James VI and I
| King James VI and I | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reign | 24 March 1603 - 27 March 1625 |
| Predecessor | Mary, Queen of Scots (Scotland) Elizabeth I (England) |
| Successor | Charles I |
| Issue | Henry Frederick, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Margaret Stuart, Charles I, Robert Stuart |
| House | Stuart |
| Father | Lord Darnley |
| Mother | Mary, Queen of Scots |
James VI of Scotland/James I of England and Ireland (Charles James Stuart) (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland and was the first to style himself King of Great Britain. He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567. Then from the 'Union of the Crowns', in England and Ireland as James I, from 24 March 1603 until his death. He was the first monarch of England from the House of Stuart, succeeding the last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I, who died without issue.
Summary
James was a successful monarch in Scotland, but the same was not true in England. He was unable to deal with a hostile Parliament and the refusal on the part of the House of Commons to impose sufficiently high taxes crippled the royal finances. His taste for political absolutism, his mismanagement of the kingdom's funds and his cultivation of unpopular favourites established the foundation for the English Civil War, during which James' son and successor, Charles I, was tried and executed. During James' own life, however, the governments of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were relatively stable.
Along with Alfred the Great, James is considered to have been one of the most intellectual and learned individuals ever to sit on the English or Scottish thrones. Under him, much of the cultural flourishing of Elizabethan England continued; science, literature and art, contributed by individuals such as Sir Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare grew by leaps and bounds during his reign. James himself was a talented scholar, writing works such as Daemonologie (1597), The True Law of Free Monarchies (1598), Basilikon Doron (1599) and A Counterblaste to Tobacco (1604). King James was known by the epithet “the wisest fool in Christendom’’.
Childhood as King James VI of Scotland
Birth
James was the only child of Mary I, Queen of Scots and of her second husband, Henry Stuart, Duke of Albany, more commonly known as Lord Darnley. James was a descendant of Henry VII through his great-grandmother Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. James' mother was an insecure ruler, as both she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion of Protestant noblemen. Their marriage, furthermore, was a particularly difficult one. While Mary was pregnant with James, Lord Darnley secretly allied himself with the rebels and murdered the Queen's private secretary, David Rizzio.
James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and as the eldest son of the monarch and heir-apparent, automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. He received the name Charles James, the first name in honour of his godfather Charles IX of France, thus becoming the first British monarch to have more than one forename.
James' father was murdered on 10 February 1567 at the Hamiltons' house, Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, perhaps to avenge Rizzio's death. Mary's marriage on 15 May of the same year to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering the Duke of Albany, contributed further to her unpopularity. In June 1567, the Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle. Mary was forced to abdicate the throne on 24 July, in favour of James, who was still a baby.
Regencies
James was formally crowned as James VI, King of Scotland at the Church of the Holy Rude,Stirling, on 29 July 1567 at the age of thirteen months. In deference to the religious beliefs of most of the Scottish ruling class, he was brought up as a member of the protestant, national Church of Scotland and educated by men with Presbyterian sympathies.
During his minority, power was held by a series of regents, the first of whom was James Stuart, 1st Earl of Moray, his mother's illegitimate half-brother. Historian and poet George Buchanan was responsible for James' education.
In 1568, Mary escaped from prison, leading to a brief period of violence. Lord Moray defeated Mary's troops at the Battle of Langside, forcing her to flee to England where she was imprisoned by Elizabeth I. Lord Moray was assassinated by one of Mary's supporters in 1570. He was succeeded by James' paternal grandfather, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, who suffered a similar fate in 1571 as did the subsequent guardian, John Erskine, 1st Earl of Mar, who died in 1572. The last of the regents was James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, who during the two previous regencies, had been the most powerful Scottish nobleman. When Lord Morton was executed in 1581 for his ostensible part in the murder of James' father, power was thenceforth held by the King himself.
Catholic uprising
James faced a Roman Catholic uprising in 1588, and was forced to reconcile with the Church of Scotland, agreeing to the repeal of the Black Acts in 1592. James, fearing that dealing too harshly with the Catholic rebels might anger many English Catholics, agreed to pardon some of his opponents, which angered the Protestant Church. In 1600, a conspiracy was formed by John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie (son of the Earl of Gowrie, executed in 1584). Upon the failure of the plot, Lord Gowrie and his associates were executed, and even the Protestant nobles began to be repressed by the King.
