James I of England

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King James VI and I
King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland
Reign	24 July 1567 - 27 March 1625 (Scotland) 24 March 1603 - 27 March 1625 (England and Ireland)
Born	June 19, 1566
	Edinburgh Castle
Died	March 27, 1625
	Theobalds House
Buried	Westminster Abbey
Predecessor	Mary, Queen of Scots (Scotland) Elizabeth I (England)
Successor	Charles I
Consort	Anne of Denmark
Issue	Henry Frederick, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Margaret Stuart, Charles I, Robert Stuart
Royal House	Stuart
Father	Lord Darnley
Mother	Mary, Queen of Scots

James VI and I (James Stuart) (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland. He was the first to style himself King of Great Britain. He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567; from the 'Union of the Crowns', he ruled in England and Ireland as James I, from 24 March 1603 until his death. He was the first monarch of England from the House of Stuart, succeeding the last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I, who died without issue.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Childhood as King James VI of Scotland 2.1 Birth 2.2 Regencies 2.3 Catholic uprising 3 Ascent to the throne of England 3.1 Relationship with Elizabeth I 3.2 Marriage 3.3 Witch trials and Sodomy Act 3.4 Proclaimed James I of England 4 Early reign in England 4.1 Political challenges 4.2 The Addled Parliament 4.3 Religious challenges 4.4 Relationships with Roman Catholicism 4.5 Gunpowder, treason and plot 5 Later years 5.1 Continuing problems with Parliament 5.2 Thirty Years' War 5.3 Relationship with Spain 5.4 The Church in Scotland 6 Personal relationships 7 Death 8 Legacy 8.1 Historical 8.2 Religious and Literary 8.3 Geographical 8.4 Popular culture 9 Criticism and revisionism 10 Style and arms 11 Ancestors 12 Issue 13 Descendants 14 See also 15 Notes 16 Bibliography 17 External links

[edit] Summary

James was a successful monarch in Scotland, but was burdened with great difficulties ruling England. He was involved in many conflicts with an active and hostile English Parliament. Together, his taste for political absolutism, his inability to manage the kingdom's funds and his cultivation of unpopular favourites established the foundation for the English Civil War—which ended with James's son and successor, Charles I, being tried and executed. During James's own life, however, the governments of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were relatively stable. James also exercised a degree of religious tolerance until the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, after which he reinforced strict penalties on Roman Catholics.^[1]

Under James, much of the culture flourishing in Elizabethan England continued; science, literature and art, contributed by eminent persons such as Sir Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare, grew tremendously during his reign. James himself was a talented scholar: the author of works such as Daemonologie (1597), The True Law of Free Monarchies (1598), Basilikon Doron (1599) and A Counterblaste to Tobacco (1604). He was known by the epithet "the wisest fool in Christendom."^[2]

[edit] Childhood as King James VI of Scotland

[edit] Birth

James was the only child of Mary I, Queen of Scots and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Duke of Albany, commonly known as Lord Darnley. James was a descendant of Henry VII through his great-grandmother Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. (Margaret Tudor was mother of Margaret Douglas, the future countess of Lennox and mother of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. She was the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots, through her son James V). Mary's rule over Scotland was insecure, for both she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion of Protestant noblemen. Their marriage was a particularly difficult one. While Mary was pregnant with James, Lord Darnley secretly allied himself with the rebels and murdered the Queen's private secretary, David Rizzio.

James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and as the eldest son of the monarch and heir-apparent, automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. He received the name Charles James—the first name after his godfather Charles IX of France—thereby becoming the first British monarch to have more than one forename.

James's father Henry was murdered on 10 February 1567 at the Hamiltons' house, Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge of Rizzio's death. Mary's marriage on 15 May, also in 1567, to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering him, increased her unpopularity. In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle. Mary was forced to abdicate on 24 July in favour of James, then still an infant.

British Royalty
House of Stuart
James VI & I
Henry, Prince of Wales
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia
Charles I
Robert, Duke of Kintyre
Charles I
Charles II
James II & VII
Henry, Duke of Gloucester
Mary, Princess Royal
Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans
Charles II
James II & VII
Mary II
Anne
James Francis Edward Stuart
Grandchildren
Charles Edward Stuart
Henry Benedict Stuart
Mary II & William III
William III
Anne
William, Duke of Gloucester

[edit] Regencies

James was formally crowned as James VI, King of Scotland at The Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling, (i.e., the "Holy Rood", or Holy Cross) on 29 July 1567 at the age of one. In deference to the religious beliefs of most of the Scottish ruling class, he was brought up as a member of the Protestant National Church of Scotland, and educated by men with Presbyterian sympathies.

