Kings & Queens
The last King of Scotland
James was the last Scottish monarch to rule a fully independent Scotland without governing by proxy from other kingdoms. A Scottish King needed to be strong-willed and able to adapt quickly especially when dealing with the touchy and volatile clan system. James proved himself to be an able negotiator and a strong leader in this regard; he stopped the country tearing itself apart with religious violence and gained universal respect from the numerous clan-based factions within the Scottish court. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the book he authored called The True Law of Free Monarchies. In it he outlined a theory of absolute monarchy by which the King, granted his prerogative powers from God, could create laws and enact commands without consulting privy counsellors or Parliaments. This was a radical and explosive idea in the British Isles, where the power of Parliament governing in partnership with the monarchy was a long-respected institution. In Scotland the Parliamentary system was easier to manage because it was smaller and relied on business being conducted personally with the King. When James journeyed south to claim his English throne he quickly found that the English Parliament was not only far larger but also more vocal in its criticism of the monarch.
Timeline
On 5 November 1605, a group of conspirators been physically harmed during the whole affair, connected to the Catholic Jesuit community in mentally it affected him greatly. He had always England acted on a plot to assassinate James by known that he’d had English enemies and now attempting to blow up Parliament. The conspirators some of them had tried to kill him. From then on were appalled at James’ overtly Protestant beliefs, he didn’t travel without guards, he wore an extraso they decided to kill him in order to install his thick doublet and carried a knife at all times for nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth as Queen in the additional protection. hopes that she would become a proFour days after the Gunpowder Plot on Catholic monarch. The plan on the 9 November, James addressed the James face of it made sense: rather than first session of Parliament with the just kill James they planned to following preamble, “it may well suffered kill his entire Protestant party at be called a roaring, nay a firing from weak knees the opening of Parliament and sin from fire and brimstone, and later developed thus create enough chaos for from the which God hath so a pro-Catholic monarch to be miraculously delivered as crippling arthritis in his installed in its wake. James was all.” The sitting MPs heartily knee joints; he was not in the Parliament building agreed. Unfortunately for James seen hobbling in when a suspicious attendant it would be about the only thing later years discovered Guy Fawkes guarding him and his Parliament would barrels of gunpowder in the cellars. agree on for the next 20 years. They When news of the conspiracy reached argued incessantly over money, religion James, he acted decisively. He was no stranger and taxation. James was furious. It was his view to intrigue of this kind and knew what had to be that a monarch be unquestioned by their subjects, done. He ordered Fawkes to be interrogated using that ruling was his business and not theirs. After a the ‘gentler tortures’ which included racking, particularly difficult session, he commented, “I will where Fawkes was tied to a device and stretched not thank where I feel no thanks due… I am not of until his bones were forced out of their sockets. In such a stock as to praise fools… I wish you would keeping with his style of dealing with matters on a make use of your liberty with more modesty in personal level, he journeyed down to the tower and times to come.” interrogated Fawkes himself, asking him how he Parliament held on to its liberty and refused could conspire ‘such a hideous a treason’. Fawkes James’ proposal for a standard lump sum of money replied: ‘A dangerous disease required a desperate to be given to him to run the country, known as remedy.’ James was appalled but he admired the ‘Great Contract’ of 1610. The MPs felt James Fawkes’ spirit, noting later that he put on a ‘Roman simply couldn’t be trusted with such a lucrative resolution.’ Eventually the King’s torturers broke proposition. James blamed the insolence of the Fawkes: he gave up his fellow conspirators and they members of the house and listened to his favourites all suffered a traitor’s death. While James had not in court who sneered at what they saw as common
Defining moment
Crowned King of England 25 July 1603
James had ruled Scotland as the sixth king of his name for 36 years when his cousin Elizabeth I died. Despite the family tension between the houses of Tudor and Stuart, he was the closest living relative of the unmarried, childless queen and became, by default, her heir. Ascending to the Scottish throne as a child, he becomes somewhat of a puppet prince for the Protestant nobles who support his rule. They ensure that he too adopts the Protestant faith, and this is a factor in his claim to the throne of England when Elizabeth dies. He becomes England’s first King James at the age of 37.
l Flight of Mary Queen of Scots After facing a Protestant uprising from her nobles, Mary is forced to abdicate and flees south into England leaving the young James at the mercy of her enemies. 24 July 1567
1566 l Birth of James James is born to Mary Queen of Scots on 19 June 1566. James is Mary’s only son and while this secures the line of succession, his mother is deeply unpopular in Scotland. 19 June 1566
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l Crowned King of Scotland The nobles ensure that James is crowned King of Scotland while he is still in his minority so they can influence his upbringing and stop him from becoming a Catholic like his mother. 29 July 1567
l Marriage to Anne of Denmark James marries Anne of Denmark by proxy to strengthen the ties of Protestant monarchies within Europe. The couple would go on to have seven children. August 1589
l Journey south After the death of Elizabeth I it is decided that James has the strongest claim to the throne of England and is invited south. He takes his household and courtiers with him. 5 April 1603