Ascent to the throne of England
Relationship with Elizabeth I
In 1586, James VI and Elizabeth I became allies under the Treaty of Berwick. James sought to remain in the favour of the unmarried Queen of England, as he was a potential successor to her Crown. Because Henry VIII had feared that the English Crown would go to a Scot, in his will, he excluded Margaret Tudor, James' great grandmother, and her descendants from the line of succession. Although technically excluded by the will—which, under an Act of Parliament, had the force of law—both Mary, Queen of Scots and James were serious claimants to the English Crown, as they were Elizabeth I's closest relatives.
Also in 1586, Mary was implicated in the Babington Plot, a scheme which sought to put her on the throne of England after murdering Elizabeth. Elizabeth had previously spared Mary's life after the Ridolfi Plot but could no longer tolerate the danger she posed. Consequently, Mary was executed for her crimes in 1587. But for the will of Henry VIII, James was the Heir Presumptive to the English Crown.
Marriage
Following Mary's execution and the decline of her sympathisers in Scotland, James managed to reduce significantly the influence of the Roman Catholic nobles in Scotland. He further endeared himself to Protestants by marrying Anne of Denmark and Norway—a princess from a Protestant country and daughter of Frederick II of Denmark and Norway—by proxy in 1589. Another marriage ceremony, this time with both parties personally present, occurred on 23 November 1589 in the Old Bishops' Palace in Oslo during James' visit to the Kingdom of Norway.
The couple produced eight living children and one who was stillborn. Only three survived infancy, Henry, Prince of Wales who died of typhoid in 1612 aged 19, Charles who was to succede his father as Charles I and Elizabeth of Bohemia.
Witch trials and Sodomy Act
James returned from Denmark via Leith on 1 May, and soon after, he attended the North Berwick Butt Trial, in which several people were convicted of having used witchcraft to create a storm in an attempt to sink the ship on which James and Anne had been travelling. James became obsessed with the threat that witches and witchcraft might pose to him and his country. During this period, he wrote a treatise on demonology, as a result of which hundreds of Scottish men and women were put to death for witchcraft, their bodies later being found in what was then called Nor Loch, now Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh.
Intent on strengthening the Church of England and reaffirming the Buggery Act 1533, James adopted a severe stance towards sodomy. His book on kingship, Basilikon Doron 1598, lists sodomy among those “horrible crimes which ye are bound in conscience never to forgive.”
Proclaimed James I of England
Upon the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, under the terms of Henry's will, the Crown should have passed to Lady Anne Stanley, a descendant of Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor. (Elizabeth's second cousin once-removed, Viscount Beauchamp, son of Lady Catherine Grey, was more senior, but he was considered illegitimate because his parents' marriage was annulled.)
As neither Beauchamp nor Lady Anne nor any other was powerful enough to defend a claim, an Accession Council met and proclaimed James King of England. He and his wife were crowned on 25 July 1603 at Westminster Abbey. Scotland and England remained separate states (see Personal union); it was not until 1707 that the Acts of Union merged the two nations to create a new state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Early reign in England
Political challenges
James' chief political advisor was Robert Cecil, 1st Baron Cecil of Essendon (the younger son of Elizabeth I's favoured minister, Lord Burghley), who was created Earl of Salisbury in 1605. This relationship ought to have provided continuity between the parliament of Elizabeth and that of James.
However, James I embroiled himself in numerous conflicts with Parliament. Being accustomed to a timid Parliament of Scotland, he did not like working with its more aggressive English counterpart. Before his accession to the English throne, he had written The True Law of Free Monarchies, in which he argued that the divine right of kings was sanctioned by the apostolic succession, and which illustrates James' difficulty in sharing the power of his government. Such scholarly work would earn him the title 'The Scottish Solomon'; however, historians such as J.P. Kenyon suggest that the title was often used sarcastically, citing a rumour that Henri IV of France, upon hearing the title used, commented "'that he hoped he was not David the fiddler's son' - a reference to Mary Stuart's music-loving secretary, David Rizzio" and to the fact that the biblical Solomon, with his fabled wisdom, was the son of King David, a harpist and composer
On October 20th, 1604, James proclaimed himself styled "King of Great Britain", the first monarch to do so [1], although the United Kingdom of Great Britain would not exist until the Acts of Union in 1707.
Conflicts with Parliament
In 1605, Parliament voted four subsidies to the King, who still considered this to be inadequate revenue. He imposed customs duties without parliamentary consent, although no monarch had taken so bold a step since the reign of Richard II (1377-1399). The legality of such an action was challenged in 1606 by the merchant John Bates; the Court of Exchequer, however, ruled in the King's favour. The decision of the court was denounced by Parliament. Relations between James I and Parliament were also soured by the latter's refusal to pass the King's plan to allow free trade between England and Scotland.
