James I

King of England (r. 1603-1625) and king of Scotland as James VI (r. 1567-1625)

• Born: June 19, 1566
• Birthplace: Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Died: March 27, 1625
• Place of death: Theobalds, Hertfordshire, England

Overcoming the tragedies that characterized his tumultuous formative years, James I founded the Stuart Dynasty in England and provided continuity in English politics for a generation after the death of Elizabeth I.

Early Life

James I was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. In February, 1567, Darnley died violently as a result of an explosion that destroyed his house; fifteen years later, James organized the execution of the earl of Morton for the murder of his father. A few months after Darnley’s death, Mary married her third husband, James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell. Mary’s forces were defeated by dissident Scottish aristocrats, and Mary abdicated the throne. The infant James was crowned James VI of Scotland on July 24, 1567. In 1568, Mary fled Scotland and abandoned her son.

During his youth, James VI was controlled politically by a succession of regents, the earls of Moray, Lennox, Mar, and Morton. His education was provided by his tutors, George Buchanan and Peter Young; through their influence, James acquired a sound education based on the classics and an interest in intellectual pursuits, and he began to consider himself as a philosopher-king. Although James continued to exhibit a propensity for the study of theology and literature, his mind was not of the first rank.

James VI experienced a traumatic childhood and adolescence. The absence of parents, the frequent political intrigues and upheavals that were focused on him, and his seemingly endless series of temporary and artificial relationships produced a young man who was complex and unsettled. He was interested in poetry and philosophy but not in the workings of government; he was nervous, insecure, and ill-mannered, yet he projected an image of confidence and fancied himself a trendsetter. During his early years, he produced two volumes of poetry, The Essayes of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie (1584) and His Maiesties Poeticall Exercises at Vacant Houres (1591).

In 1589, James married Anne of Denmark, the daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway. In 1594, she gave birth to a son, Henry. During the late 1580’s and early 1590’s, John Maitland served as James’s principal adviser. Maitland worked to enhance royal power and prestige in Scotland. James believed that he exercised power and held office by divine right and that he was responsible only to God. These sentiments were expressed by James in his The True Law of Free Monarchies (1598). Other works that James produced during the late 1590’s were Daemonologie (1597), an expression of the king’s fear of the mysterious spiritual world, and Basilikon Doron (1599), consisting of a series of rambling passages on politics and theology intended as instruction for Prince Henry.

Since the late 1580’s, James, interested in the English throne, had followed a policy of accommodation in his dealings with Elizabeth I. Even when his mother, Mary, was executed in 1587 for her involvement in a conspiracy to overthrow Elizabeth, James’s only response was to file a complaint. His diplomacy was rewarded when Elizabeth I died on March 24, 1603, and James VI of Scotland became James I of England while retaining his Scottish crown.

Life’s Work

Initially, those Englishmen who traveled north to greet the new monarch as he progressed south were impressed; the exuberant James I was liberal in his promises, and indeed, he elevated more than two hundred men to the peerage before he even arrived in London. In appearance, James I was not attractive; his legs were not formed properly, and he spoke with a Scottish accent, which was rendered nearly incomprehensible by his larger-than-normal tongue. Nevertheless, the English nation greeted the new king with a sense of hope and expectation. Many problems that had been ignored or deferred during the later years of Elizabeth I’s reign quickly surfaced. The financial condition of the realm was jeopardized by the continuing war with Spain, inflation, and the fixed nature of governmental revenues. Another problem soon manifested itself when Nonconformists expressed their dissatisfaction with Anglican theology and the episcopal organization of the Church of England.

Under the able and astute guidance of Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, James appeared to confront these issues willingly. In 1604, James permitted Puritans to address the Hampton Court conference. He concluded that most of the Puritan recommendations were not acceptable, however, because he feared that they would lead to a presbyterian form of religion, which would weaken the Crown. He defended the episcopal arrangement and demanded conformity to a uniform church service. James also thwarted the efforts of the English Catholics (the Recusants) to improve their standing before the law. Disappointed Recusant Radicals formulated the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. The conspiracy was designed to eliminate Parliament and the king by blowing up Parliament on November 5, 1605, when James was scheduled to appear. Through Salisbury’s network of spies, the plot became known before it could be implemented.

The most significant problem James encountered was the deteriorating relationship between the Crown and Parliament. He never recognized that the primary source of this difficulty was his own lack of understanding of the English constitutional process and the interrelationship and interdependence of the monarch and Parliament. As a consequence, James came into conflict with Parliament when he tried to bypass Parliament and simply rule without one. The severity of the hostility between James I and his Parliaments mounted after the death of Salisbury in 1612. James would not find another efficient minister for the remainder of his reign; instead, he allowed his personal favorites, Robert Carr , earl of Somerset, and George Villiers, first duke of Buckingham , to assume positions of great power.

Both of James’s favorites were individuals of limited intelligence and talent who were motivated by personal gain. Their policies and actions exacerbated rather than improved the Crown’s relationship with Parliament. James further alienated the English legal community by his attacks on Sir Edward Coke , a staunch defender of the common law. In 1616, James arranged for Coke’s dismissal from the Court of Common Pleas.

