The Story of England by Samuel Harding

Author:Samuel Harding
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Perennial Press

JAMES I., THE FIRST STUART KING

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UNDER THE TUDOR RULERS, THE English people submitted to arbitrary rule because great dangers threatened both church and state. In the time of the Stuart Kings, these dangers were past. The attempt of the Stuarts to rule despotically led, therefore, to a series of quarrels between King and Parliament which resulted in civil war, the execution of one King, the expulsion of another, and the final loss by the Stuarts of the crowns of both England and Scotland.

In England, Mary Stuart’s son was known as James I., though he continued to be James VI. of Scotland. He was well educated, shrewd, witty, and a lover of peace; but he lacked dignity, was physically a coward, and could never say “No” to his favorites. A foreigner at his court, in Scotland, gave this description of him:

“He speaks, eats, dresses, and plays like a boor. He is never still for a moment, but walks perpetually up and down the room. His walk is sprawling and awkward, and his voice loud. He prefers hunting to all other amusements, and will be six hours together on horseback. He is very conceited, and he underrates other princes.”

His great learning, together with this foolish conduct, led a French statesman to call him “the wisest fool in Christendom.”

One of James’s first acts was to try to unite the two kingdoms of England and Scotland into one. Englishmen, however, were jealous both of the favors which James showed to this Scotch subjects and of their trading rights. The attempt failed, and it was not until a hundred years later (1707) that England and Scotland were united under one Parliament.

The religious question gave James I. most trouble. English Puritans expected James to support them, because he came from a Presbyterian country. But James was so greatly displeased with Presbyterianism in Scotland that, when one of the English Puritans mentioned the word “presbyter,” he burst out:

“If this be all your party have to say for themselves, I will make them conform to the Church, or I will harry them out of the land.”

By this attitude James pleased the bishops, but made all Puritans his opponents.

Some small bands of Separatists took the King at his word, and left England for Holland. After a few years (1620) they passed to America, and founded Plymouth Colony. Virginia also, was founded in King James’s time (1607), but this was from motives of gain, not religion. Under James’s son, Charles I., the colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland were founded.

We cannot tell the story here of these first beginnings of a new world of English-speaking peoples across the sea; but we must not forget that it was one of the greatest events of that time.

Catholics, too, had hoped that King James would relieve them from the oppressive laws which Elizabeth had made against their religion. When this hope was disappointed, plots were formed against the King. Sir Walter Raleigh—a famous man of Elizabeth’s reign, who was

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