preposterous and strange procedure", helped clear the way for his succession south of the border.<ref>James briefly broke off diplomatic relations with England over Mary's execution, but he wrote privately that Scotland "could never have been without factions if she had beene left alive". Croft, p 22.</ref> During the Spanish Armada crisis of 1588, he assured Elizabeth of his support as "your natural son and compatriot of your country",<ref>Croft, p 23.</ref> and as time passed and Elizabeth remained unmarried, securing the English succession became a cornerstone of James' policy.

Marriage

Throughout his youth, James was praised for his chastity, since he showed little interest in women; after the loss of Lennox, he continued to prefer male company.<ref>Croft, pp 23–24.</ref> A suitable marriage, however, was necessary to reinforce his monarchy, and the choice fell on the fourteen-year-old Anne of Denmark (born December 1574), younger daughter of the Protestant Frederick II. Shortly after a proxy marriage in August 1589, Anne sailed for Scotland but was forced by storms to the coast of Norway. On hearing the crossing had been abandoned, James, in what Willson calls "the one romantic episode of his life",<ref>Willson, p 85.</ref> sailed from Leith with a three-hundred-strong retinue to fetch Anne personally.<ref>James heard on 7 October of the decision to postpone the crossing for winter. Stewart, pp 107–110.</ref> The couple were married formally at the Old Bishop's Palace in Oslo on 23 November and, after stays at Elsinore and Copenhagen, returned to Scotland in May 1590. By all accounts, James was at first infatuated with Anne, and in the early years of their marriage seems always to have showed her patience and affection.<ref>Willson, pp 85–95.</ref> But between 1593 and 1595, James was romantically linked with Anne Murray, later Lady Glamis, whom he addressed in verse as "my mistress and my love". The royal couple produced three surviving children: Henry, Prince of Wales, who was to die, probably of typhoid, in 1612, aged 18; Elizabeth, later Queen of Bohemia; and Charles, the future King Charles I of England. Anne died before her husband in March 1619.

Theory of monarchy

In 1597–1598, James wrote two works, The Trew Law of Free Monarchies and Basilikon Doron (Royal Gift), in which he established an ideological base for monarchy. In the Trew Law, he sets out the divine right of kings, explaining that for Biblical reasons kings are higher beings than other men, though "the highest bench is the sliddriest to sit upon".<ref>"Kings are called gods by the prophetical King David because they sit upon God His throne in earth and have the count of their administration to give unto Him." Quoted by Willson, p 131.</ref> The document proposes an absolutist theory of monarchy, by which a king may impose new laws by royal prerogative but must also pay heed to tradition and to God, who would "stirre up such scourges as pleaseth him, for punishment of wicked kings".<ref>Croft, pp 131–133.</ref> Basilikon Doron, written as a book of instruction for the four-year-old Prince Henry, provides a more practical guide to kingship.<ref>Willson, p 133.</ref> Despite banalities and sanctimonious advice,<ref>A king, James advised, should not look like "a deboshed waster" (Croft, p135) and should avoid the company of women, "which are no other thing else but irritamenta libidinis" (Willson, p 135).</ref> the work is well-written, perhaps the best example of James's prose.<ref>"The Basilikon Doron is the best prose James ever wrote." Willson, p 132; "James wrote well, scattering engaging asides throughout the text." Croft, pp 134–5.</ref> James's advice concerning parliaments, which he understood as merely the king's "head court", foreshadows his difficulties with the English Commons: "Hold no Parliaments," he tells Henry, "but for the necesitie of new Lawes, which would be but seldome".<ref>Croft, p 133.</ref> In the Trew Law James states that the king owns his realm as a feudal lord owns his fief, because:

"[Kings arose] before any estates or ranks of men, before any parliaments were holden, or laws made, and by them was the land distributed, which at first was wholly theirs. And so it follows of necessity that kings were the authors and makers of the laws, and not the laws of the kings."<ref>Quoted by Willson, p 132.</ref>

