For the Love of the Royal Family by Roger Bryan

Author:Roger Bryan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Summersdale Publisher

JAMES I

1566–1625, reigned 1603–1625

Son of Henry Stuart and Mary, Queen of Scots (James I of England also reigned as James VI of Scotland from 1567–1625)

Elizabeth I had died without issue and this signified the end of the Tudor dynasty. Her successor was James VI of Scotland, who had already been on the Scottish throne for 36 years. He became James I of England, the first Stuart king.

For the first time, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland were ruled by the same monarch.

James’s claim to the throne came through his great-grandmother, Margaret Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII. He was crowned King of Scotland when he was 13 months old after his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, was taken away and imprisoned in England. He never saw her again.

In 1603, James ascended the English throne, peacefully. He left Edinburgh for London and the English lords entertained him with lavish hospitality along the route south. James was amazed by the wealth of his new kingdom, announcing that he was ‘swapping a stony couch for a deep feather bed’. He liked it so much that during his 22 years in England, he returned to Scotland only once.

Sir Walter Scott said of James that he was ‘exceedingly like an old gander, running about and cackling all manner of nonsense’. Henry IV of France is said to have called him ‘the wisest fool in Christendom’. Both quotations are apt, for James was learned yet ridiculous and clumsy, clownish and well-read, awkward and witty, feeble and blustering. He slobbered, had a speech impediment and a most unregal bearing: ‘A lifetime of gluttony and immoderate drinking had much reshaped his head and body,’ according to American historian David Price. He was married and had seven children, but was openly homosexual.

James I was a foremost exponent and defender of the Divine Right of Kings. This doctrine asserts that monarchs derive their right to rule directly from the will of God. Therefore, the monarch could not be held accountable for his or her actions by any earthly authority such as a parliament. Understandably, this did not go down too well with many members of Parliament. He ruled for long periods without Parliament.

His lack of popularity extended beyond the governing classes: James aimed to convert everybody to Protestantism, and it was not long before unrest set in with a number of Catholics plotting against the King.

GUNPOWDER, TREASON AND PLOT

The most audacious and famous plan was what became known as the Gunpowder Plot: a conspiracy to blow up the Houses of Parliament and King James at the State Opening of Parliament in 1605. One of the conspirators tipped off a fellow Catholic, who immediately told the authorities. Around midnight on 5 November 1605, soldiers searched the cellars of Parliament and caught Guy Fawkes red-handed, with 36 barrels of gunpowder – and a smoking gun, or rather a length of slow taper in his hand. The 12 plotters were rounded up, tortured and executed. An American newspaper at the time would have reported the terrorist incident as 11/5.

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