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King James VI and I
King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland
James I of England from the period 1603-1613, by Paulus van Somer I (1576-1621)
Reign	24 July, 1567 - 27 March, 1625 (Scotland) 24 March, 1603 - 27 March, 1625 (England and Ireland)
Predecessor	Mary, Queen of Scots (Scotland) Elizabeth I (England)
Successor	Charles I
Burial	Westminster Abbey
Issue	Henry Frederick, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Margaret Stuart, Charles I, Robert Stuart, Mary Stuart, Sophia Stuart.
House	Stuart
Father	Lord Darnley
Mother	Mary I

James VI and I (James Stuart) (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland.

He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old. Regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government until 1581. On 24 March 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England, Elizabeth I, who died without issue. He then ruled England, Scotland and Ireland for 22 years, until his death at the age of 58.

James 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. According to a tradition originating with historians of the mid-seventeenth-century, James's taste for political absolutism, his financial irresponsibility, and his cultivation of unpopular favourites established the foundation for the English Civil War. Recent historians, however, have revised James's reputation and treated him as a serious and thoughtful monarch.

Under James, the "Golden Age" of Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such William Shakespeare, 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) and Basilikon Doron (1599). Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed "the wisest fool in Christendom", an epithet associated with his character ever since.

Childhood as King James VI of Scotland

Birth

James was the only child of Mary, Queen of Scots and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Duke of Albany, commonly known as Lord Darnley. James was a descendant of Henry VII through his great-grandmother Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. Mary's rule over Scotland was insecure, for both she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. Their marriage 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. Elizabeth I of England, as godmother in absentia, sent a magnificent gold font as a christening gift.

James's father Henry was murdered on 10 February 1567 at the Hamiltons' house, Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge for Rizzio's death. Mary's marriage on 15 May, also in 1567, to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering him, increased her unpopularity. 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.

Regencies

The care of James was entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar, "to be conserved, nursed, and upbrought" in the security of Stirling Castle. The boy was formally crowned at the age of thirteen months as King James VI of Scotland at the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling, on 19 July 1567. The sermon was preached by the Geneva Calvinist John Knox. And, in accordance with the religious beliefs of most of the Scottish ruling class, James was brought up as a member of the Protestant national Church of Scotland, his education supervised by historian and poet George Buchanan, who subjected him to regular beatings but also instilled in him a lifelong passion for literature and learning.

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 22 January 1570, Moray was assassinated by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, to be succeeded as regent by 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. The next regent, 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, but he made enemies by his rapacity. 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. Morton was executed on 2 June 1581, belatedly charged with complicity in Lord Darnley's murder. On 8 August, James made Lennox a duke, the only one in Scotland. Now fifteen years old, the king was to remain under the influnce of Lennox for about one more year.

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". 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, and forced Lennox to leave Scotland. After James was freed in June 1583, he assumed increasing control of his monarchy. 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. 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. Since Ruthven was run through by James's page John Ramsay and the Earl of Gowrie was himself killed in the ensuing fracas, James's account of the circumstances, given the lack of witnesses and his history with the Ruthvens, was not universally believed.

In 1586, James signed the Treaty of Berwick with England; 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. During the Spanish Armada crisis of 1588, he assured Elizabeth of his support as "your natural son and compatriot of your country"; and as time passed and Elizabeth remained unmarried, the securing the English succession became a cornerstone of James's policy.

Marriage

Throughout his youth, James was praised for his chastity, since he showed little interest in women; and after the loss of Lennox, he continued to prefer male company. A suitable marriage, however, was necessary to reinforce his monarchy, and the choice fell on the fourteen-year-old Anne of Denmark (born October 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 Oslo. On hearing the news, James, in what Willson calls "the one romantic episode of his life", sailed from Leith with a three-hundred-strong retinue to fetch her personally. The couple were married formally at the Old Bishops' Palace in Oslo on 23 November and, after a stay in 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. The 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 predeceased her husband in March 1619.

Witchcraft

James's visit to Denmark, a country familiar with witchhunts, may have encouraged his interest in the study of witchcraft, which he considered a branch of theology. Soon after his return from Denmark, he attended the trial of the North Berwick Witches, in which several people were convicted of using witchcraft to send a storm against the ship that had carried James and Anne from Denmark. James became obsessed with the threat posed by witches and witchcraft and in 1597 wrote the Daemonologie, a tract in favour of the existence of witchcraft; but later, his views became less extreme, tending more towards scepticism on the matter.