English throne

Proclaimed King of England

From 1601, in the last years of Elizabeth I's life, certain English politicians, notably her chief minister Sir Robert Cecil,<ref>James described Cecil as "king there in effect". Croft, p 48.</ref> maintained a secret correspondence with James in order to prepare in advance for a smooth succession. In March 1603, with the Queen clearly dying, Cecil sent James a draft proclamation of his accession to the English throne. Elizabeth died in the early hours of 24 March, and James was proclaimed king in London later the same day.<ref>Croft, p 49; Willson, p 158.</ref> As James headed south, his new subjects flocked to see him, relieved that the succession had triggered neither unrest nor invasion.<ref>Croft, p 50.</ref> When he entered London, he was mobbed.<ref>Stewart, p 169.</ref> James's English coronation took place on 25 July, with elaborate allegories provided by dramatic poets such as Thomas Dekker and Ben Jonson, though an outbreak of the plague restricted festivities.<ref>Stewart, p 172.</ref>

Early reign in England

Despite the smoothness of the succession and the warmth of his welcome, James survived two conspiracies in the first year of his reign, the Bye Plot and Main Plot, which led to the arrest, among others, of Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Raleigh.<ref name = "Croft li">Croft, p 51.</ref> Those hoping for governmental change from James were at first disappointed when he maintained Elizabeth's Privy Councillors in office, as secretly planned with Cecil,<ref name = "Croft li">Croft, p 51.</ref> but James shortly added long-time supporter Henry Howard and his nephew Thomas Howard to the Privy Council, as well as five Scottish nobles.<ref> Croft, p 51; The introduction of Henry Howard, soon to be earl of Northampton, and of Thomas Howard, soon to be earl of Suffolk, marked the beginning of the rise of the Howard family to power in England, which was to culminate in their dominance of James's government after the death of Cecil in 1612. Henry Howard, son of poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, had been a diligent correspondent with James in advance of the succession (James referred to him as "long approved and trusted Howard"). His connection with James may have owed something to the attempt by his brother Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, to free and marry Mary, Queen of Scots, leading to his execution in 1572. Willson, p 156; Guy, pp 461–468. For details on the Howards, see The Trials of Frances Howard by David Lindley. On Henry Howard, a traditionally reviled figure (Willson [1956] called him "A man of dark counsels and creeping schemes, learned but bombastic, and a most fulsome flatterer". p 156) whose reputation has been upgraded in recent years (Croft, p 6), see Northampton, by Linda Levy Peck.</ref> In the early years of James's reign, the day-to-day running of the government was tightly managed by the shrewd Robert Cecil, later Earl of Salisbury, ably assisted by the experienced Thomas Egerton, whom James made Baron Ellesmere and Lord Chancellor, and by Thomas Sackville, soon Earl of Dorset, who continued as Lord Treasurer.<ref name = "Croft li">Croft, p 51.</ref> As a consequence, James was free to concentrate on the bigger policies, such as a scheme for a closer union between England and Scotland and matters of foreign-policy, as well as to enjoy his leisure pursuits, particularly the hunt.<ref name = "Croft li">Croft, p 51.</ref>

In 1604 he published A Counterblaste to Tobacco.

James was ambitious to build on the personal union of the crowns of Scotland and England to establish a permanent Union of the Crowns under one monarch, one parliament and one law, a plan which met opposition in both countries.<ref>Croft, pp 52–54.</ref> "Hath He not made us all in one island," James told the English parliament, "compassed with one sea and of itself by nature indivisible?" In April 1604, however, the Commons refused on legal grounds his request to be titled "King of Great Britain".<ref>English and Scot, James insisted, should "join and coalesce together in a sincere and perfect union, as two twins bred in one belly, to love one another as no more two but one estate". Willson, p 250.</ref> In October 1604, he assumed the title "King of Great Britain" by proclamation rather than statute, though Sir Francis Bacon told him he could not use the style in "any legal proceeding, instrument or assurance".<ref>Willson, pp 249–52.</ref>

In foreign policy, James achieved more success. Never having been at war with Spain, he devoted his efforts to bringing the long Armada war to an end, and in August 1604, thanks to skilled diplomacy on the part of Robert Cecil and Henry Howard, now earl of Northampton, a peace treaty was signed between the countries, which James celebrated by hosting a great banquet.<ref>Croft, pp 52–53.</ref> Freedom of worship for Catholics in England continued, however, to be a major objective of Spanish policy, causing constant dilemmas for James, distrusted abroad for repression of Catholics while at home being encouraged by the privy council to show even less tolerance towards them.<ref>Croft, p 118.</ref>

