James I of England: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

James VI of Scotland and James I of England (June 19, 1566 - March 27, 1625) was the first king of both England and Scotland. Although this event is known as the Union of the Crowns, it was only a union of thrones. The two "Crowns" as symbols of Royal national power remained separate, and some 200 years after James' accession acts of the Scottish Parliament were seen as detrimental to England . He reigned in Scotland from July 24, 1567, and in England and Ireland from March 24, 1603, until his death on March 27, 1625.

James succeeded Elizabeth I as the closest living relative of the unmarried childless English monarch, through his descent from Henry VIII's sister Margaret Tudor. He was a popular monarch, but less skilled at governing than Elizabeth I had been. His taste for political absolutism, his mismanagement of the kingdom's funds, and his cultivation of unpopular favourites laid much of the groundwork that would lead to the deposition and execution of his son Charles I during the English Civil War. During James' own life, however, the government of the kingdom was relatively stable.

King of Scotland

James became king of Scots on July 24, 1567, at the age of 13 months, after his mother Mary, Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate. She fled to England, where she was imprisoned for the next 19 years. His father, Lord Darnley, was assassinated under mysterious circumstances shortly after James was born. James was formally crowned at the Church of the Holy Rood, Stirling on July 29, 1567. In deference to the religious beliefs of most of the Scots ruling class, he was brought up as a member of the Scottish protestant Kirk and educated by men with Presbyterian sympathies, though his mother was a Roman Catholic.

James married Anne of Denmark by proxy on August 20, 1589, and in person on November 23, 1589 and again in person in January 21, 1590, and had issue:

1. Henry, Prince of Wales (February 19, 1594 - November 6, 1612).
2. stillborn of undetermined sex (July 1595).
3. Elizabeth Stuart (August 19, 1596 - February 13, 1662).
4. Margaret Stuart (December 24, 1598 - March, 1600).
5. King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland (November 19, 1600 - January 30, 1649).
6. Robert Bruce Stuart, Duke of Kintyre and Lorne (January 18, 1602 - May 27, 1602).
7. unnamed son (died within hours after birth, 1603).
8. Mary Stuart (April 8, 1605 - September 16, 1607).
9. Sophia Stuart (June 22, 1606 - June 23, 1606).

Note that only three survived infancy and only Charles and Elizabeth lived to see their 19th birthdays.

The eldest, Henry Stuart, became Prince of Wales when James VI was invited to take the English throne following the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. One of his first acts was to end England's involvement in the Eighty Years' War, with the signing of the Treaty of London in 1604. In 1605 the Gunpowder Plot (an attempt to blow up James and most of the Parliament) was foiled.

James established a residence at Royston a town at which he stayed on his progress to London.

Rosicrucianism

Henry died in 1612, during the preparations for the marriage of James's daughter, Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662) to Frederick V, Elector Palatine. This wedding was negotiated at Royston, and has been connected to the rise of Rosicrucianism, which was a secret society in support of protestant illumination across Germany and Bohemia. Prince Henry had been at the head of the war party at the court of King James, but his death dissolved their power. Frederick V became embroiled in the election of the new Holy Roman Emperor by claiming the throne of Bohemia. However he was opposed by Archduke Ferdinand who duly succeeded as Emperor. After the Battle of White Mountain, the couple went into exile and were known as the "Winter King" and "Winter Queen", taking up residence in The Hague. Germany was then sunk in the Thirty Years' War, while the new union of England and Scotland developed its maritime empire.

James was a skilful manager of Parliament but had difficulties in trying to impose his will as Elizabeth had done. Parliament had been growing in power ever since the time of Henry VIII. James believed in the Divine Right of Kings to govern his country as he wished, but he did not push it too far, as his successor Charles I would. Many historians have attacked James for being a poor manager of Parliament but this not entirely true — he never lost his head (as his son would) and he was ready to make compromises, (as his son never would).