Theory of monarchy

In 1597–8, 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". 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". Basilikon Doron, written as a book of instruction for the four-year-old Prince Henry, provides a more practical guide to kingship. Despite banalities and sanctimonious advice, the work is well-written, perhaps the best example of James's prose. 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". In the Trew Law James states that the king owns his realm as a feudal lord owns his fief, because:

" 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."

The 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, maintained a secret correspondence with James in order to prepare in advance for a smooth succession. Cecil advised James not to press the matter of the succession upon the queen but simply to treat her with kindness and respect. The approach proved effective: "I trust that you will not doubt," Elizabeth wrote to James, "but that your last letters are so acceptably taken as my thanks cannot be lacking for the same, but yield them you in grateful sort." In March 1603, with the queen clearly dying, Cecil sent James a draft proclamation of his accession to the English throne. Strategic fortresses were put on alert, and London placed under guard. Elizabeth died in the early hours of 24 March. Within eight hours, James was proclaimed king in London, the news received without protest or disturbance.

On 5 April 1603, James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return every three years (a promise which was not kept), and progessed slowly from town to town, in order to arrive in the capital after Elizabeth's funeral. Local lords received James with lavish hospitality along the route; and James's new subjects flocked to see him, relieved above all that the succession had triggered neither unrest nor invasion. As James entered London, he was mobbed. The crowds of people, one observer reported, were so great that "they covered the beauty of the fields; and so greedy were they to behold the King that they injured and hurt one another." James's English coronation took place on 11 July, with elaborate allegories provided by dramatic poets such as Thomas Dekker and Ben Jonson, though the festivities had to be restricted because of an outbreak of the plague. Nevertheless, all London turned out for the occasion: "The streets seemed paved with men," wrote Dekker. "Stalls instead of rich wares were set out with children, open casements filled up with women".

The kingdom to which James succeeded was, however, not without its problems. The oppressive system of monopolies and taxation, for example, had engendered a widespread sense of grievance, and the costs of the war in Ireland had become a heavy burden on the government.

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. 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, but James shortly added long-time supporter Henry Howard and his nephew Thomas Howard to the Privy Council, as well as five Scottish nobles. 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. As a consequence, James was free to concentrate on the bigger issues, such as a scheme for a closer union between England and Scotland and foreign-policy issues, as well as to enjoy his leisure pursuits, particularly the hunt.

James was ambitious to build on the personal union of the crowns of Scotland and England (the Union of the Crowns) to establish a complete and permanent union of the two realms under one monarch, one parliament and one law, a plan which met opposition in both countries. "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". A disappointed James retorted: "I am not ashamed of my project, neither have I deferred it (I be to deal plainly) out of a liking of the judges' reasons or uses". 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". The decision was a sign that where he lacked the consent of the Commons for his policies, James intended, unlike his predecessor, to resort to the royal prerogative.

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. Freedom of worship for Catholics in England continued, however, to be a major objective of Spanish policy, which caused constant dilemmas for James, distrusted abroad for repression of Catholics and at home for tolerance towards them.

Gunpowder plot

On the eve of the state opening of the second session of James's first Parliament on 5 November 1605, a soldier from the Netherlands called Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellars of the parliament buildings guarding a pile of faggots, not far from about twenty 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". The sensational discovery of the 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.

King and Parliament

The session following the Gunpowder plot, however, provided an untypical moment of co-operation between monarch and Parliament; the previous session of 1604 may be seen instead as shaping the attitudes of both sides for the rest of the reign, though the initial difficulties owed more to mutual incomprehension than conscious enmity. 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 liberty with more modesty in time to come".

As James's reign progressed, his government faced growing financial pressures, some resulting from creeping inflation; but profligacy and financial incompetence on James's part contributed substantially to the mounting debt. Salisbury, a believer in parliamentary participation in government, in February 1610 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. The prickly negotiations proved 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". 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. 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.

