Posted on Jul 29, 2020
King James VI: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland
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On July 29, 1567, James VI was crowned King of Scots at the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling. From the article:
"James VI lived from 19 June 1566 to 27 March 1625 and was King of Scotland from 24 June 1567 until 27 March 1625. From the Death of Queen Elizabeth I of England on 24 March 1603 he was also King James I of England. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline.
James was the only child of Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Lord Darnley. He was christened Charles James. The infant James last saw his mother on 24 April 1567 at Stirling Castle. She was was adbucted by James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell on her way back to Edinburgh after seeing him, and her rapid spiral of decline began. On 24 June 1567 Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of James VI, who as a result became King just after his first birthday.
James was crowned King of Scotland at the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling, on 29 July 1567. Power was exercised on his behalf by a series of Regents appointed by Parliament. The first of these, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, was assassinated in 1570 by a supporter of the right of Mary, now a prisoner in England, to return to the Scottish throne, and the second and third died quickly. The most long-lasting was James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, while historian and poet George Buchanan looked after James' education.
The 4th Earl of Morton was effective in suppressing all opposition to James' right to be king. But he was unable to defend himself against charged laid by members of James court in 1581 that he had taken part in the murder of James father, Lord Darnley. Morton was executed and James took personal control of power aged 15.
In doing so he chose advisers who were not as strictly Protestant as some nobles would have liked, and In in what became known as the Ruthven Raid protestant nobles including William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, kidnapped James and held him for nearly a year at Ruthven Castle, now known as Huntingtower Castle. On his escape in 1583 James VI had Gowrie executed and the very name of Ruthven expunged. He also had the Scottish Parliament make the Church of Scotland directly accountable to the king under what were called the Black Acts.
James had been taught to hate his mother by his tutor. This, perhaps coupled with his ambition to stay on the right side of Elizabeth I of England (as her possible heir), meant that he made only a very low key protest when Elizabeth signed the death warrant of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587.
In 1589 James married the protestant Princess Anne of Denmark. On his return with his now wife he took close interest in the trial for witchcraft in North Berwick of a group said to have summoned a storm to try to sink Anne's ship on her first attempt to come to Scotland, and again when he had travelled back with her. James was instrumental in launching a major witch-hunt across Scotland in which, over the century that followed, some 1500 witches would be "discovered" and executed.
James beat off a Catholic revolt in 1588, and in 1600 he was faced with a conspiracy mounted by John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, the second son of the Earl of Gowrie, executed in 1583. This Gowrie, too, was executed.
By some measures James had been an immensely successful King of Scotland, bringing peace, relative stability, and prosperity. Yet his approach to the periphery of his kingdom, the Highlands and Islands, showed, if possible, even more ignorance than his predecessors. An Act of Parliament in 1597 was typical of James' approach to "civilising" the Gaelic areas of Scotland. This leased the Island of Lewis to lowland nobles called the Fife Adventurers and authorised them to use all means necessary, including what would today be called genocide, to "root out the barbarous inhabitants".
Elizabeth I of England died childless in 1603. In his will, which had the force of law in England, Henry VIII had sought to exclude Mary Queen of Scots and her son James from succession to the crown of England. But there were no other serious candidates and an Accession Council met and proclaimed James King of England. James and Anne were crowned on 25 July 1603 at Westminster Abbey, James seated on the Stone of Destiny taken from Scotland by Edward I of England in 1296. Scotland and England would remain separate sovereign states sharing the same monarch until 1707 when the Acts of Union dissolved the Scottish Parliament and merged the two nations to create the single Kingdom of Great Britain.
And there the story of Scottish Monarchs comes to something of an end. When James VI of Scotland left to become James I of England, he promised to return every three years. In fact he returned just once in the 22 years until his death, in 1617. The Stewarts and their successors had at last found a real kingdom to govern. Few future monarchs would be over-concerned with the affairs of Scotland.
On 20 October 1604, James proclaimed himself King of Great Britain, the first monarch to do so. In 1605 James was the subject of an assassination attempt (which became known as the gunpower plot) by Catholics. Despite this, James steered a course of relative religious tolerance in England. From 1605, James began to run into considerable difficulties in his dealings with the English Parliament, and in particular persuading it to vote him enough money. He responded by following a course that was to lead his son Charles I into great difficulties, by raising funds by non-Parliamentary means. These included his arguably illegal raising of customs duties, and his sale of 62 peerages at prices up to £20,000 for an Earldom.