In the last session of the first Parliament of his reign (which began in 1610), Lord Salisbury proposed the Great Contract, which would have led to the Crown giving up feudal dues in return for an annual parliamentary subsidy. The plan failed because of factionalism in Parliament. Frustrated by the members of the House of Commons and by the collapse of the Great Contract, James dissolved Parliament in 1611.
With the Crown deep in debt, James blatantly sold honours and titles to raise funds. In 1611, he used letters patent to invent a completely new dignity: that of Baronet, which one could become upon the payment of £1,080. One could become a Baron for about £5,000, a Viscount for about £10,000, and an Earl for about £20,000. James created new dignities to reward his courtiers. In total, sixty-two individuals were raised to the English Peerage by James, in contrasted to Elizabeth, who created eight new peers during her 45-year reign.
The Addled Parliament
In 1612, Lord Salisbury, one of James' chief advisors, died. James then began to involve himself in matters previously handled by his ministers but his personal government was disastrous for his finances, and a new Parliament had to be called in 1614 in order to obtain the imposition of new taxes. This Parliament, the second of James' reign, was known as the Addled Parliament because it failed to pass any legislation or impose any taxes. James angrily dissolved Parliament when it became clear that no progress could be made. Subsequently, James ruled without a Parliament for seven years. Faced with financial difficulties he sought to enter into a profitable alliance with Spain by marrying his eldest surviving son, Charles, Prince of Wales, to the daughter of the King of Spain. The proposed alliance with a Roman Catholic kingdom was not well-received in Protestant England. James' unpopularity increased with the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Religious challenges
Upon James I’s arrival in London, he was almost immediately faced by religious conflicts in England. He was presented with the Millenary Petition, a document which it is claimed contained one thousand signatures, by Puritans requesting further Anglican Church reform. He accepted the invitation to a conference in Hampton Court, which was subsequently delayed due to the Plague. In 1604, at the Hampton Court Conference, James was unwilling to agree to most of their demands. He did, however, agree to fulfil a request which was to have far-reaching effect by authorizing an official translation of the Bible, which came to be known as the King James Bible.
During this year, James broadened Elizabeth's Witchcraft Act to bring the penalty of death without benefit of clergy to any one who invoked evil spirits or communed with familiar spirits. That same year, he ended England's involvement in the twenty year conflict known as the Anglo-Spanish War by signing the Treaty of London.
Relationships with Roman Catholicism
Though James was careful to accept Catholics in his realm, his Protestant subjects ensured that they would not get equal rights. In the early years of his reign, many of his subjects did not know his policies—only that he had an extreme Protestant background—there were a number of plots to remove him from power, such as the Bye Plot and the Main Plot.
Gunpowder, treason and plot
In 1605, a group of Catholic extremists led by Robert Catesby developed a plan, known as the Gunpowder Plot, to cause an explosion in the chamber of the House of Lords, where the King and members of both Houses of Parliament would be gathered for the State Opening. The conspirators sought to replace James with his daughter, Elizabeth, whom, they hoped, could be forced to convert to Catholicism. One of the conspirators, however, leaked information regarding the plot, which was consequently foiled.
Terrified, James refused to leave his residence for many days. Guy Fawkes, whose responsibility had been to execute the plot, was tortured on the rack until he revealed the identities of the other conspirators, all of whom were executed or killed during capture. Fawkes is still annually burned in effigy during Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night), celebrated in the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, to commemorate the failed plot. James' care not to strongly enforce anti-Catholic doctrine thereafter ensured that there were no more plots after 1605.
Later years
Continuing problems with Parliament
The third and penultimate Parliament of James' reign was summoned in 1621. The House of Commons agreed to grant James a small subsidy to signify their loyalty, but then, to the displeasure of the King, moved on to personal matters directly involving the King. The practice of selling monopolies and other privileges was also deprecated. The House of Commons sought to impeach Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, who was implicated in the sale of such privileges during his service as Lord Chancellor, on charges of corruption. The House of Lords convicted Bacon, who was duly removed from office. Although the impeachment was the first in centuries, James did not oppose it, believing that sacrificing Bacon could help deflect parliamentary opposition. In the end, James released Bacon from prison and granted him a full pardon.
Thirty Year’s War
From 1618 onwards, the religious conflict known as the Thirty Years' War engulfed Europe. James was forced to become involved because his daughter, Elizabeth, was married to the Protestant Frederick V, Elector Palatine, one of the war's chief participants. He was also put under pressure to join the religious war because England, at the time, was one of the major protestant nations.