During his childhood, power was held by a series of regents, the first of whom was James Stuart, 1st Earl of Moray, his mother's illegitimate half-brother. The historian and poet George Buchanan took responsibility for James' education.

In 1568, Mary escaped from prison, leading to a brief period of violence. Lord Moray defeated Mary's troops at the Battle of Langside, forcing her to flee to England, where she was subsequently imprisoned by Elizabeth. Lord Moray was assassinated by one of Mary's supporters in 1570. He was succeeded by James's paternal grandfather, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, who was killed in battle in 1571. The subsequent regent, John Erskine, 1st Earl of Mar, died of natural causes in 1572. The last and most effectual of the regents was James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, who during the two previous regencies had been the most powerful Scottish nobleman. When Lord Morton was executed in 1581, for his alleged part in the murder of James's father, James himself thenceforth held power.

[edit] Catholic uprising

James faced a Roman Catholic uprising in 1588, and was forced to reconcile with the Church of Scotland, agreeing to repeal the Black Acts in 1592. For fear of angering English Catholics, he also agreed to pardon some of his Catholic opponents, which in turn angered the Protestant Church. In 1600, John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie (son of the Earl of Gowrie, executed in 1584) took part in a conspiracy against James. Upon its failure, Gowrie and his associates were executed; and even the Protestant nobles began to suffer persecution.

[edit] Ascent to the throne of England

[edit] Relationship with Elizabeth I

In 1586, James VI and Queen Elizabeth I became allies under the Treaty of Berwick. James sought to maintain her favour, for he was a potential successor to her Crown. Because Henry VIII had feared that the English Crown would go to a Scot, in his will he excluded Margaret Tudor, James's great-grandmother, and her descendants from the line of succession. Although excluded by the will—which, under an Act of Parliament, had the force of law—both Mary, Queen of Scots, and James were serious claimants to the English Crown, for they were Elizabeth I's closest relatives.

Also in 1586, Mary was implicated in the Babington Plot, which sought to put her on the throne of England after Elizabeth was murdered. Elizabeth had previously spared Mary's life after the Ridolfi Plot but could no longer tolerate the danger she posed; and as a consequence, Mary was executed in 1587. James was the Heir Presumptive to the English Crown, but for the will of Henry VIII.

[edit] Marriage

After Mary's execution and the decline of Mary's support in Scotland, James significantly reduced the influence of the Roman Catholic nobles in Scotland. He further endeared himself to Protestants by marrying Anne of Denmark and Norway—a princess from a Protestant country and daughter of Frederick II of Denmark and Norway—by proxy in 1589. Another marriage ceremony, this time with both parties personally present, occurred on 23 November 1589 in the Old Bishops' Palace in Oslo during James's visit to the Kingdom of Norway.

The couple produced eight living children and one stillborn. Only three survived infancy: Henry, Prince of Wales who died of typhoid in 1612 aged 19; Charles, who was to succeed his father as Charles I; and Elizabeth, later Queen of Bohemia.

[edit] Witch trials and Sodomy Act

James returned from Denmark via Leith on 1 May, and soon afterward, attended the trial of the North Berwick Witches, in which several people were convicted of having used witchcraft to create a storm intended for the ship carrying James and Anne. James became obsessed with the threat witches and witchcraft posed to him and his country. He wrote a treatise on demonology; as a result of which, hundreds of Scottish men and women were put to death for witchcraft, their bodies later being found in what was then called Nor Loch, now Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh.

Intent on strengthening the Church of England and reaffirming the Buggery Act 1533, James adopted a severe stance towards sodomy. His book on kingship, Basilikon Doron 1598, lists sodomy among those “horrible crimes which ye are bound in conscience never to forgive.”

[edit] Proclaimed James I of England

Upon the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, under the terms of Henry's will, the Crown should have passed to Lady Anne Stanley, a descendant of Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor. (Elizabeth's second cousin once-removed, Viscount Beauchamp, son of Lady Catherine Grey, would have been more senior had he not become illegitimate on the annulment of his parents' marriage.)

As neither Beauchamp nor Lady Anne nor any other was powerful enough to defend their claim, an Accession Council met and proclaimed James King of England. He and his wife were crowned on 25 July 1603 at Westminster Abbey. However, Scotland and England remained separate states (see Personal union); it was not until 1707 that the Acts of Union merged the two nations to create a new state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.