Under king James I, expansion of English international trade and influence was actively pursued through the British East India Company. An English settlement was already established in Bantam, Indonesia, and in 1613, following an invitation by the English adventurer in Japan William Adams, the English captain John Saris arrived at Hirado in the ship Clove with the intent of establishing a trading factory. Adams and Saris travelled to Shizuoka where they met with Tokugawa Ieyasu at his principal residence in September before moving on to Edo where they met Ieyasu's son Hidetada. During that meeting, Hidetada gave Saris two varnished suits of armor for King James I, today housed in the Tower of London.<ref>Notice at the Tower of London</ref>. On their way back, they visited again Tokugawa, who conferred trading privileges to the English through a Red Seal permit giving them "free license to abide, buy, sell and barter" in Japan.<ref>The Red Seal permit was re-discovered in 1985 by Professor Hayashi Nozomu, in the Oxford Bodleian Library. Reference</ref> The English party headed back to Hirado on October 9, 1613. However, during the ten year activity of the company between 1613 and 1623, apart from the first ship (the Clove in 1613), only three other English ships brought cargoes directly from London to Japan.

Gunpowder plot

On the eve of the state opening of the second session of James's first Parliament on 5 November 1605, a soldier named Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellars of the parliament buildings guarding a pile of wood, not far from thirty-six barrels of gunpowder with which he intended to blow up Parliament House the following day and cause the destruction, as James put it, "not only...of my person, nor of my wife and posterity also, but of the whole body of the State in general".<ref>Stewart, p 219.</ref> The sensational discovery of the Catholic Gunpowder Plot, as it quickly became known, aroused a mood of national relief at the delivery of the king and his sons which Salisbury exploited to extract higher subsidies from the ensuing Parliament than any but one granted to Elizabeth.<ref>Croft, p 64.</ref>

King and Parliament

The moment of co-operation between monarch and Parliament following the Gunpowder plot represented a deviation from the norm. Instead, it was the previous session of 1604 that shaped the attitudes of both sides for the rest of the reign, though the initial difficulties owed more to mutual incomprehension than conscious enmity.<ref>Croft, p 63.</ref> On 7 July 1604, James had angrily prorogued Parliament after failing to win its support either for full union of the crowns or financial subsidies. "I will not thank where I feel no thanks due," he had remarked in his closing speech. "...I am not of such a stock as to praise fools...You see how many things you did not well...I wish you would make use of your tolet liberty with more modesty in time to come".<ref>Quoted by Croft, p 62.</ref>

As James's reign progressed, his government faced growing financial pressures, due partly to creeping inflation<ref>Croft, p 69.</ref> but also to the profligacy and financial incompetence of James's court. In February 1610 Salisbury, a believer in parliamentary participation in government,<ref>"All wise princes, whensoever there was cause to withstand present evils or future perils...have always addressed themselves to their Parliaments." Quoted by Croft, p 76.</ref> proposed a scheme, known as the Great Contract, whereby Parliament, in return for ten royal concessions, would grant a lump sum of £600,000 to pay off the king's debts plus an annual grant of £200,000.<ref>Croft, pp 75–81.</ref> The ensuing prickly negotiations became so protracted that James eventually lost patience and dismissed Parliament on 31 December 1610. "Your greatest error," he told Salisbury, "hath been that ye ever expected to draw honey out of gall".<ref>Croft, p 80.</ref> The same pattern was repeated with the so-called "Addled Parliament" of 1614, which James dissolved after a mere eight weeks when Commons hesitated to grant him the money he required.<ref>Willson, p 348.</ref> James then ruled without parliament until 1621, employing officials such as the businessman Lionel Cranfield, who were astute at raising and saving money for the crown, and sold earldoms and other dignities, many created for the purpose, as an alternative source of income.<ref>Willson, p 409.</ref>

Spanish match

Another potential source of income was the prospect of a Spanish dowry from a marriage between Charles, Prince of Wales, and the Spanish Infanta, Maria.<ref>Willson, p 357.</ref> The policy of the Spanish Match, as it was called, also attracted James as a way to maintain peace with Spain and avoid the additional costs of a war.<ref>Simon Schama, A History of Britain, Vol. II, p 59 (New York, Hyperion, 2001).</ref> The peace benefits of the policy could be maintained as effectively by keeping the negotiations alive as by consummating the match—which may explain why James protracted the negotiations for almost a decade.<ref>J.P. Kenyon, Stuart England, pp 88–89 (Harmondsworth, England, Penguin Books, 1978).</ref> Supported by the Howards and other Catholic-leaning ministers and diplomats—together known as the Spanish Party—the policy was deeply distrusted in Protestant England.

