James 1

James 1st (James VIth of Scotland)
King of England
King James 1st
Reign	03/24/1603 to 03/27/1625
Born	19 June 1566
Birthplace	Edinburgh,
Died	25 March 1625 (aged 58 )
Buried	Westminster Abbey, London, 7 May 1625
Predecessor	Elizabeth 1,
Successor	Charles 1
Consort	Anne of Denmark
Issue	Charles 1, Henry, Elizabeth
Father	Henry Stuart
Mother	Mary, Queen of Scots

The Basilikon Doron repeats the argument for the Divine Right of Kings, as set out in The True Law of Free Monarchies, which was also written by James. It too warns against "Papists" and derides Puritans. It advocates removing the Apocrypha from the Bible. This is in keeping with the king’s philosophy of following a "middle path", as reflected in the preface to the 1611 King James Bible.

James believed in the Union of the Crowns. More than that a marriage between the two countries. James believed they shared the same type of Protestantism, customs and no physical boundaries. It was one island. In fact it was God's will.England rebuffed James' entreaties.

However, there was a mood of early optimisim in Ireland when James came to the throne believing he would be more tolerant of Catholics but he wanted the gentry to submit to them which they resisted. James decided to settle protestant and lowland Scots to the north of Ireland displacing the g? population. The policy was called Plantation. Despite the trouble he was storing up for the future, in the immediate future the the three Kingdoms were settled and stable.

Charles had a stammer and as a child had rickets. This was in stark contrast to the heathy, virile Henry. But Henry succumbed to typhoid at 18. Charles was ? in the limelight and MP's sought to put Elizabeth on the throne who was already married to a European protestant prince. By eighteen Charles was transformed and and accomplished horseman. James saw a chance to marry Charles to Marie Anna of the Spannish Habsburgs. Charles travelled to Spain to woo the Infanta. The English were suspicious that he might turn to Catholicism and the Spannish were certainly trying to push Charles in that direction. The terms of the marriage laid down by the Pope and Habsburg were just too much for England to accept and he married the French Catholic Henrietta.

Charles ceremonial style surprised the Scottish when he returened to Scotand eight years after taking the reign in England. His coronation was very English. He called a parliament also which was also alien to the Scottish in the way it was run. The Scottish Kirk believed it to be a perfectly formed protestant church in Europe. It was not keen on bishops or the authority of Kings and was a wellspring of Scottish identity. The introduction of Charles' new Prayer book had knealing, catholic type face and illustrations. The National Covenant that was written in response to the enforcement of the Prayer Book wanted to go back to the purity of the protestant reformation and opposed all recent innovation. The Covenant was sent all over Scotland. People stood solemnly in line to sign it. Charles saw the opposition as political and not religious and the impasse quickly decended in violent conflict between the Scottish and English armies.