Later in his reign, James VI/I became involved, via his son-in-law, Frederick V, Elector Palatine, in the 30 Years' War. This led to further conflict with Parliament, which in turn led to his dissolution of it: setting another trend that was to contribute to Charles I's problems. James died in London in 1625 of kidney failure and stroke and was succeeded by Charles I."
"James VI lived from 19 June 1566 to 27 March 1625 and was King of Scotland from 24 June 1567 until 27 March 1625. From the Death of Queen Elizabeth I of England on 24 March 1603 he was also King James I of England. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline.
James was the only child of Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Lord Darnley. He was christened Charles James. The infant James last saw his mother on 24 April 1567 at Stirling Castle. She was was adbucted by James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell on her way back to Edinburgh after seeing him, and her rapid spiral of decline began. On 24 June 1567 Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of James VI, who as a result became King just after his first birthday.
James was crowned King of Scotland at the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling, on 29 July 1567. Power was exercised on his behalf by a series of Regents appointed by Parliament. The first of these, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, was assassinated in 1570 by a supporter of the right of Mary, now a prisoner in England, to return to the Scottish throne, and the second and third died quickly. The most long-lasting was James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, while historian and poet George Buchanan looked after James' education.
The 4th Earl of Morton was effective in suppressing all opposition to James' right to be king. But he was unable to defend himself against charged laid by members of James court in 1581 that he had taken part in the murder of James father, Lord Darnley. Morton was executed and James took personal control of power aged 15.
In doing so he chose advisers who were not as strictly Protestant as some nobles would have liked, and In in what became known as the Ruthven Raid protestant nobles including William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, kidnapped James and held him for nearly a year at Ruthven Castle, now known as Huntingtower Castle. On his escape in 1583 James VI had Gowrie executed and the very name of Ruthven expunged. He also had the Scottish Parliament make the Church of Scotland directly accountable to the king under what were called the Black Acts.
James had been taught to hate his mother by his tutor. This, perhaps coupled with his ambition to stay on the right side of Elizabeth I of England (as her possible heir), meant that he made only a very low key protest when Elizabeth signed the death warrant of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587.
In 1589 James married the protestant Princess Anne of Denmark. On his return with his now wife he took close interest in the trial for witchcraft in North Berwick of a group said to have summoned a storm to try to sink Anne's ship on her first attempt to come to Scotland, and again when he had travelled back with her. James was instrumental in launching a major witch-hunt across Scotland in which, over the century that followed, some 1500 witches would be "discovered" and executed.
James beat off a Catholic revolt in 1588, and in 1600 he was faced with a conspiracy mounted by John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, the second son of the Earl of Gowrie, executed in 1583. This Gowrie, too, was executed.
By some measures James had been an immensely successful King of Scotland, bringing peace, relative stability, and prosperity. Yet his approach to the periphery of his kingdom, the Highlands and Islands, showed, if possible, even more ignorance than his predecessors. An Act of Parliament in 1597 was typical of James' approach to "civilising" the Gaelic areas of Scotland. This leased the Island of Lewis to lowland nobles called the Fife Adventurers and authorised them to use all means necessary, including what would today be called genocide, to "root out the barbarous inhabitants".
Elizabeth I of England died childless in 1603. In his will, which had the force of law in England, Henry VIII had sought to exclude Mary Queen of Scots and her son James from succession to the crown of England. But there were no other serious candidates and an Accession Council met and proclaimed James King of England. James and Anne were crowned on 25 July 1603 at Westminster Abbey, James seated on the Stone of Destiny taken from Scotland by Edward I of England in 1296. Scotland and England would remain separate sovereign states sharing the same monarch until 1707 when the Acts of Union dissolved the Scottish Parliament and merged the two nations to create the single Kingdom of Great Britain.
And there the story of Scottish Monarchs comes to something of an end. When James VI of Scotland left to become James I of England, he promised to return every three years. In fact he returned just once in the 22 years until his death, in 1617. The Stewarts and their successors had at last found a real kingdom to govern. Few future monarchs would be over-concerned with the affairs of Scotland.