[edit] Early reign in England

[edit] Political challenges

James' chief political advisor was Robert Cecil, 1st Baron Cecil of Essendon, the younger son of Elizabeth I's favoured minister, Lord Burghley. He was created Earl of Salisbury in 1605. Cecil's place as James I's primary advisor should have provided continuity between the parliament of Elizabeth and that of James, but for James embroilment in numerous conflicts with Parliament. Accustomed to the timid Scottish Parliament, he was not able to handle the more aggressive English one.

Before James's accession to the English throne he had written The True Law of Free Monarchies, in which he argued that the divine right of kings was sanctioned by the apostolic succession. This idea appears to have been the primary influence in James's difficulty in sharing power with his government. His written work would earn him the title 'The Scottish Solomon'; but historians such as J.P. Kenyon suggest that the title was often used sarcastically, citing a rumour that Henry IV of France, upon hearing the title used, commented 'that he hoped he was not David the fiddler's son' - a reference to Mary Stuart's music-loving secretary, David Rizzio, and to the fact that the biblical Solomon, with his fabled wisdom, was the son of King David, a harpist and composer.

On October 20th, 1604, James proclaimed himself “King of Great Britain”, being the first monarch to do so,^[3] although the United Kingdom of Great Britain would not exist until the Acts of Union in 1707.

In 1605, Parliament approved four subsidies to the King, who still considered this to be inadequate revenue. He imposed customs duties without parliamentary consent, although no monarch had taken so bold a step since the reign of Richard II (1377-1399). The legality thereof was challenged by the merchant John Bates in 1606; the Court of Exchequer, however, ruled in the King's favour. Parliament denounced the court's decision. Its relations with James were further soured by his refusal to allow free trade.

In the last session of the first Parliament of his reign (which began in 1610), Lord Salisbury proposed the Great Contract, which would have led to the Crown giving up feudal dues in return for an annual parliamentary subsidy. The plan failed because of factionalism in Parliament. Frustrated by the members of the House of Commons and by the collapse of the Great Contract, James dissolved Parliament in 1611.

With the Crown deep in debt, James openly sold honours and titles to raise funds. In 1611, he used letters patent to invent a completely new dignity: that of Baronet, which one could become upon the payment of £1,080. One could become a Baron for about £5,000, a Viscount for about £10,000, and an Earl for about £20,000. James created new dignities to reward his courtiers. In contrast to Elizabeth, who created only eight new peers during her 45-year reign, James raised sixty-two individuals to the English Peerage.

[edit] The Addled Parliament

Lord Salisbury, one of James's chief advisors, died in 1612. James then began to involve himself in matters previously handled by his ministers. However, his personal government was disastrous because of its empty treasury; a new Parliament had to be called in 1614 to obtain approval for new taxes. This Parliament was known as the Addled Parliament because it failed to pass any legislation or impose any taxes. James dissolved Parliament after it refused to carry out his wishes.

James then ruled without Parliament for seven years. Faced with financial difficulties he sought to enter into a profitable alliance with Spain by marrying his eldest surviving son, Charles, Prince of Wales, to the daughter of the King of Spain. The proposed alliance with a Roman Catholic kingdom was not well received in Protestant England. The execution of Sir Walter Raleigh also increased James' unpopularity.

[edit] Religious challenges

Upon James I’s arrival in London, he was almost immediately faced by religious conflicts in England. He was presented with the Millenary Petition, a document which it is claimed contained one thousand signatures by Puritans requesting further Anglican Church reform. He accepted the invitation to a conference in Hampton Court, which was subsequently delayed due to the Plague. In 1604, at the Hampton Court Conference, James was unwilling to agree to most of their demands. He did, however, agree to fulfil a request which was to have far-reaching effect by authorizing an official translation of the Bible, which came to be known as the King James Bible (published in 1611).

During this year, James broadened Elizabeth's Witchcraft Act to bring the penalty of death without benefit of clergy to any one who invoked evil spirits or communed with familiar spirits. That same year, he ended England's involvement in the twenty year conflict known as the Anglo-Spanish War by signing the Treaty of London.