The 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. The policy of the Spanish Match, as it was called, was supported by the Howards and other Catholic-leaning ministers and diplomats—together known as the Spanish Party—but deeply distrusted in Protestant England, a sentiment voiced vociferously in the Commons when James finally called a parliament in 1621 to raise funds for a military expedition in support of his son-in-law, Frederick V, Elector Palatine, who had been ousted from Prague by Emperor Ferdinand II in 1620. The Commons on the one hand granted subsidies inadequate to finance serious military operations in aid of Frederick, and on the other called for a war directly against Spain. In November 1621, led by Sir Edward Coke, they framed a petition asking not only for a war with Spain but for Prince Charles to marry a Protestant, and for enforcement of the anti-Catholic laws. James flatly told them not to interfere in matters of royal prerogative or they would risk punishment, which provoked them into issuing a statement protesting their rights, including freedom of speech. Urged on by Buckingham and the Spanish ambassador Gondomar, James ripped the protest out of the record book and dissolved Parliament once again.

In 1623, Prince Charles, now 23, and Buckingham, decided to seize the initiative and travel to Spain incognito, to win the Infanta directly, but the mission proved a desperate mistake. Though a secret treaty was signed, the prince and duke returned to England in October without the Infanta, much to the delight of the British people. Their eyes opened by their 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 Hapsburg empire. 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 had shifted from James to Charles and Buckingham, who pressured the king to declare war and engineered the impeachment and imprisonment of the Lord Treasurer, Cranfield, who was by that point Earl of Middlesex, when he opposed the idea on grounds of cost. 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.

Religious challenges

The Gunpowder Plot forced James to reconsider his tolerant policy towards English Catholics; and for a while he sanctioned stricter measures to control them. In May 1606, Parliament passed an act which could require any citizen to take an Oath of Allegiance, incorporating a denial of the pope's authority over the king. In practice, James proved lenient towards Catholic laymen who took the Oath of Allegiance, and he tolerated Catholicism and crypto-Catholicism even at court. Towards the Puritan clergy, with whom he debated at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, James was at first strict in enforcing conformity, inducing a sense of persecution amongst many Puritans; 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 of the Bible, completed in 1611, which became known as the King James Bible, considered a masterpiece of Jacobean prose. 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. In 1618, James's bishops forced his Five Articles of Perth through a General Assembly; but the rulings were widely resisted. James was to leave the church in Scotland divided at his death, a source of future problems for his son.

Favourites

Salisbury died in 1612, little mourned by those who jostled to fill the power vacuum. 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. 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.

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, unfitted for the responsibilities thrust upon him and often dependent on his intimate friend Sir Thomas Overbury for assistance with government papers, 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. In summer 1615, 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, had been poisoned. 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. The subsequent downfall of the Howards left George Villiers, now earl of Buckingham, unchallenged as the supreme figure in the government by 1618.

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. 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. 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".

Assessment

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 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 may follow him". The earl prayed in vain: once in power, Charles and Buckingham sanctioned a series of reckless military expeditions that ended in humiliating failure. 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. 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.

Children

James's wife, Anne of Denmark, gave birth to seven children who survived beyond childbirth:

1. Henry, Prince of Wales (19 February 1594 – 6 November 1612). Died, probably of typhoid fever, aged 18.
2. Elizabeth of Bohemia (19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662). Married 1613, Frederick V, Elector Palatine. Died aged 65.
3. Margaret Stuart (24 December 1598 – March 1600). Died in second year.
4. Charles I of England (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649). Married 1625, Henrietta Maria. Executed aged 48.
5. Robert Stuart, Duke of Kintyre (18 January 1602 – 27 May 1602). Died aged 4 months.
6. Mary Stuart (8 April 1605 – 16 December 1607). Died aged 2.
7. Sophia Stuart (Died June 1607, within 48 hours of birth).