On 20 October 1604, James proclaimed himself King of Great Britain, the first monarch to do so. In 1605 James was the subject of an assassination attempt (which became known as the gunpower plot) by Catholics. Despite this, James steered a course of relative religious tolerance in England. From 1605, James began to run into considerable difficulties in his dealings with the English Parliament, and in particular persuading it to vote him enough money. He responded by following a course that was to lead his son Charles I into great difficulties, by raising funds by non-Parliamentary means. These included his arguably illegal raising of customs duties, and his sale of 62 peerages at prices up to £20,000 for an Earldom.
Later in his reign, James VI/I became involved, via his son-in-law, Frederick V, Elector Palatine, in the 30 Years' War. This led to further conflict with Parliament, which in turn led to his dissolution of it: setting another trend that was to contribute to Charles I's problems. James died in London in 1625 of kidney failure and stroke and was succeeded by Charles I."
King James VI: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland
Posted from undiscoveredscotland.co.uk
Posted 4 y ago
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SCOTLAND'S STORY- JAMES & THE CROWNS UNITED
James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England in 1603, and is succeeded by his second son Charles I whose reign saw religious strife & armed conflict over ...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on July 29, 1567, James VI was crowned King of Scots at the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling.
SCOTLAND'S STORY- JAMES & THE CROWNS UNITED
James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England in 1603, and is succeeded by his second son Charles I whose reign saw religious strife & armed conflict over the governance of Scotland's Reformed Churches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Q-WBlD5Fo
Image:
1. James VI and I, 1566 - 1625. King of Scotland 1567 - 1625. King of England and Ireland 1603 - 1625 (As a boy) painted by Arnold BronckorstNetherlandish
3. Timeline for King James VI of Scotland, James I of England
4. King James VI of Scotland
Background from {[https://www.royal.uk/james-vi-and-i-r-1567-1625]}
James VI and I (r. 1567-1625)
Born in Edinburgh Castle on 19 June 1566, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots and her second husband, Lord Darnley.
He was less than a year old when he saw his mother for the last time, and thirteen months old when he was crowned King of Scots in Stirling after her forced abdication.
His childhood was constantly disturbed by the struggles of the nobles who vied for control of him. Given a demanding academic education by his tutor George Buchanan (who tried to teach him to hate his mother) and advised by four successive regents, he grew up to be a shrewd, wary intellectual who managed to reconcile the warring factions among his nobility with such success that he has been described as 'the most effective ruler Scotland ever had'.
Other opinions were more mixed; David Hume wrote that 'many virtues ... it must be owned, he was possessed of, but no one of them pure, or free from the contagion of the neighbouring vices,' whilst Henri IV of France called James 'the wisest fool in Christendom'.
James was a firm believer in the Divine Right of Kings and in the right of his bishops to run the Scottish Church; his response to Calvinist protests was 'No Bishop, No King'. His great ambition was to succeed Elizabeth I on the throne of England, and so he made only a formal protest when she signed his mother's death warrant in 1587.
Two years later, he married Anne of Denmark. Happy together at first they had three sons and four daughters, but gradually drifted apart.
On 24 March 1603 James achieved his lifelong ambition when Queen Elizabeth I died and he inherited the throne of England. He moved south immediately, and would have liked his two kingdoms to be completely united. However, Scotland retained its own parliament, established Church and legal and educational systems.
James enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of the English court, and returned to Scotland only once, in 1617. He liked to boast that he now ruled his northern kingdom with a stroke of his pen, but in his later years he lost something of his grasp of the Scottish situation.
When he forced through the 1618 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland his Five Articles of Perth, measures intended to bring the worship and government of the Church of Scotland into line with the Church of England, he met with strong opposition.
Realising that he had made an error of judgement, he did not enforce the Articles, and did not try again to introduce ecclesiastical innovations. He died on 27 March 1625."