The outbreak of the Thirty Years War, however, jeopardized James's peace policy, especially after his son-in-law, Frederick V, Elector Palatine, was ousted from Bohemia by Emperor Ferdinand II in 1620, and Spanish troops simultaneously invaded Frederick's Rhineland home territory. Matters came to a head when James finally called a parliament in 1621 to fund a military expedition in support of his son-in-law.<ref>Willson, pp 408–416.</ref> The Commons on the one hand granted subsidies inadequate to finance serious military operations in aid of Frederick,<ref>Willson, p 417.</ref> and on the other—remembering the profits gained under Elizabeth by naval attacks on gold shipments from the New World—called for a war directly against Spain. In November 1621, led by Sir Edward Coke, they framed a petition asking not only for war with Spain but also for Prince Charles to marry a Protestant, and for enforcement of the anti-Catholic laws.<ref>Willson, p 421.</ref> James flatly told them not to interfere in matters of royal prerogative or they would risk punishment,<ref>Willson, p 442.</ref> which provoked them into issuing a statement protesting their rights, including freedom of speech.<ref>James wrote: "We cannot with patience endure our subjects to use such anti-monarchical words to us concerning their liberties, except they had subjoined that they were granted unto them by the grace and favour of our predecessors." Quoted by Willson, p 423.</ref> James ripped the protest out of the record book and dissolved Parliament once again.<ref>Willson, p 243.</ref>

In 1623, Prince Charles, now 23, and Buckingham decided to seize the initiative and travel to Spain incognito,<ref>They traveled under the names Thomas and John Smith. Croft, p 118.</ref> to win the Infanta directly, but the mission proved a desperate mistake.<ref>Croft, pp 118–119.</ref> The Infanta detested Charles, and the Spanish confronted them with terms that included his conversion to Catholicism and a one-year stay in Spain as, in essence, a diplomatic hostage. The prince and duke returned to England in October without the Infanta and immediately renounced the treaty, much to the delight of the British people.<ref>Shama, p. 64. "There was an immense outbreak of popular joy, with fireworks, bell ringing and street parties." Croft, p 120.</ref> Their eyes opened by the visit to Spain, Charles and Buckingham now turned James’s Spanish policy upon its head and called for a French match and a war against the Habsburg empire.<ref>Croft, pp 120–121.</ref> To raise the necessary finance, they prevailed upon James to call another Parliament, which met in February 1623. For once, the outpouring of anti-Catholic sentiment in the Commons was echoed in court, where control of policy was shifting from James to Charles and Buckingham,<ref>"The aging monarch was no match for the two men closest to him. By the end of the year, the prince and the royal favourite spoke openly against the Spanish marriage and pressured James to call a parliament to consider their now repugnant treaties...with hindsight...the prince’s return from Madrid marked the end of the king’s reign. The prince and the favourite encouraged popular anti-Spanish sentiments to commandeer control of foreign and domestic policy." Krugler, pp 63–4.</ref> who pressured the king to declare war and engineered the impeachment of the Lord Treasurer, Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, when he opposed the plan on grounds of cost.<ref>"The lord treasurer fell not on largely unproven grounds of corruption, but as the victim of an alliance between warmongering elements at court and in Parliament." Croft, p 125.</ref> The outcome of the Parliament of 1624 was ambiguous: James still refused to declare war, but Charles believed the Commons had committed themselves to financing a war against Spain, a stance which was to contribute to his problems with Parliament in his own reign.<ref>"On that divergence of interpretation, relations between the future king and the Parliaments of the years 1625–9 were to founder." Croft, p 126.</ref>