Genealogical table

Notes

1. Stewart, p 47; Croft, p 16; Willson, pp 29–31.
2. James's claim to the English throne, as the great great grandson of Henry VII, was far superior to any other. However, Henry VIII's will had passed over the Scottish line of his sister Margaret Tudor in favour of that of their younger sister Mary Tudor. In the event, Henry's will was successfully challenged. Stewart, pp 159–161; Willson, pp 138–141.
3. After the personal union of the three crowns, James was the first to style himself "King of Great Britain", but the title was rejected by the English Parliament and had no basis in law. The Parliament of Scotland also opposed it. Croft, p 67; Willson, pp 249–52. See also: Union Jack.
4. For a summary of historians' differing interpretations of James's reigns, see the introduction to Pauline Croft's King James. Much recent scholarship has emphasised James's success in Scotland (though there have been partial dissenters, such as Michael Lynch), and there is an emerging appreciation of James's successes in the early part of his reign in England. Croft, pp 1–9.
5. Over the last three hundred years, the king's reputation has suffered from the acid description of him by Sir Anthony Weldon, whom James had sacked and who wrote treatises on James in the 1650s. "Often witty and perceptive but also prejudiced and abusive, their status as eye-witness accounts and their compulsive readability led too many historians to take them at face value." Croft, pp 3–4. Other influential anti-James histories written during the 1650s include: Sir Edward Peyton, Divine Catastrophe of the Kingly Family of the House of Stuarts (1652); Arthur Wilson, History of Great Britain, Being the Life and Reign of King James I (1658); and Francis Osborne, Historical Memoirs of the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James (1658). See, Lindley, p 44, for more on the influence of Commonwealth historians on the tradition of tracing Charles I's errors back to his father's reign.
6. "Historians have returned to reconsidering James as a serious and intelligent ruler". Croft, p 6; "In contrast to earlier historians, recent research on his reign has tended to emphasize the wisdom and downplay the foolishness." Smith, p 238.
7. Milling, p 155.
8. "James VI and I was the most writerly of British monarchs. He produced original poetry, as well as translation and a treatise on poetics; works on witchcraft and tobacco; meditations and commentaries on the Scriptures; a manual on kingship; works of political theory; and, of course, speeches to parliament...He was the patron of Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, and the translators of the "Authorized version" of the Bible, surely the greatest concentration of literary talent ever to enjoy royal sponsorship in England." Rhodes et al, p 1.
9. "A very wise man was wont to say that he believed him the wisest fool in Christendom, meaning him wise in small things, but a fool in weighty affairs." Sir Anthony Weldon (1651), The Court and Character of King James I, quoted by Stroud, p 27; "The label 'the wisest fool in Christendom', often attributed to Henri IV of France but possibly coined by Anthony Weldon, catches James’s paradoxical qualities very neatly." Smith, p 238.
10. Margaret Tudor was the mother of Margaret Douglas, the future countess of Lennox and mother of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. She was also the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots, through her son James V. Guy, p 54.
11. Guy, pp 236–7, pp 241–2, p 270.
12. Guy, pp 248–50.
13. Croft, p 11.
14. Elizabeth I of England 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 312–313. 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.
15. Guy, pp 364–5.
16. 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.
17. Willson, p 18; Stewart, p 33.
18. Croft, p 11.
19. Croft, pp 12–13.
20. Croft, p 13.
21. Stewart, p 45; Willson, pp 28–29.
22. Croft, p 15.
23. Stewart, pp 51–63; Throughout his life James had close relationships with male courtiers, which has caused debate among historians about their nature: "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, p 208; In Basilikon Doron, James lists sodomy among crimes "ye are bound in conscience never to forgive". Sharpe, p 171; "The same pattern repeated itself with these men as had earlier been the case with Esmé Stuart. The evidence suggests that both had a physical liaison with their sovereign". Barroll and Ceresano (ed), p 239. Google Book links retrieved 17 April 2007. See also main article: Personal relationships of James I of England.
24. 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.
25. Stewart, p 63.
26. Willson, p 35.
27. Croft, p 15.
28. 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.
29. Croft, p 17, p 20.
30. Stewart, pp 150–157.
31. 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.
32. 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.
33. Croft, p 23.
34. Croft, pp 23–24.
35. Willson, p 85.
36. Willson, pp 85–95.
37. Croft, p 26; Willson, p 103.
38. Willson pp 103–5.
39. Sometime after 1599, James wrote to Prince Henry to congratulate him on "the discovery of yon little counterfeit wench. I pray God ye may be my heir in such discoveries". Croft, p 27.
40. "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.
41. Croft, pp 131–133.
42. Willson, p 133.
43. 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).
44. "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.
45. Croft, p 133.
46. Quoted by Willson, p 132.
47. James described Cecil as "king there in effect". Croft, p 48.
48. Cecil wrote that James should "secure the heart of the highest, to whose sex and quality nothing is so improper as either needless expostulations or over much curiosity in her own actions, the first showing unquietness in yourself, the second challenging some untimely interest in hers; both which are best forborne." Willson, pp 154–155.
49. Willson, p 155.
50. Croft, p 49; Willson, p 158.
51. Croft, p 49.
52. Croft, p 50.
53. Stewart, p 169.
54. Stewart, p 172.
55. Stewart, p 173.
56. Croft, pp 50–51.
57. ^ Croft, p 51.
58. 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 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.
59. Croft, pp 52–54.
60. 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.
61. Willson, pp 249–52.
62. Croft, pp 52–3.
63. Croft, p 118.
64. Stewart, p 219.
65. Croft, p 64.
66. Croft, p 63.
67. Quoted by Croft, p 62.
68. Croft, p 69.
69. "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.
70. Croft, pp 75–81.
71. Croft, p 80.
72. Willson, p 348.
73. Willson, p 409.
74. Willson, p 357.
75. Willson, pp 408–416.
76. Willson, p 417.
77. Willson, p 421.
78. Willson, p 421.
79. Willson, p 442.
80. 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.
81. Willson, p 243.
82. They travelled under the names Thomas and John Smith. Croft, p 118.
83. Croft, pp 118–119.
84. "There was an immense outbreak of popular joy, with fireworks, bell ringing and street parties." Croft, p 120.
85. Croft, pp 120–121.
86. "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.
87. "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.
88. "On that divergence of interpretation, relations between the future king and the Parliaments of the years 1625–9 were to founder." Croft, p 126.
89. Stewart, p 225.
90. Willson, p 228.
91. A crypto-Catholic was someone who outwardly conformed to Protestantism but remained a Catholic in private. Henry Howard, for example, was a crypto-Catholic, received back into the Roman church in his final months. Before ascending the English throne, James had assured him he would not persecute "any that will be quiet and give but an outward obedience to the law". Croft, p 162.
92. Croft, p 156; In the Millenary Petition of 1603, the Puritan clergy asked, 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.
93. “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.
94. Willson, pp 213–215; Croft, p 157.
95. In March 1605, Archbishop Spottiswood wrote to James warning him that sermons against bishops were being preached daily in Edinburgh. Croft, p 164.
96. Croft, p 166; Willson, p 320.
97. Historians have differed in their assessments of the kirk at James's death: some consider that the Scots might have accepted James’s eventually; others that James left the kirk in crisis. Croft, p 167.
98. 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.
99. "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.
100. Willson, pp 334–5.
101. 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.
102. 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.
103. 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.
104. 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.
105. "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.
106. Willson, p 397.
107. 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.
108. 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.
109. John Williams's sermon was later printed as "Great Britain’s Salomon" (sic). Croft, pp 129–130.
110. Croft, p 130.
111. "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.
112. Croft, p 129.
113. Croft, pp 6–8.
114. Stewart, p 140, p 142.
115. 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.
116. Willson, p 452; Barroll, Anna of Denmark, p 27.
117. 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.
118. Noble, 1795: Guy, genealogical tables, pp xii–xiv.