FYI MSG Felipe De Leon Brown PO1 William "Chip" Nagel COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC (Join to see) LTC Wayne Brandon Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Robert Thornton Maj Kim Patterson Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SSG Robert Mark Odom SSG Franklin Briant SSG William Jones SGT Steve McFarland GySgt Thomas Vick SGT Robert Pryor SPC Margaret Higgins MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.PO3 Phyllis Maynard
SSG Michael Noll
SCOTLAND'S STORY- JAMES & THE CROWNS UNITED
James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England in 1603, and is succeeded by his second son Charles I whose reign saw religious strife & armed conflict over the governance of Scotland's Reformed Churches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Q-WBlD5Fo
Image:
1. James VI and I, 1566 - 1625. King of Scotland 1567 - 1625. King of England and Ireland 1603 - 1625 (As a boy) painted by Arnold BronckorstNetherlandish
3. Timeline for King James VI of Scotland, James I of England
4. King James VI of Scotland
Background from {[https://www.royal.uk/james-vi-and-i-r-1567-1625]}
James VI and I (r. 1567-1625)
Born in Edinburgh Castle on 19 June 1566, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots and her second husband, Lord Darnley.
He was less than a year old when he saw his mother for the last time, and thirteen months old when he was crowned King of Scots in Stirling after her forced abdication.
His childhood was constantly disturbed by the struggles of the nobles who vied for control of him. Given a demanding academic education by his tutor George Buchanan (who tried to teach him to hate his mother) and advised by four successive regents, he grew up to be a shrewd, wary intellectual who managed to reconcile the warring factions among his nobility with such success that he has been described as 'the most effective ruler Scotland ever had'.
Other opinions were more mixed; David Hume wrote that 'many virtues ... it must be owned, he was possessed of, but no one of them pure, or free from the contagion of the neighbouring vices,' whilst Henri IV of France called James 'the wisest fool in Christendom'.
James was a firm believer in the Divine Right of Kings and in the right of his bishops to run the Scottish Church; his response to Calvinist protests was 'No Bishop, No King'. His great ambition was to succeed Elizabeth I on the throne of England, and so he made only a formal protest when she signed his mother's death warrant in 1587.
Two years later, he married Anne of Denmark. Happy together at first they had three sons and four daughters, but gradually drifted apart.
On 24 March 1603 James achieved his lifelong ambition when Queen Elizabeth I died and he inherited the throne of England. He moved south immediately, and would have liked his two kingdoms to be completely united. However, Scotland retained its own parliament, established Church and legal and educational systems.
James enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of the English court, and returned to Scotland only once, in 1617. He liked to boast that he now ruled his northern kingdom with a stroke of his pen, but in his later years he lost something of his grasp of the Scottish situation.
When he forced through the 1618 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland his Five Articles of Perth, measures intended to bring the worship and government of the Church of Scotland into line with the Church of England, he met with strong opposition.
Realising that he had made an error of judgement, he did not enforce the Articles, and did not try again to introduce ecclesiastical innovations. He died on 27 March 1625."
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The King Who United Scotland & England | James VI & I | Real Royalty
Professor Kate Williams studies the legacy of the Stuarts through the eyes of an aristocratic Welsh clan. After Elizabeth I's death in 1603, James VI of Scot...
The King Who United Scotland & England | James VI & I | Real Royalty
Professor Kate Williams studies the legacy of the Stuarts through the eyes of an aristocratic Welsh clan. After Elizabeth I's death in 1603, James VI of Scotland claimed the throne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlA00gyCW78
Images:
1. Portrait of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England and Ireland, by Daniel Mytens. James VI and I James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625
2. A pair of portraits of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, painted by Adrian Vanson 1595
3. King James I of England and VI of Scotland; King Charles I; King Charles II; Queen Anne; King James II; William, Duke of Gloucester; Queen Mary II after Artist Charles Price; Sir Anthony Van Dyck; Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt , Date of Work after 1713 print engraving
4. James VI and I King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland
Biographies
1. britroyals.com/Scots.asp?id=james1
2. encyclopedia.com/people/history/British-and-Irish-history-biographies/James-i-England
1. Background from {[https://www.britroyals.com/scots.asp?id=james1]}
King James VI of Scotland (1567 - 1625)
Name: King James VI of Scotland
Father: Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley
Mother: Mary Queen of Scots
Relation to Elizabeth II: 9th great-grandfather
House of: Stuart
Born: June 19, 1566 at Edinburgh Castle
Ascended to the throne: July 24, 1567 aged 1 years
Crowned: July 29, 1567 at Church of Holy Rude, Stirling, and King of England on July 25, 1603 at Westminster Abbey
Married: Anne of Denmark, November 24, 1589
Children: Three sons and five daughters, of whom three survived infancy; Henry, Elizabeth and Charles
Died: March 27, 1625, at Theobalds Park, Hertfordshire, aged 58 years, 9 months, and 7 days
Buried at: Westminster Abbey, London
Succeeded by: his son Charles
King of Scotland from 1567 and England (as James I) from 1603. The son of Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Lord Darnley, he succeeded to the Scottish throne on the enforced abdication of his mother and assumed power in 1583. He established a strong centralized authority, and in 1589 married Anne of Denmark (1574–1619).
