James Charles Stuart
James VI and I
King James I,
(June 19, 1566 Š March 27, 1625) is my 22nd cousin, 11 times removed. Our ancestors in common are Eystein Glumra
Ivarsson and Aseda Rognvaldsdatter. They are James' 21st great grandparents and my 32nd great grandparents. Eystein Glumra Ivarsson and Aseda
Rognvaldsdatter are ninth century Vikings from Norway.
Described in another genealogical
manner, James I is the 6th cousin, twice removed of Edward Carleton,
the husband of Ellen Newton, the step-daughter of my 6th great grand
uncle, Dannette Abney (born 1712).
James I was born in 1566 to Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Henry Stewart, Lord
Darnley. James descended from the Tudors through Margaret, daughter of
Henry VII: both Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stewart were grandchildren
of Margaret Tudor. James ascended the Scottish throne upon the abdication
of his mother in 1567, but Scotland was ruled by regent until James reached his
majority. He married Anne of Denmark in 1589, who bore him three sons and
four daughters: Henry, Elizabeth, Margaret, Charles, Robert, Mary and
Sophia. He was named successor to the English throne by his cousin,
Elizabeth I, and ascended that throne in 1603. James died of a stroke in
1625 after ruling Scotland for 58 years and England for 22 years.
Religious dissension was the basis
of an event that confirmed and fueled James' paranoia: the Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605. Guy Fawkes and four other Catholic dissenters were caught attempting to blow up
the House of Lords on a day in which the King was to open the session.
The conspirators were executed, but a fresh wave of anti-Catholic sentiments
washed across England.
James also was at times at cross
purposes with the Puritans who became vigorous in their demands on the King,
resulting in the first wave of English immigrants to North America. The
ship Mayflower in 1620 was the first to complete the Atlantic crossing of these
Pilgrims. Its 102 passengers included William Bradford, my seventh great grandfather, who became Governor of Plymouth Colony for several dozen years in the 1600's.
After the Gunpowder Plot, James
sanctioned harsh measures to control non-conforming English
Catholics. In May 1606, Parliament passed the Popish Recusants Act, which could require any citizen to take an Oath of Allegiance denying the Pope's authority over the king, James was
conciliatory towards Catholics who took the Oath of Allegiance, and
tolerated crypto-Catholicism even at court. Henry Howard,
for example, was a crypto-Catholic, received back into the Catholic Church in
his final months. On ascending the English throne, James suspected that he
might need the support of Catholics in England, so he assured the Earl of Northumberland, a prominent sympathiser of
the old religion, that he would not persecute "any that will be quiet and
give but an outward obedience to the law."
In the Millenary Petition of 1603, the Puritan clergy
demanded the abolition of confirmation, wedding rings, and the term
"priest", among other things, and that the wearing of cap and surplice become
optional. James was strict in enforcing conformity at first, inducing a
sense of persecution amongst many Puritans; but ejections and suspensions
from livings became rarer as the reign continued. As a result of the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, a new translation and compilation of
approved books of the Bible was commissioned to resolve discrepancies among
different translations then being used. The Authorized King James Version, as it came to be known, was completed in 1611 and is
considered a masterpiece of Jacobean prose. It is still in widespread use.
In Scotland, James attempted to bring the
Scottish kirk "so neir as can be" to the English church and to
reestablish episcopacy,
a policy that met with strong opposition from presbyterians. James returned to Scotland in 1617 for the only
time after his accession in England, in the hope of implementing Anglican
ritual. James's bishops forced his Five Articles of Perth through a General Assembly the following year, but the
rulings were widely resisted. James left the church in Scotland divided at
his death, a source of future problems for his son.
James, however, did manage to
commission an Authorized Version of the Bible, printed in English in 1611. It is what
commonly is known as the King James version of the Bible.
The relationship between King and
Parliament steadily eroded. Extravagant spending (particularly on James'
favorites), inflation and bungled foreign policies discredited James in the
eyes of Parliament. Parliament flatly refused to disburse funds to a king
who ignored their concerns and were annoyed by rewards lavished on favorites
and great amounts spent on decoration. James awarded over 200 peerages (landed
titles) as, essentially, bribes designed to win loyalty, the most controversial
of which was his creation of George Villiers (his closest advisor and
companion) as Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham was highly influential in foreign
policy, which failed miserably. James tried to kindle Spanish relations
by seeking a marriage between his son Charles and the Spanish Infanta (who was
less than receptive to the clumsy overtures of Charles and Buckingham), and by
executing Sir Walter Raleigh at the behest of Spain.
Source: http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon46.html
King James' critiques cite as a defect in
his character his public friendship with George Villiers, the Duke of
Buckingham, who was considered an active homosexual, even though he married and
gave issue to children. The King's reliance upon Villiers' influence in
the matters of court was just too chummy for some people. Villiers
continued to be a public distraction in the subsequent administration of King
Charles I.
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Villiers,_1st_Duke_of_Buckingham
On January 31, 1606, Guy Fawkes,
convicted for his part in the Gunpowder Plot against the English Parliament and
King James I, was executed.
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes
After about the age of fifty, James
suffered increasingly from arthritis, gout and kidney stones. He
also lost his teeth and drank heavily. The King was often seriously ill
during the last year of his life, leaving him an increasingly peripheral
figure, rarely able to visit London, while Buckingham consolidated his control
of Charles to ensure his own future. One theory is that James may have
suffered from porphyria, a
disease of which his descendant George III of the United Kingdom exhibited some symptoms. James described his
urine to physician Thˇodore de Mayerne as being the "dark red colour of Alicante wine."The theory is dismissed by some experts,
particularly in James's case, because he had kidney stones which can lead to
blood in the urine, colouring it red.
In early 1625, James was plagued by
severe attacks of arthritis, gout, and fainting fits, and fell seriously ill in
March with tertian ague and
then suffered a stroke. He died at Theobalds House on
27 March during a violent attack of dysentery,
with Buckingham at his bedside. James's funeral on 7 May was a magnificent
but disorderly affair. Bishop John Williams of
Lincoln preached the sermon, observing, "King Solomon died
in Peace, when he had lived about sixty years ... and so you know did King
James". The sermon was later printed as Great Britain's Salomon.
At 57 years and 246
days, James's reign in Scotland was longer than those of any of his
predecessors.
He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced great difficulties in
England, including the Gunpowder
Plot in 1605
and repeated conflicts with the English Parliament. Under James, the "Golden Age" of Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such
as William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Francis Bacon contributing to a flourishing literary culture. James
himself was a talented scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie (1597), The True Law
of Free Monarchies
(1598), and Basilikon Doron (1599). He sponsored the translation of the Bible into English that would later be named
after him: the Authorised King James Version. Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed "the wisest
fool in Christendom", an epithet associated with his
character ever since. Since the latter half of the 20th century, historians
have tended to revise James's reputation and treat him as a serious and
thoughtful monarch. He was strongly committed to a peace policy, and tried to
avoid involvement in religious wars, especially the Thirty Years' War (1618Š1648) that devastated Germany and much of Central Europe. He tried but failed to
prevent the rise of hawkish elements in the English Parliament who wanted war with Spain.
James was buried in Westminster Abbey. The position of the tomb was lost for many years until his lead
coffin was found in the Henry VII vault
in the 19th century, during an excavation.
Compilation by
Dwight Albert (D. A.)
Sharpe
805 Derting Road East
Aurora, TX 76078-3712
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