Religious challenges

The Gunpowder Plot reinforced James's oppression of non-conforming English Catholics; and he sanctioned harsh measures for controlling them. In May 1606, Parliament passed an act which would require every citizen to take an Oath of Allegiance, incorporating a denial of the Pope's authority over the king.<ref>Stewart, p 225.</ref> James was conciliatory towards Catholics who took the Oath of Allegiance,<ref>Willson, p 228.</ref> and he tolerated crypto-Catholicism even at court.<ref> A crypto-Catholic was someone who outwardly conformed to protestantism but inwardly remained a Catholic. Henry Howard, for example, was a crypto-Catholic, received back into the Church in his final months. Before ascending the English throne, James, suspecting he might need the support of Catholics in succeeding to the throne, had assured Northumberland he would not persecute "any that will be quiet and give but an outward obedience to the law". Croft, p 162.</ref> However, in practice he enacted even harsher measures against Catholics than were laid upon them by Elizabeth. Towards the Puritan clergy, with whom he debated at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604,<ref>Croft, p 156; In the Millenary Petition of 1603, the Puritan clergy demanded, among other things, for the abolition of confirmation, wedding rings, and the term "priest", and that the wearing of cap and surplice, "outward badges of Popish errours", become optional. Willson, p 201.</ref> James was at first strict in enforcing conformity, inducing a sense of persecution amongst many Puritans;<ref>“In things indifferent,” James wrote in a new edition of Basilikon Doron, "they are seditious which obey not the magistrates". Willson, p 201, p 209; Croft, p 156; "In seeking conformity, James gave a name and a purpose to nonconformity." Stewart, p 205.</ref> but ejections and suspensions from livings became fewer as the reign wore on. A notable success of the Hampton Court Conference was the commissioning of a new translation and compilation of approved books of the Bible to confirm the divine right of kings to rule and to maintain the social hierarchy, completed in 1611, which became known as the King James Bible, considered a masterpiece of Jacobean prose.<ref>Willson, pp 213–215; Croft, p 157.</ref>

In Scotland, James attempted to bring the Scottish kirk "so neir as can be" to the English church and reestablish the episcopacy, a policy which met with strong opposition.<ref>In March 1605, Archbishop Spottiswood wrote to James warning him that sermons against bishops were being preached daily in Edinburgh. Croft, p 164.</ref> In 1618, James's bishops forced his Five Articles of Perth through a General Assembly; but the rulings were widely resisted.<ref>Croft, p 166; Willson, p 320.</ref> James was to leave the church in Scotland divided at his death, a source of future problems for his son.<ref>Historians have differed in their assessments of the kirk at James's death: some consider that the Scots might have accepted James’s policies eventually; others that James left the kirk in crisis. Croft, p 167.</ref>

Favourites

Salisbury died in 1612, little mourned by those who jostled to fill the power vacuum.<ref>Northampton, who assumed the day-to-day running of government business, spoke of "the death of the little man for which so many rejoice and few do as much as seem to be sorry." Willson, p 269.</ref> Until Salisbury's death, the Elizabethan administrative system over which he had presided continued to function with relative efficiency; from this time forward, however, James's government entered a period of decline and disrepute.<ref>"Finances fell into chaos, foreign affairs became more difficult. James exalted a worthless favourite and increased the power of the Howards. As government relaxed and honour cheapened, we enter a period of decline and weakness, of intrigue, scandal, confusion, and treachery." Willson, p 333.</ref> Salisbury's passing gave James the notion of governing in person as his own chief Minister of State, with his young Scottish favourite, Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester, carrying out many of Salisbury's former duties, but James's inability to attend closely to official business exposed the government to factionalism.<ref>Willson, pp 334–5.</ref>