As successor to Elizabeth I in England, he alienated the Puritans by his High Church views and Parliament by his assertion of divine right, and was generally unpopular because of his favourites, such as Buckingham, and his schemes for an alliance with Spain. He was succeeded by his son Charles I. As king of Scotland, he curbed the power of the nobility, although his attempts to limit the authority of the Kirk (Church of Scotland) were less successful.
Upon his accession to the English throne on the death of Elizabeth I, James acted mainly upon the advice of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, but on the latter's death all restraint vanished. His religious policy consisted of asserting the supreme authority of the crown and suppressing both Puritans and Catholics who objected. The preparation of the Authorized Version of the Bible in English, published in 1611, was ordered by James. He thwarted Guy Fawkes's plot to blow up Parliament during its opening in 1605. The gunpowder plot, with its anti-Catholic reaction, gave James a temporary popularity which soon dissipated. His foreign policy, aimed primarily at achieving closer relations with Spain, was also disliked.
James's childhood and adolescence were unhappy, abnormal, and precarious; he had various guardians, whose treatment of him differed widely. His education, although thorough, was weighted with Presbyterian and Calvinist political doctrine, and his character – highly intelligent and sensitive, but also fundamentally shallow, vain, and exhibitionist – reacted violently to this. His political philosophy turned to the theory of the divine right of kings, in striking contrast to the practical experiences of his childhood. He also sought solace with extravagant and unsavoury male favourites who, in later years, were to have a damaging effect on his prestige and state affairs. His economic opportunism, with its disastrous effects on commerce, alienated city interests. Puritan influence and political awareness were increasing fast among the rural landowners, whose influence James never appreciated. His willingness to compromise politically, even while continuing to talk in terms of absolutism, largely accounts for the superficial stability of his reign. However, the effects of many of his actions were long term, becoming fully obvious only after his death. The marriage of James's daughter Elizabeth to Frederic V, Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, was to result in the eventual Hanoverian succession to the British throne."
2. Background from {[https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/british-and-irish-history-biographies/james-i-england]}
James VI by Roger Lockyer; Updated Aug 16 2020
James VI (1566–1625), king of Scotland (1567–1625) and, as James I, king of England (1603–25), was the son of Mary, queen of Scots, whose enforced abdication brought him to the throne when he was not 2 years of age. A lonely but intelligent child, James was educated by a succession of formidable tutors, including George Buchanan, whose insistence that kings were servants of their people provoked his pupil into believing the opposite. Royal authority had been brought to a low ebb by Mary, and during James's minority the factious nobility lived in a state of civil war. James's assumption of power in 1585 marked a turning-point, for he brought the nobles to heel at the same time as he involved them in government. His main adversary was the presbyterian church, or kirk, which claimed that its authority, deriving directly from God, was superior to his own. James skilfully outflanked the kirk's leaders by encouraging the moderates and reviving the office of bishop. He also used his learning to buttress his position. The Trew Law and the Basilikon doron, both written in the 1590s, proclaimed that kings were the images of God upon earth and should be venerated as such.
James, deprived of female company during his formative years, found an outlet for his emotional needs in male favourites, of whom Esmé Stuart, created duke of Lennox by the boy king in 1581, was the first of a long line. But James was also capable of relations with the opposite sex, as he showed in 1589 when he crossed the seas to Norway to bring back Anne of Denmark as his wife. The marriage began well and produced a number of children, of whom two sons, Henry and Charles (later Charles I), and a daughter, Elizabeth, survived into adult life.