James’s pro-Spanish foreign policy also was not well received by the English people in the wake of the crisis of the Spanish Armada in the late 1580’s and the subsequent war with Spain. James concluded a peace treaty with Madrid in 1604. The king planned to reconcile with both Madrid and Paris, the two traditional enemies of England. The influence of the Spanish ambassador, Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, count of Gondomar, upon the king was so extensive that James ordered the execution of Sir Walter Ralegh at Gondomar’s suggestion. Near the end of his reign, James urged his heir, Charles (Prince Henry had died in 1612), to enter into a Spanish marriage. After Charles and Buckingham traveled to Madrid for this purpose in 1623, however, they returned with hostile attitudes toward Spain.

In 1618, the Thirty Years’ War broke out on the Continent. The English expected their king to support the Protestant side, especially since his son-in-law, Frederick II, elector of the Palatinate, was one of the leaders of the Protestant League during the Bohemian phase of the war. Instead, because of his interest in maintaining good terms with Spain, James tried to serve as a diplomatic mediator. His problems were then compounded by the Spanish invasion of the Palatinate in 1620. During the 1620’s, James’s foreign policy and financial problems emerged as the principal issues in his continuing conflict with Parliament.

During the last decade of his life, James became increasingly decadent and allowed Buckingham to assume extensive powers. Buckingham in turn corrupted the royal government: He demanded and received bribes from everyone involved in its business. The corruption became pervasive and caused scandal; attempts to introduce reform in administration met with failure. As the 1620’s progressed, James’s health continued to decline. He died at his country estate in Hertfordshire, the Theobalds, on March 27, 1625.

Significance

During the reign of James I, the antagonism between the Crown and Parliament was heightened, and the king was in large part responsible for this development. The king chose his advisers poorly after 1612, and those advisers both made significant political errors and spread corruption through the royal administration. James, moreover, failed to recognize the dynamic forces of the period and the seriousness of their impact on English politics. His reign, then, witnessed the emergence of a polarized English society with Royalists and Anglicans on one side and Parliamentarians and Puritans on the other. As he aged, James became less involved with the mounting crises and retreated into his preoccupation with personal matters. He bequeathed to his son, Charles I , a kingdom that was in financial disarray and politically and religiously divided.

Bibliography

Ashley, Maurice. England in the Seventeenth Century. 3d ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1963. Portrays James I as an effective, if not glorious, governor of the realm. Ashley’s James I was clever and bright, but vain and weak in dealing with his personal retinue.

Ashton, Robert. The English Civil War: Conservatism and Revolution, 1603-1649. New York: W. W. Norton, 1979. James I emerges as a monarch of limited managerial ability who was instrumental in establishing the separate, insular society of his court culture.

Croft, Pauline. King James. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Balanced and perceptive account of James’s life and reign, emphasizing his attempts to rule Scotland and Ireland as well as England.

Gardiner, Samuel Rawson. The First Two Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution, 1603-1660. New York: Longmans, Green, 1876. Reprint. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1970. In this classic interpretation of James I and Charles I, Gardiner portrays James I as an intelligent but indolent and indecisive monarch who lacked an understanding of English political and constitutional processes.

Hill, Christopher. Puritanism and Revolution: Studies in Interpretation of the English Revolution of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Schocken Books, 1964. This study of the decades leading to the English Revolution of the 1640’s portrays James as an indecisive politician, limited by finances and influenced by close confidants at court.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England. 2d ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1967. In this book by a renowned English Marxist historian, James I is seen as an intelligent individual who was influenced and restricted by the rise of Puritanism.

Kenyon, J. P., ed. The Stuart Constitution: Documents and Commentary. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Kenyon’s interpretation of James’s relationship with Parliament is more tempered than traditional analysis of this subject. Kenyon examines the relationship within the context of a continuing debate between Crown and Parliament, and traces the difficulties in the relationship to the failure of the king’s ministers and advisers.

Lockyer, Roger. Tudor and Stuart Britain, 1471-1714. 2d ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985. Explains how anticipation of a more prosperous era during James I’s rule was unrealized because of the government’s continuing financial problems and the pervasive corruption of public life. Lockyer examines how the resulting disillusionment led to the beginnings of a constitutional crisis.

Patterson, W. B. “King James I and the Protestant Cause in the Crisis of 1618-21.” In Religion and National Identity, edited by Stuart Mews. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, 1982. Describes James’s attempts to help the Protestant cause and mediate conflict during the Bohemian phase of the Thirty Year’s War. These attempts led to increasing criticism of James’s regime.

Stewart, Alan. The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a Unified Great Britain. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003. Focuses on how James VI of Scotland became James I of England. Stewart maintains James was an able ruler of Scotland, but the tactics that served him well in that country were not applicable for governing England and a unified Great Britain.

Wilson, David Harris. King James VI and I. London: Jonathan Cape, 1956. Wilson’s biography is considered the definitive work on James I. The king emerges as a complex individual who was greatly influenced by the chaos that characterized his early life.

Woolrych, Austin. “The English Revolution: An Introduction.” In The English Revolution: 1600-1660, edited by E. W. Ives. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1969. Depicts James I as an incompetent administrator, preoccupied with personal affairs. Woolrych attributes the general stability that characterized James’s reign until 1612 to Cecil’s influence.