Stuart - King James I

Stuarts - King James I

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Full Name: King James I
Father: Lord Darnley Henry Stuart
Mother: Mary Queen of Scotts
Born: June 19, 1566 at Edinburgh Castle
Ascended to the throne: March 24, 1603 aged 36 years
Crowned: July 25, 1603 at Westminster Abbey, also as James VI of Scotland at Stirling Castle
Married: Anne, Daughter of Frederick II of Denmark and Norway, on November 23, 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

King of England from 1603 and Scotland (as James VI) from 1567. Descended through his great grandmother from the Tudors, he was the first English King in the House fo Stuart. 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.

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.

Timeline

1603	James VI of Scotland becomes King James I of England, Scotland, and Ireland after the death of Elizabeth I.
1603	The Millenary Petition is presented to James I. It expresses Puritan desires for reforms to the Church of England.
1603	Plot against James I to set Arabella Stuart on the English throne. Sir Walter Raleigh is implicated and imprisoned.
1604	The Somerset House Peace Conference results in peace between England and Spain.
1604	The Hampton Court Conference fails to settle the doctrinal differences between the Anglican Church and its Puritan critics.
1605	The Gunpowder Plot attempts to blow up King and Parliament.
1606	The Gunpowder plotters are executed.
1607	The Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel end their rebellion against English rule of Ireland and flee to Europe; Ulster is colonized by Protestant settlers from Scotland and England.
1607	The English Parliament rejects Union with Scotland.
1607	Common citizenship of English and Scottish persons is granted to those born after the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne.
1609	Shakespeare completes the Sonnets.
1611	Authorized Version of the Bible is published.
1611	Dissolution of the first Parliament of James I.
1611	Imprisonment of Arabella Stuart.
1612	Henry, Prince of Wales, dies of typhoid. His younger brother, Charles, becomes heir to the throne.
1612	Heretics are burned at the stake for the last time in England.
1613	Robert Ker is created Earl of Somerset
1613	The Globe Theatre in London burns during a performance of Henry VIII
1614	Second Parliament of James I meets.
1615	George Villiers becomes James’s favourite.
1616	Playwright William Shakespeare dies.
1616	Raleigh is released from prison to lead an expedition to Guiana in search of El Dorado
1617	George Villiers becomes the Earl of Buckingharn.
1618	Raleigh is executed for alleged treason at Westminster.
1620	The Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America in the Mayflower.
1625	Death of James I, aged 58.