The Howard party, consisting of Northampton, Suffolk, Suffolk's son-in-law Lord Knollys, and Charles Howard, earl of Nottingham, along with Sir Thomas Lake, soon took control of much of the government and its patronage. Even the powerful Carr, hardly experienced for the responsibilities thrust upon him and often dependent on his intimate friend Sir Thomas Overbury for assistance with government papers,<ref>Willson, p 349; "Packets were sent, sometimes opened by my lord, sometimes unbroken unto Overbury, who perused them, registered them, made table-talk of them, as they thought good. So I will undertake the time was, when Overbury knew more of the secrets of state, than the council-table did." Francis Bacon, speaking at Carr's trial. Quoted by Perry, p 105.</ref> fell into the Howard camp, after beginning an affair with the married Frances Howard, countess of Essex, daughter of the earl of Suffolk, whom James assisted in securing an annulment of her marriage to free her to marry Carr.<ref>The commissioners judging the case reached a 5–5 verdict, so James quickly appointed two extra judges guaranteed to vote in favour, an intervention which aroused public censure. When, after the annulment, the son of Bishop Bilson, one of the added commissioners, was knighted, he was given the nickname "Sir Nullity Bilson". Lindley, p 120.</ref> In summer 1615, however, it emerged that Sir Thomas Overbury, who on 14 September 1613 had died in the Tower of London, where he had been placed at the king's request,<ref>It is very likely that he was the victim of a 'set-up' contrived by the earls of Northampton and Suffolk, with Robert Carr's complicity, to keep him out of the way during the annulment proceedings. Sir Thomas Overbury knew too much of Carr's dealings with Frances and, motivated by a deep political hostility to the Howards, he opposed the match with a fervour that made him dangerous. It cannot have been difficult to secure James's compliance, because he disliked Sir Thomas Overbury and his influence over Robert Carr. Lindley, p 145; John Chamberlain (1553–1628) reported at the time that the king "hath long had a desire to remove him from about the lord of Rochester, as thinking it a dishonour to him that the world should have an opinion that Rochester ruled him and Overbury ruled Rochester". Willson, p 342.</ref> had been poisoned.<ref>Lindley, p 146; "Rumours of foul play involving Rochester and his wife with Overbury had, however, been circulating since his death. Indeed, almost two years later, in September 1615, and as James was in the process of replacing Rochester with a new favourite, George Villiers, the Governor of the Tower of London sent a letter to the king informing him that one of the warders in the days before Overbury had been found dead had been bringing the prisoner poisoned food and medicine." Barroll, Anna of Denmark, p 136.</ref> Among those convicted of the murder were Frances Howard and Robert Carr, the latter having been replaced as the king's favourite in the meantime by a young man called George Villiers. The implication of the king in such a scandal provoked much public and literary conjecture and irreparably tarnished James's court with an image of corruption and depravity.<ref>"Probably no single event, prior to the attempt to arrest the five members in 1642, did more to lessen the general reverence with which royalty was regarded in England than this unsavoury episode." Davies, p 20.</ref> The subsequent downfall of the Howards left George Villiers, now earl of Buckingham, unchallenged as the supreme figure in the government by 1618.<ref>Willson, p 397.</ref>

Personal relationships

Throughout his life James had close friendships with male courtiers, in particular Esmé Stewart, 6th Lord d'Aubigny (later 1st Duke of Lennox); Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset; and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. There has been debate among historians about the nature of these relationships: "The evidence of his correspondence and contemporary accounts have led some historians to conclude that the king was homosexual or bisexual. In fact, the issue is murky." (Bucholz, 2004)<ref> Bucholz, p 208 Google Book links retrieved 17 April 2007.</ref> In Basilikon Doron, James lists sodomy among crimes "ye are bound in conscience never to forgive". At age twenty-three, James and three hundred of his men performed a dramatic rescue of Anne of Denmark when she was stranded on the coast of Norway. They married and she gave birth to seven children, some sources say nine children, only three of whom survived.

Final year

During the last year of James's life, with Buckingham consolidating his control of Charles to ensure his own future, the king was often seriously ill, leaving him an increasingly peripheral figure, rarely able to visit London.<ref>Some historians (for example Willson, p 425) consider James, who was 58 in 1624, to have lapsed into premature senility; but he suffered from, among other ailments, an agonising species of arthritis which constantly left him indisposed; and Pauline Croft suggests that in summer 1624, afforded relief by the warm weather, James regained some control over his affairs, his continuing refusal to sanction war against Spain a deliberate stand against the aggressive policies of Charles and Buckingham (Croft, pp 126–127); "James never became a cypher." Croft, p 101.</ref> In early 1625, James was plagued by severe attacks of arthritis, gout and fainting fits, and in March fell seriously ill with tertian ague and then suffered a stroke. James finally died at Theobalds House on 27 March during a violent attack of dysentery, with Buckingham at his bedside.<ref>A medicine recommended by Buckingham had only served to make the king worse. "The disparity between the foreign policy of the monarch and the favourite was so obvious that there was a widespread rumour that the duke had poisoned him." Croft, pp 127–128.</ref> James’s funeral, a magnificent but disorderly affair, took place on 7 May. Bishop John Williams of Lincoln preached the sermon, observing, "King Solomon died in Peace, when he had lived about sixty years...and so you know did King James".<ref>John Williams's sermon was later printed as "Great Britain’s Salomon" (sic). Croft, pp 129–130.</ref>