A new constitutional dispute arose as a result. James was eager to aid his son-in-law, the Elector-Palatine, and requested Parliament for a subsidy. The House of Commons, in turn, requested that the King abandon the alliance with Spain. When James declared that the lower House had overstepped its bounds by offering unsolicited advice, the House of Commons passed a protest claiming that it had the right to debate any matter relating to the welfare of the Kingdom. James ordered the protest torn out of the Commons Journal, and dissolved Parliament.
Relationship with Spain
In 1623, the Duke of Buckingham and Charles, the Prince of Wales, travelled to Madrid in an attempt to secure a marriage between the latter and the Infanta. They were snubbed, however, by the Spanish courtiers, who demanded that Charles convert to Roman Catholicism. They returned to England humiliated, and called for war with Spain. When James' Spanish marriage plot failed, a humiliated Prince Charles and George Villiers urged James and his parliament to go to war. From a financial perspective, James could not afford to go to war with Spain. England would eventually join the war after James had died.
The Church in Scotland
In Scotland, James' attempt to move the Church, whose form of worship tended to be based on free-form Calvinism, in a more structured High Church direction with the introduction of the Five Articles of Perth, met with widespread popular resistance. Always the practical politician in Scottish matters, the king, while insisting on the form of the law, did little to ensure its observance.
Personal relationships
Nonconformists said of him "Elizabeth was King: now James is Queen" and this quote has survived [2].
James did not know his father as a child and had little opportunity to know his mother. Throughout his life he relied heavily on his male courtiers, beginning with his older relative Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox. James was a self-absorbed man and not much interested in his wife. At first, James and Queen Anne were close, but gradually they drifted apart. After the death of their daughter Sophia they agreed to live separately.
Despite his early condemnation of sodomy, James was to have close and documented relationships with two young men. In 1607, at a royal jousting contest, seventeen-year-old Robert Carr, the son of Sir Thomas Carr or Kerr of Ferniehurst, was knocked from a horse and broke his leg. According to the Earl of Suffolk, Thomas Howard, James fell in love with the young man, and as the years progressed showered Carr with gifts.
In 1614 James met George Villiers, then the son of a Leicestershire knight. The King wrote to Villiers: "I desire only to live in this world for your sake... God bless you, my sweet child and wife, and grant that ye may ever be a comfort to your dear dad and husband." (Bergeron, King James, p175) James bestowed a multitude of honours upon Villiers, culminating with creating him Duke of Buckingham in 1623, making him the first commoner to be elevated to a dukedom in more than a century.
In 1615 James fell out with Carr and wrote a letter detailing a list of complaints. The following year Carr and his new wife were convicted of poisoning a prisoner in the Tower of London and sentenced to death, though the King later commuted the sentence to six years and then pardoned them and granted the pair a country estate.
The question of James' sexuality was a point of controversy during his lifetime and has remained so.
Deaths
Queen Anne died on 4 March 1619 at Hampton Court Palace and was buried at Westminster Abbey.
James lapsed into senility during the last year of his reign. Real power passed to Charles and to the Duke of Buckingham, although James kept enough power to ensure that a new war with Spain did not occur while he was King. James died at Theobalds House in 1625 of 'tertian ague' probably brought upon by kidney failure and stroke, and was buried in the Henry VII Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey. Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded him as Charles I. James had ruled in Scotland for almost sixty years; no English, Scottish or British monarch, with the exceptions of Victoria and George III, has surpassed his mark.
Legacy
Historical
Almost immediately after James I's death, Charles I became embroiled in disputes with Parliament. The disputes escalated until the English Civil War began during the 1640s, culminating in Charles I's execution for treason. The following Parliamentary period lasted for eleven years, 1649-1660. The Stuart dynasty was restored in 1660 with Charles I's son, Charles II coming to the throne. Some historians, particularly whig historians, blame James for the Civil War. However, the general view now is that Charles I was more responsible for the state of affairs in 1640 than his predecessor.
Religious and literary
James I’s religious tolerance, compared with that of his predecessors, permitted the continued existence of Catholicism in England and Scotland, the continuation of Calvinism in Scotland and the growth of Puritanism in England, while encouraging liturgical formality and ‘’High Church’’ practices.
The ‘’King James Bible’’ became the standard edition of the Bible throughout the English-speaking world, replacing the Great Bible of Henry VIII, the Geneva Bible and other translations. The beauty of its language makes it stand as one of the greatest works of English literature.