James' first Parliament was 1604-1611. There were three sessions: 1604, 1605-1607 and 1610-1611. For the first time ever, MPs would hereafter be exempt from arrest while Parliament was in session. Parliament gave James the right to collect the traditional prerogative tax Tunnage and Poundage for life, but Parliament presented the Apology and Satisfaction, which stated that 'the prerogatives of princes may easily and do daily grow; the privileges of the subjects are for the most part an everlasting stand'. They stated their intention to be more outspoken than they had ever been for Elizabeth, in consideration for her age and sex. The second session met in a state of anti-Catholic paranoia after the failed Gunpowder Plot. It voted four subsides to the King, and the 'Bates Case' led to an extension of customs duties, the so-called 'New Impositions'. In the last session, the Earl of Salisbury proposed the Great Contract, which would have led to the Crown giving up feudal dues in return for an annual Parliamentary salary. It failed because of faction fighting and that the Crown was asking for too much. Frustrated by the sniping of MPs at his spending on Scottish favourites, grumbling over impositions and the collapse of the Great Contract, James dissolved Parliament in 1611.

The 1614 Parliament was known as the Addled Parliament because it failed to pass laws or vote taxes. James was short of money but this session was destroyed by Court faction fighting. The Howards were alarmed at the emergence of the Protestant faction and circulated rumours that James had manipulated the elections. Parliament requested that James give up impositions for a once-only grant. James angrily closed Parliament once the faction fighting got out of control.

The 1621 Parliament was called to debate religion, foreign policy, the revival of impeachment and the abuse of monopolies. The Duke of Buckingham was under pressure because of royal spending and the Spanish marriage policy. He sought to deflect Parliament by offering Francis Bacon as a sacrifice on bribery charges, and covertly encouraged Commons' outrage over foreign policy in the hope James would opt for a dissolution. The House of Commons got bogged down and only 19 out of 100 bills were passed. A subsidy was voted, but Parliament drew up a Protestation claiming that they 'had the right to discuss and advise the King on foreign and religious policy'. James ignored it and tore the Protestation out of the Commons Journal. The money voted was not enough for the active foreign policy (the Spanish had attacked the Palatinate in 1618 and James' daughter Elizabeth was married to the Protestant Prince Frederick).

In 1623 Buckingham and Prince Charles had travelled to Madrid in an attempt to woo the Infanta. Snubbed, they returned to England, calling for war with Spain. The Protestants backed them and James called Parliament, demanding six subsidies to pay for war and telling Parilament how much war would cost. James allowed MPs to talk more because he needed them in a good mood to grant money and ratify the marriage contract of Charles and Henrietta Maria of France. Parliament was being used by Buckingham to destroy his old enemies, and so much chaos resulted that James summed it up well when he told Buckingham 'you are making a rod with which you will be scourged yourself'. Charles even started contradicting his father in Parliament, demanding an act to passed banning the issue of monopolies. James, however, got the marriage ratified and three of his six subsidies, which was not enough to pay for a war he did not want. James had no intention of fighting a war he could not afford. Buckingham managed to impeach Cranfield, and Charles had got his ambitions under way. The Commons had been tricked into giving money for debt payment and became a stage for infighting and feuding.

James was finding it more difficult to control Parliament towards the end of his reign. The ageing King was almost senile by 1624 and his inability to stop infighting, especially that orchestrated by Buckingham, was to prove disastrous for Charles' Parliaments.

Along with Alfred the Great, King James is considered to have been one of the most intellectual and learned individuals ever to sit on any English, Scottish or British throne, and as a partial result, much of the cultural flourishing of Elizabethan England continued. James himself was talented scholar, and published several books in Latin. He is also remembered for authorising the production of the King James Version of the Bible, the highly popular English translation from Greek and Hebrew. Beyond that, he wrote several works himself, including Daemonologie (1597, on witchcraft), Basilikon Doron (1599) and A Counterblast to Tobacco (1604). However, he lacked Elizabeth's business skills. His expenditures always outran his revenue, and after the death of the capable Earl of Salisbury there were no real attempts to put the government on a sound financial footing.