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. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0631213937.
• Croft, Pauline (2003). King James. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-61395-3.
• Davies, Godfrey ( 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 & 1. 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.
• Willson, David Harris ( 1963 ed). King James VI & 1. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd. ISBN 0-224-60572-0.

Further reading

• Chambers, Robert (1856). "James VI". Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. London: Blackie and Son. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• Fraser, Antonia (1974). King James VI of Scotland, I of England. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-76775-5.
• Lee, Maurice (1990). Great Britain's Solomon: James VI and I in his Three Kingdoms. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01686-6.
• Lynch, Michael (1991). Scotland: A New History. Ebury Press. ISBN 0712634134.
• ———(1994) "Preaching to the Converted? Perspectives on the Scottish Reformation," in The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion, History and Culture.
• Peck, Linda Levy (1982). Northampton: Patronage and Policy at the Court of James I. Harper Collins. ISBN 0049421778.
• Williamson, David (1998). The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England. London: National Portrait Gallery. ISBN 1-85514-228-7.

External links

• Proclamation styling James I King of Great Britain on October 20, 1604
• James I, illustrated biography by Jenny Wormald, C.E. Hodge Fellow & Tutor in Modern History, St Hilda's College, Oxford
• Works by James I of England at Project Gutenberg

v t e Dukes of Rothesay
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