James I

James I or James VI of Scotland (1566-1625), King of England (1603-1625) and, as James VI, King of Scotland (1567-1625).

Born on June 19, 1566, in Edinburgh Castle, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. When Mary was forced to abdicate in 1567, he was proclaimed King of Scotland, at the age of one year. A succession of regents ruled the kingdom until 1576, when James became nominal ruler. The boy king was little more than a puppet in the hands of political intriguers until 1581. In that year, with the aid of his favourites, James Stuart, Earl of Arran, and Esmé Stuart, Duke of Lennox, James assumed actual rule of Scotland. Scotland was at that time divided domestically by conflict between Protestants and Roman Catholics, and in foreign affairs by those favouring an alliance with France and those supporting England. In 1582 James was kidnapped by a group of Protestant nobles headed by William Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie, and was held virtual prisoner until he escaped the next year.

In 1586, by the Treaty of Berwick, James formed an alliance with his cousin, Elizabeth of England, and the following year, after the execution of his mother, he succeeded in reducing the power of the great Catholic nobles. His marriage to Anne of Denmark in 1589 brought him for a time into close relationship with the Protestants. After the Gowrie conspiracy of 1600, an alleged kidnap attempt at Gowrie House that gave the king an excellent pretext to move against the Gowrie family, James introduced bishops into the Church of Scotland, undermining its Presbyterian character, and assumed the title of Lord of the Isles to increase his control of the Highland nobility.

In 1603 Elizabeth I died childless, and James succeeded her as James I, the first Stuart king of England. In 1604 he ended England’s war with Spain, and he began the Ulster Plantation in 1607, but he could not solve the English Crown’s deep-seated political and financial problems. His choice of favourites, first Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester, and subsequently Earl of Somerset (who was imprisoned for poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury), and later George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (who was assassinated), also led to difficulties with Parliament.

Although James was a Protestant, he was not as radical as some of his Protestant subjects in Scotland and England. In Scotland, Protestants such as Andrew Melville supported a Presbyterian Church, which would govern itself without interference from the king. James preferred the Church of England, of which he was the head. But some of his English subjects, those associated with Puritanism, wanted the English Church to become more like the Scottish Church. In 1604 James convoked the Hampton Court Conference to answer Puritan demands for Church reform. Here he authorized a celebrated new English translation of the Bible, generally called the King James Version (see Bible: The Bible in English); he also supported the bishops of the Church of England against radical Protestant reformers. Roman Catholic disappointment with James, the son of the Catholic “martyr queen” Mary, Queen of Scots, led to the abortive Gunpowder Plot in 1605.

James tried unsuccessfully to advance the cause of religious peace in Europe, giving his daughter Elizabeth in marriage in 1613 to the elector of the Palatinate, Frederick V, the leader of the German Protestants. When, despite this, the Thirty Years’ War broke out, and Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II forced Elizabeth and her husband into exile, he sought to end the conflict by attempting to arrange a marriage between his son, Charles, and the Infanta of Spain, effectively the principal Catholic power. When he was rebuffed, James formed an alliance with France and declared war on Spain. James I died on March 27, 1625, and was succeeded to the throne by his son Charles, who became Charles I.

Some historians have suggested that James I was not a good king. His biographers have criticized his taste for alcohol, his temper, his obsession with popular beliefs such as witchcraft, his debauched lifestyle, and his love of hunting. However, James was an intelligent and active monarch, who took part in debates with critics of his government, such as Andrew Melville. After 1603 he took a keen interest in the work of his Council, communicating by letter when he was away from London. James tried to bring the kingdoms of England and Scotland together in law, but was prevented by Parliament.

James was a natural scholar. On a visit to Cambridge in 1615 he engaged some of the University’s fellows in argument and debate. He wrote and published books on political theory and owned an extensive library. As a boy he had been taught by the renowned humanist and radical Protestant George Buchanan, who gave him an excellent education.