He also held the title of King of France, as had all his predecessors on the English throne since October 21, 1422 although by his time the title didn't imply an active claim for that throne. His successors continued to use the title until the Act of Union 1800.

James was responsible for the building of the Banqueting House at the Palace of Whitehall.

On April 12, 1606 the original Union Flag (then simply known as the British flag, rather than the Union Flag / Union Jack), combining the red cross of St. George of England and the saltire of St. Andrew of Scotland, was created for James.

In the 1590s, he attended the North Berwick Witch Trial in which several people were accused of having created a storm in an attempt to sink the ship on which James and Anne had been travelling back from Denmark. This made him very concerned about the threat that witches and witchcraft were posing to himself and the country. He wrote the aforementioned treatise on demonology. In 1604, the first year of James's reign, he broadened Elizabeth's Witchcraft Act to bring the penalty of death without benefit of clergy to any one who invoked evil spirits or communed with familiar spirits.

When James inherited the English throne from Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, it was openly joked of the new English monarch in London that Rex fuit Elizabeth: nunc est regina Jacobus (Elizabeth was King: now James is Queen). Although such "jokes" are more evidence of English arrogance and sense of superiority over what they considered a backward and provincial Scottish court, it is true that one area of James VI & I's life that for many years remained clouded in controversy were allegations that James was in fact homosexual. While his close relationships with a number of men were noted, earlier historians questioned their sexual nature.

Although James strongly condemned homosexual behavior in his writing Basilicon Doron, few modern historians cast any doubt on the King's homosexuality and the fact that his sexuality and choice of male partners both as King of Scotland then later in London as King of England were the subject of gossip from the taverns to the Privy Council. His relationship as a teenager with Esmé Stuart, Seigneur d'Aubigny, Earl of Lennox was criticised by Scottish church leaders, who were part of a conspiracy to keep the young King and the French courtier apart. Lennox, facing threats of death, was forced to leave Scotland. In the 1580s, King James openly kissed Francis Stewart Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. Contemporary sources clearly hinted their relationship as sexual.

Historians have debated whether James was unwise in his choice of male partners, from page-boy-turned-Gentleman-of-the-Bedchamber Robert Carr (made Earl of Somerset) to royal-cupbearer-turned-Earl-of-Buckingham, George Villiers, whose relationship with the King was discussed at the Privy Council (James called Villiers his 'wife' and he Villiers' 'husband'.) Buckingham in particular came to play a major part in the governance of the English kingdom, though historians differ on whether Buckingham's impact was positive or negative.

It must also be remembered that distrust and hatred of the power of George Villiers will have coloured contemporary accounts, and that what were little more than the gentility and affection shown in the manners of the French Court, which the Scots Court was beginning to accept, was exaggerated for political gain.

James VI/I died in 1625 of gout and senility and is buried in the Henry VII chapel in Westminster Abbey. When on 23 August 1628 Buckingham was assassinated, he was buried in a tomb to King James' right in the Henry VII chapel. Another of James' male favourites was buried in a tomb on the King's left.

James's second son, Charles, succeeded James on the throne as King Charles I, in 1625.

• "Monarchy is the greatest thing on earth. Kings are rightly called gods since just like God they have power of life and death over all their subjects in all things. They are accountable to God only ... so it is a crime for anyone to argue about what a king can do" [1]
• "Kings...have power of raising and casting down, of life and death, judges over all their subjects...and yet accountable to none but God only."
• "A Scotch Presbytery agreeth as well with monarchy as God with the devil. Then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet, and at their pleasure censure me and my council...Until you find that I grow lazy, let that alone..."

• Fraser, Antonia. King James VI of Scotland and James I of England (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974)
• Lee, Maurice. England's Solomon: James VI and I in his Three Kingdoms (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990)
• G.P.V. (ed.). Letters of King James VI & I. (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1984)
• Young, Michael B. King James and the History of Homosexuality. (New York : New York University Press, 2000) + -
• Rictor Norton, "Queen James and His Courtiers", The Great Queens of History, updated 8 Jan. 2000 http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/jamesi.htm.