Legacy

The king was widely mourned. For all his flaws, James had never completely lost the affection of his people, who had enjoyed uninterrupted peace and comparatively low taxation during the Jacobean era. "As he lived in peace," remarked the Earl of Kellie, "so did he die in peace, and I pray God our king [Charles] may follow him".<ref>Croft, p 130.</ref> The earl prayed in vain: once in power, Charles and Buckingham sanctioned a series of reckless military expeditions that ended in humiliating failure.<ref>"A 1627 mission to save the Huguenots of La Rochelle ended in an ignominious siege on the Isle of Ré, leaving the Duke as the object of widespread ridicule." Stewart, p 348.</ref> James bequeathed Charles a fatal belief in the divine right of kings, combined with a disdain for Parliament, which culminated in the English Civil War and the execution of Charles. James had often neglected the business of government for leisure pastimes, such as the hunt; and his later dependence on male favourites at a scandal-ridden court undermined the respected image of monarchy so carefully constructed by Elizabeth.<ref>Croft, p 129.</ref> The stability of James’s government in Scotland, however, and in the early part of his English reign, as well as his relatively enlightened views on religious issues and war, have earned him a re-evaluation from many recent historians, who have rescued his reputation from a tradition of criticism stemming back to the anti-Stuart historians of the mid-seventeenth century.<ref>Croft, pp 6–8.</ref>

The King James Version ("KJV") of the Bible was dedicated to him, being published in 1608 as a result of the Hampton Court Conference which he had convened to resolve issues with translations then being used. This translation of the Bible is still in widespread use today.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

19 June 1566 – 24 July 1567: Prince James
19 June 1566 – 24 July 1567: The Duke of Rothesay (Earl of Carrick, Lord Renfrew)
10 February – 24 July 1567: The Duke of Albany (Earl of Ross, Lord Ardmannoch)
24 July 1567 – 27 March 1625: His Grace James VI, King of Scots
24 March 1603 – 27 March 1625: His Majesty King James I of England

As King of England and Scots, James's full style was His Majesty, James VI, by the Grace of God King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Prior to his ascension in Scotland, his full style was Prince James Stuart, Duke of Rothesay, Duke of Albany, Earl of Carrick, Earl of Ross, Lord Renfrew, Lord Ardmannoch, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland

Children

James's wife, Anne of Denmark, gave birth to seven children who survived beyond birth:<ref>Stewart, p 140, p 142.</ref>

Henry, Prince of Wales (19 February 1594 – 6 November 1612). Died, probably of typhoid fever, aged 18.<ref>John Chamberlain (1553–1628) recorded: "It was verily thought that the disease was no other than the ordinary ague that had reigned and raged all over England". Alan Stewart writes: "Latter day experts have suggested enteric fever, typhoid fever, or porphyria, but at the time poison was the most popular explanation." Stewart, p 248.</ref>
Elizabeth of Bohemia (19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662). Married 1613, Frederick V, Elector Palatine. Died aged 65.
Margaret Stuart (24 December 1598 – March 1600). Died aged 1.
Charles I of England (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649). Married 1625, Henrietta Maria. Executed aged 48.
Robert Stuart, Duke of Kintyre (18 January 1602 – 27 May 1602). Died aged 4 months.<ref>Willson, p 452; Barroll, Anna of Denmark, p 27.</ref>
Mary Stuart (8 April 1605 – 16 December 1607). Died aged 2.
Sophia Stuart. (Died in June 1607 within 48 hours of birth.)<ref>Croft, p 55; Stewart, p 142; Sophia was buried at King Henry's Chapel in a tiny tomb shaped like a cradle. Willson, p 456.</ref>