On the other hand, James’ paranoia over witchcraft eventually contributed, during the Parliamentary period, to the appointment of Matthew Hopkins, Witch-finder General, and the execution of many people, mostly women, often for no greater crime than being widowed and owning a cat.[citation needed]
Shakespeare continued to write under James I as he had in the reign of Elizabeth. It is not surprising that one of his most popular plays Macbeth, shows a would-be monarch beset by witches. Shakespeare’s witches, however, fulfil a prophetic role; it is personal ambition that causes the ensuing chaos, not spells and incantations.
The king also designed the British flag in 1603 by combining England's red cross of St. George with Scotland's white cross of St. Andrew. [3] Some conclude that the term Union Jack may have come from James' name, Jac meaning Jacobus which is Latin for James, i.e. King Jac's Union [4].
Geographical
In the Virginia Colony in the New World, the Jamestown Settlement, established in 1607, and the James River were named in honour of James I. In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale named his new promising "Citie of Henricus" (sic) in honour of his son, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who died in 1612. Although Henricus was wiped out in the Indian Massacre of 1622, its naming survives as Henrico County, Virginia in modern times.
Criticism and revisionism
Lacey Baldwin Smith in "This Realm of England” talks about James’ paternalism and political absolutism, including the breaking of traditional ties between the monarchy and old families, in order to decrease the political power of Catholicism. Despite his unpopularity with both Catholics and Puritans, Lacey Baldwin Smith indicates that it was his currying favour with those whom he felt could politically help him that earned the title of “The wisest fool in Christendom.”
Traditionally, Historians such as Samuel Rawson Gardiner and D. H. Wilson viewed James I as a poor King. This interpretation was almost solely depended on the writings of Sir Anthony Weldon. Weldon, dismissed by James for his writings against Scotland, wrote 'The Court and Character of King James'. This book influenced early 20th century historians who overlooked Weldon's bias.
Miriam Allen deFord, in her study, The Overbury Affair, writes “This slobbering, lolling King, …. a glutton and a spendthrift … came to England as a man comes to a banquet; he left government to others and occupied himself with processional visits, routs, and masques. And freed from the firm hand of Elizabeth, the courtiers ran riot, and provided under James’ influence one of the most corrupt and dissolute courts in English history.” (5)
Recent historical revisionism has argued to the contrary. Historians Gordon Donaldson and Jenny Wormald have argued for a revision of opinion towards King James in the light of his successful rule in Scotland. A changed view of him has emerged since the 1970s.
Style and arms
Formally, James was styled "James, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc." (The claim to the Throne of France, which had been maintained since the reign of Edward III, was merely nominal.) By a proclamation of 1604, James assumed the style "James, King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc." for non-statutory use.
James' English arms, whilst he was King of England and Scotland, were: 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). James also introduced the unicorn, a symbol of Scotland, as an heraldic supporter in his armorial achievement; the other supporter remained the English lion. In Scotland, his arms were: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); II Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland), with one of the unicorns of Scotland being replaced as a heraldic supporter by a lion.
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Henry, Prince of Wales | 19 February 1594 | 6 November 1612 | |
| Unnamed child | July 1595 | July 1595 | |
| Elizabeth Stuart | 19 August 1596 | 13 February 1662 | married 1613, Frederick V, Elector Palatine; had issue |
| Margaret Stuart | 24 December 1598 | March 1600 | |
| Charles I | 19 November 1600 | 30 January 1649 | married 1625, Henrietta Maria; had issue |
| Robert, Duke of Kintyre | 18 February 1602 | 27 May 1602 | |
| Unnamed son | May 1603 | May 1603 | |
| Mary Stuart | 8 April 1605 | 16 December 1607 | |
| Sophia Stuart | 22 June 1606 | 28 June 1606 |
References
Sources
- Chambers, Robert. (1856). Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. "James VI." London: Blackie and Son.
- The Descendants of James VI & I of England & Scotland.
- Fraser, Antonia. (1974). King James VI of Scotland and James I of England. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
- Lee, Maurice. (1990). England's Solomon: James VI and I in his Three Kingdoms. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
- Stewart, Alan. (2003). The Cradle King. New York: St. Martin's Press.
- Williamson, D. (1998). The Kings and Queens of England. New York: National Portrait Gallery.
- Willson, David Harris. (1956). King James VI & I. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
External links
- James I Chronology
- Luminarium: King James VI & I
- Proclamation styling James I King of Great Britain on October 20, 1604
- Works by James I of England at Project Gutenberg
- King James, at the Gunpowder Plot Society website
- King James I at Find A Grave
- A site with copious amounts of information on King James
See also