In 1586 James concluded a treaty with Elizabeth I which provided him with a substantial pension and acknowledged his right to succeed to the English throne. This enticing prospect may have kept James from protesting when his mother was executed by Elizabeth's government in 1587, but Mary was virtually a stranger to him, and her steadfast commitment to catholicism was at odds with his deeply held protestant convictions. When, in early 1603, news came of Elizabeth's death, James was impatient to quit his impoverished kingdom, but he was not ashamed of his Scottishness. On the contrary, his major objective once he was established in England was to complete the union of crowns by a union of states. This could only be done with the support of the two parliaments, but while he could ensure the co-operation of the Scottish assembly, the English one proved recalcitrant. Debates on the union, the principal business of the Parliament which James summoned in 1604, revealed the depth of English prejudice against the Scots. They also revealed that James's subjects were acutely suspicious of his intentions. In his writings and speeches, he used the language of absolutism, and he was not familiar with the very different English political tradition based on Magna Carta and the common law. James, who had worked harmoniously with the Scottish Parliament, found the larger and more formal English institution alien and intractable.
James's open-handed generosity, particularly towards his Scottish companions, won him few friends among the English. Nor did the spread of corruption in public life, including the sale of titles and offices, much of which was generated by royal favourites such as Carr and Buckingham. Conviction that James would squander any money grants, plus fear that without dependence upon parliamentary supply he would develop into an absolute monarch on the European pattern, brought about the collapse of the Great Contract. James's resort to non-parliamentary taxes like impositions made matters worse and led to the failure of the ‘Addled’ Parliament. It took time before James realized that, while he was much richer than he had been in Scotland, he still needed to exercise restraint. Matters improved considerably after 1620, when he appointed a merchant-financier, Lionel Cranfield, to the Treasury, but by then the damage was done.
In the sphere of religion James was more successful, not least because his protestantism was unquestionable. After the Hampton Court conference he came to realize that English puritans were far less dangerous than Scottish presbyterians, and in 1610 he pleased them by appointing the low-church George Abbot as archbishop. James also remained tolerant towards his catholic subjects, even after the Gunpowder plot, and drew up an oath of allegiance which enabled them to express their loyalty without offending their conscience. The problem for James was that religion and politics were inextricably intertwined. In hopes of acting as a European peacemaker, he married his daughter to a leading protestant prince and planned a match between his son and the daughter of the king of Spain, the archetypal catholic ruler. This ecumenical approach to international politics baffled and outraged his subjects, who believed that England's place was at the head of a protestant crusade. When, in 1621, James forbade the Commons to discuss the Spanish marriage on the grounds that such matters were his concern, they drew up a protestation asserting their right to debate all ‘urgent affairs’. James responded by sending for the Commons' journal and ripping out the offending protestation. The next Parliament, the last of the reign, which met in 1624, was more harmonious, but only because James was no longer in full control. A powerful alliance between his son and heir Charles, his favourite Buckingham, and the parliamentary leaders forced him to acknowledge, however reluctantly, the possibility not merely of breaking off relations with Spain but even of fighting her.
Fortunately for James, he died in March 1625, before war broke out. He was not deeply mourned in either England or Scotland; undignified and conceited, long-winded and short-tempered, he caused offence without realizing it. But he kept his kingdoms in peace at home and abroad, he preserved the powers of the crown, and he held the church firmly to a middle course. It was no accident that while James's mother and son both met violent ends, he died peacefully in his bed.
Bibliography
Akrigg, G. P. V. (ed.), Letters of James VI & I (1984);
Lee, M. , Great Britain's Solomon: James VI & I in his Three Kingdoms (Urbana, Ill., 1990);
Peck, L. L. (ed.), The Mental World of the Jacobean Court (1991).