Notes

References

Atherton, Ian; and David Como (2005). The Burning of Edward Wightman: Puritanism, Prelacy and the Politics of Heresy in Early Modern England. English Historical Review, Volume 120, December 2005, Number 489, 1215–1250. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barroll, J. Leeds (2001). Anna of Denmark, Queen of England: A Cultural Biography. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. ISBN 0812235746.
Barroll, J. Leeds and Susan P. Cerasano (1996). Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England: An Annual Gathering of Research, Criticism and Reviews. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 0838636411.
Bucholz, Robert and Newton Key (2004). Early Modern England, 1485–1714: A Narrative History. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0631213937.
Croft, Pauline (2003). King James. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-61395-3.
Davies, Godfrey ([1937] 1959). The Early Stuarts. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198217048.
Guy, John (2004). My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots. London and New York: Fourth Estate. ISBN 1-84115-752-X.
Krugler, John D. (2004). English and Catholic: the Lords Baltimore in the Seventeenth Century. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801879639.
Lindley, David (1993). The Trials of Frances Howard: Fact and Fiction at the Court of King James. Routledge. ISBN 0415052068.
Milling, Jane (2004). "The Development of a Professional Theatre", in The Cambridge History of British Theatre. Jane Milling, Peter Thomson, Joseph W. Donohue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521650402.
Noble, Mark (1795). An Historical Genealogy of the Royal House of Stuarts, from the Reign of King Robert II to that of King James VI. London: R. Faulder. Read complete digitized copy at Google Books. Retrieved 19 April 2007.
Perry, Curtis (2006). Literature and Favoritism in Early Modern England. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521854059.
Rhodes, Neil; Jennifer Richards; and Joseph Marshall (2003). King James VI and I: Selected Writings. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0754604829.
Sharpe, Kevin M. (2000). Remapping Early Modern England: The Culture of Seventeenth-century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521664098.
Smith, David L (2003). "Politics in Early Stuart Britain," in A Companion to Stuart Britain. Ed. Barry Coward. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0631218742.
Solt, Leo Frank (1990). Church and State in Early Modern England: 1509–1640. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195059794.
Stewart, Alan (2003). The Cradle King: A Life of James VI & I. London: Chatto and Windus. ISBN 0-7011-6984-2.
Stroud, Angus (1999). Stuart England. Routledge ISBN 0415206529.
Watts, Michael R (1985). The Dissenters: From the Reformation to the French Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198229569.
Williams, Ethel Carleton (1970). Anne of Denmark. London: Longman. ISBN 0 582 12783 1.
Willson, David Harris ([1956] 1963 ed). King James VI & I. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd. ISBN 0-224-60572-0.

External links

Books about James I available online

The Historie and Life of King James the Sext. Written towards the Latter Part of the Sixteenth Century by John Colville (1804)
An Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of James I and Charles I, and the Lives of Oliver Cromwell and Charles II by William Harris (1814): Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V
Memoirs of the Court of King James the First by Lucy Aikin (1822): Vol. I, Vol. II
Papers Relative to the Marriage of King James the Sixth of Scotland, with the Princess Anna of Denmark; A.D. M.D.LXXXIX., and the Form and Manner of Her Majesty's coronation at Holyroodhouse. A.D. M.D.X.C by James T. Gibson-Craig (1828)
Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court, in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I by Peter Cunningham (1842)
Original Letters Relating to the Ecclesiastical Affairs of Scotland: Chiefly Written by, or Addressed to His Majesty King James the Sixth after his Accession to the English throne (1851): Vol. I, Vol. II
Correspondence of King James VI. of Scotland with Sir Robert Cecil and Others in England, During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (1861)
The Essayes of a Prentise, in the Divine Art of Poesie. Edinburgh. 1585. A Counterblast to Tobacco. London, 1604 by King James I (1869)
The Literary Character: or, The History of Men of Genius, Drawn from their own Feelings and Confessions; Literary Miscellanies; and An Inquiry into the Character of James the First by Isaac D'Israeli (1881)
History of England from the Accesion of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil War, 1603-1642 by Samuel Rawson Gardiner (1883-1891): Volume I (1603-1607), Volume II (1607-1616), Volume III (1616-1621), Volume IV (1621-1623), Volume V (1623-1625), Volume VI (1625-1629), Volume VII (1629-1635), Volume VIII (1635-1639), Volume IX (1639-1641), Volume X (1641-1642)
Historical Sketches of Notable Persons and Events in the Reigns of James I and Charles I by Thomas Carlyle (1898 ed.)
James VI and the Gowrie Mystery by Andrew Lang (1902)
The English Church in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I. (1558-1625) by Walter Frere (1904)
The History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Restoration (1603-1660) by Francis Charles Montague (1907)
"English Witchcraft and James the First," in Five Pamphlets by George Lyman Kittredge (1911-17)
Court Masques of James I: Their Influence on Shakespeare and Public Theatres by Mary Sullivan (1913)
The Political Works of James I (1918 ed.)

External Links

King James I of England (VI of Scotland) website Contains many pages of historical information on King James I of England & VI of Scotland. (Turn speakers down before entering)

YouTube Video - The Real King James by Phil Stringer

Wikipedia Article on King James I of England

The King James Version 2023 Edition New Testament is now complete and in print format here.

Internal Links

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Why We Should Not Passover Easter 1, 2, & 3

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List of New Testament minuscules

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List of New Testament uncials

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List of New Testament lectionaries

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New book available with irrefutable evidence for the reading in the TR and KJV.

Revelation 16:5 and the Triadic Declaration - A defense of the reading of “shalt be” in the Authorized Version