The Oxford Companion to British History JOHN CANNON"
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Professor Kate Williams studies the legacy of the Stuarts through the eyes of an aristocratic Welsh clan. After Elizabeth I's death in 1603, James VI of Scotland claimed the throne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlA00gyCW78
Images:
1. Portrait of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England and Ireland, by Daniel Mytens. James VI and I James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625
2. A pair of portraits of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, painted by Adrian Vanson 1595
3. King James I of England and VI of Scotland; King Charles I; King Charles II; Queen Anne; King James II; William, Duke of Gloucester; Queen Mary II after Artist Charles Price; Sir Anthony Van Dyck; Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt , Date of Work after 1713 print engraving
4. James VI and I King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland
Biographies
1. britroyals.com/Scots.asp?id=james1
2. encyclopedia.com/people/history/British-and-Irish-history-biographies/James-i-England
1. Background from {[https://www.britroyals.com/scots.asp?id=james1]}
King James VI of Scotland (1567 - 1625)
Name: King James VI of Scotland
Father: Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley
Mother: Mary Queen of Scots
Relation to Elizabeth II: 9th great-grandfather
House of: Stuart
Born: June 19, 1566 at Edinburgh Castle
Ascended to the throne: July 24, 1567 aged 1 years
Crowned: July 29, 1567 at Church of Holy Rude, Stirling, and King of England on July 25, 1603 at Westminster Abbey
Married: Anne of Denmark, November 24, 1589
Children: Three sons and five daughters, of whom three survived infancy; Henry, Elizabeth and Charles
Died: March 27, 1625, at Theobalds Park, Hertfordshire, aged 58 years, 9 months, and 7 days
Buried at: Westminster Abbey, London
Succeeded by: his son Charles
King of Scotland from 1567 and England (as James I) from 1603. The son of Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Lord Darnley, he succeeded to the Scottish throne on the enforced abdication of his mother and assumed power in 1583. He established a strong centralized authority, and in 1589 married Anne of Denmark (1574–1619).
As successor to Elizabeth I in England, he alienated the Puritans by his High Church views and Parliament by his assertion of divine right, and was generally unpopular because of his favourites, such as Buckingham, and his schemes for an alliance with Spain. He was succeeded by his son Charles I. As king of Scotland, he curbed the power of the nobility, although his attempts to limit the authority of the Kirk (Church of Scotland) were less successful.
Upon his accession to the English throne on the death of Elizabeth I, James acted mainly upon the advice of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, but on the latter's death all restraint vanished. His religious policy consisted of asserting the supreme authority of the crown and suppressing both Puritans and Catholics who objected. The preparation of the Authorized Version of the Bible in English, published in 1611, was ordered by James. He thwarted Guy Fawkes's plot to blow up Parliament during its opening in 1605. The gunpowder plot, with its anti-Catholic reaction, gave James a temporary popularity which soon dissipated. His foreign policy, aimed primarily at achieving closer relations with Spain, was also disliked.
James's childhood and adolescence were unhappy, abnormal, and precarious; he had various guardians, whose treatment of him differed widely. His education, although thorough, was weighted with Presbyterian and Calvinist political doctrine, and his character – highly intelligent and sensitive, but also fundamentally shallow, vain, and exhibitionist – reacted violently to this. His political philosophy turned to the theory of the divine right of kings, in striking contrast to the practical experiences of his childhood. He also sought solace with extravagant and unsavoury male favourites who, in later years, were to have a damaging effect on his prestige and state affairs. His economic opportunism, with its disastrous effects on commerce, alienated city interests. Puritan influence and political awareness were increasing fast among the rural landowners, whose influence James never appreciated. His willingness to compromise politically, even while continuing to talk in terms of absolutism, largely accounts for the superficial stability of his reign. However, the effects of many of his actions were long term, becoming fully obvious only after his death. The marriage of James's daughter Elizabeth to Frederic V, Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, was to result in the eventual Hanoverian succession to the British throne."
2. Background from {[https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/british-and-irish-history-biographies/james-i-england]}
James VI by Roger Lockyer; Updated Aug 16 2020
James VI (1566–1625), king of Scotland (1567–1625) and, as James I, king of England (1603–25), was the son of Mary, queen of Scots, whose enforced abdication brought him to the throne when he was not 2 years of age. A lonely but intelligent child, James was educated by a succession of formidable tutors, including George Buchanan, whose insistence that kings were servants of their people provoked his pupil into believing the opposite. Royal authority had been brought to a low ebb by Mary, and during James's minority the factious nobility lived in a state of civil war. James's assumption of power in 1585 marked a turning-point, for he brought the nobles to heel at the same time as he involved them in government. His main adversary was the presbyterian church, or kirk, which claimed that its authority, deriving directly from God, was superior to his own. James skilfully outflanked the kirk's leaders by encouraging the moderates and reviving the office of bishop. He also used his learning to buttress his position. The Trew Law and the Basilikon doron, both written in the 1590s, proclaimed that kings were the images of God upon earth and should be venerated as such.
James, deprived of female company during his formative years, found an outlet for his emotional needs in male favourites, of whom Esmé Stuart, created duke of Lennox by the boy king in 1581, was the first of a long line. But James was also capable of relations with the opposite sex, as he showed in 1589 when he crossed the seas to Norway to bring back Anne of Denmark as his wife. The marriage began well and produced a number of children, of whom two sons, Henry and Charles (later Charles I), and a daughter, Elizabeth, survived into adult life.
In 1586 James concluded a treaty with Elizabeth I which provided him with a substantial pension and acknowledged his right to succeed to the English throne. This enticing prospect may have kept James from protesting when his mother was executed by Elizabeth's government in 1587, but Mary was virtually a stranger to him, and her steadfast commitment to catholicism was at odds with his deeply held protestant convictions. When, in early 1603, news came of Elizabeth's death, James was impatient to quit his impoverished kingdom, but he was not ashamed of his Scottishness. On the contrary, his major objective once he was established in England was to complete the union of crowns by a union of states. This could only be done with the support of the two parliaments, but while he could ensure the co-operation of the Scottish assembly, the English one proved recalcitrant. Debates on the union, the principal business of the Parliament which James summoned in 1604, revealed the depth of English prejudice against the Scots. They also revealed that James's subjects were acutely suspicious of his intentions. In his writings and speeches, he used the language of absolutism, and he was not familiar with the very different English political tradition based on Magna Carta and the common law. James, who had worked harmoniously with the Scottish Parliament, found the larger and more formal English institution alien and intractable.
James's open-handed generosity, particularly towards his Scottish companions, won him few friends among the English. Nor did the spread of corruption in public life, including the sale of titles and offices, much of which was generated by royal favourites such as Carr and Buckingham. Conviction that James would squander any money grants, plus fear that without dependence upon parliamentary supply he would develop into an absolute monarch on the European pattern, brought about the collapse of the Great Contract. James's resort to non-parliamentary taxes like impositions made matters worse and led to the failure of the ‘Addled’ Parliament. It took time before James realized that, while he was much richer than he had been in Scotland, he still needed to exercise restraint. Matters improved considerably after 1620, when he appointed a merchant-financier, Lionel Cranfield, to the Treasury, but by then the damage was done.
In the sphere of religion James was more successful, not least because his protestantism was unquestionable. After the Hampton Court conference he came to realize that English puritans were far less dangerous than Scottish presbyterians, and in 1610 he pleased them by appointing the low-church George Abbot as archbishop. James also remained tolerant towards his catholic subjects, even after the Gunpowder plot, and drew up an oath of allegiance which enabled them to express their loyalty without offending their conscience. The problem for James was that religion and politics were inextricably intertwined. In hopes of acting as a European peacemaker, he married his daughter to a leading protestant prince and planned a match between his son and the daughter of the king of Spain, the archetypal catholic ruler. This ecumenical approach to international politics baffled and outraged his subjects, who believed that England's place was at the head of a protestant crusade. When, in 1621, James forbade the Commons to discuss the Spanish marriage on the grounds that such matters were his concern, they drew up a protestation asserting their right to debate all ‘urgent affairs’. James responded by sending for the Commons' journal and ripping out the offending protestation. The next Parliament, the last of the reign, which met in 1624, was more harmonious, but only because James was no longer in full control. A powerful alliance between his son and heir Charles, his favourite Buckingham, and the parliamentary leaders forced him to acknowledge, however reluctantly, the possibility not merely of breaking off relations with Spain but even of fighting her.
Fortunately for James, he died in March 1625, before war broke out. He was not deeply mourned in either England or Scotland; undignified and conceited, long-winded and short-tempered, he caused offence without realizing it. But he kept his kingdoms in peace at home and abroad, he preserved the powers of the crown, and he held the church firmly to a middle course. It was no accident that while James's mother and son both met violent ends, he died peacefully in his bed.
Bibliography
Akrigg, G. P. V. (ed.), Letters of James VI & I (1984);
Lee, M. , Great Britain's Solomon: James VI & I in his Three Kingdoms (Urbana, Ill., 1990);
Peck, L. L. (ed.), The Mental World of the Jacobean Court (1991).
The Oxford Companion to British History JOHN CANNON"
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