In 1612, the Baptist leader Thomas Helwys presented the King with a copy of his book, "A Short Declaration on the Mystery of Iniquity", possibly the first ever English text defending the principle of religious liberty. He died in prison for his pains. Also in 1612, two other Protestant dissenters, Bartholomew Legate and Edward Wightman, were burnt at the stake for heresy. "Both men emerge as the victims of a complex series of events: the king's desire to be seen as orthodox in the light of the Vorstius affair; the in-fighting for control of the ecclesiastical establishment on the elevation of George Abbot to the archbishopric of Canterbury; and the campaign of the emerging anti-Calvinist group around Bishop Richard Neile against puritans"^[4].

[edit] Relationships with Roman Catholicism

Though James was careful to accept Catholics in his realm, his Protestant subjects encouraged him not to give the Catholics equal rights. In the early years of his reign, many of his subjects did not know his policies — only that he had an extreme Protestant background — and there were a number of plots to remove him from power, such as the Bye Plot and the Main Plot.

[edit] Gunpowder, treason and plot

In 1605, a group of Catholic extremists led by Robert Catesby developed a plan, known as the Gunpowder Plot, to cause an explosion in the chamber of the House of Lords, where the King and members of both Houses of Parliament would be gathered for the State Opening. The conspirators sought to replace James with the Spanish Infanta, who was Catholic and one of the other possible heirs to the throne after Elizabeth. One of the conspirators, however, leaked information regarding the plot, which was consequently foiled.

Terrified, James refused to leave his residence for many days. Guy Fawkes, whose responsibility had been to execute the plot, was tortured on the rack until he revealed the identities of the other conspirators, all of whom were executed or killed upon capture. An effigy of Fawkes is still burned annually during Guy Fawkes Night. James's care not to strongly enforce anti-Catholic doctrine thereafter ensured that there were no more plots after 1605.

[edit] Later years

[edit] Continuing problems with Parliament

The third and penultimate Parliament of James' reign was summoned in 1621. The House of Commons agreed to grant James a small subsidy to signify their loyalty, but then, to the displeasure of the King, moved on to personal matters directly involving the King. The practice of selling monopolies and other privileges was also deprecated. The House of Commons sought to impeach Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, who was implicated in the sale of such privileges during his service as Lord Chancellor, on charges of corruption. The House of Lords convicted Bacon, who was duly removed from office. Although the impeachment was the first in centuries, James did not oppose it, believing that sacrificing Bacon could help deflect parliamentary opposition. In the end, James released Bacon from prison and granted him a full pardon.

[edit] Thirty Years' War

From 1618 onwards, the religious conflict known as the Thirty Years' War engulfed Europe. James was forced to become involved because his daughter, Elizabeth, was married to the Protestant Frederick V, Elector Palatine, one of the war's chief participants. He was also put under pressure to join the religious war because England, at the time, was one of the major Protestant nations.

A new constitutional dispute arose as a result. James was eager to aid his son-in-law, the Elector-Palatine, and requested Parliament for a subsidy. The House of Commons, in turn, requested that the King abandon the alliance with Spain. When James declared that the lower House had overstepped its bounds by offering unsolicited advice, the House of Commons passed a protest claiming that it had the right to debate any matter relating to the welfare of the Kingdom. James ordered the protest torn out of the Commons Journal, and dissolved Parliament.

[edit] Relationship with Spain

In 1623, the Duke of Buckingham and Charles, the Prince of Wales, travelled to Madrid in an attempt to secure a marriage between the latter and the Infanta. However, they were snubbed by the Spanish courtiers, who demanded that Charles convert to Roman Catholicism. They returned to England humiliated, and called for war with Spain. When James's Spanish marriage plot failed, a humiliated Prince Charles and George Villiers urged James and his parliament to go to war. Financially, James could not afford to go to war with Spain. England would eventually join the war after James had died.

[edit] The Church in Scotland

In Scotland, James's attempt to move the Church, whose form of worship tended to be based on free-form Calvinism, in a more structured High Church direction with the introduction of the Five Articles of Perth, met with widespread popular resistance. Always the practical politician in Scottish matters, the king, while insisting on the form of the law, did little to ensure its observance.

[edit] Personal relationships

Main article: Personal relationships of James I of England

It was said of him in the streets, "Elizabeth was King: now James is Queen" ("Rex fuit Elizabeth, nunc est regina Jacobus").^[5] Throughout his life he had deep emotional relationships with his male courtiers, beginning with his older relative Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox. At the same time, he was not much interested in his wife. At first, James and Queen Anne were close, but gradually they drifted apart. After the death of their daughter Sophia, they agreed to live separately.^{[citation needed]}

His behaviour with the late Lennox and his distancing himself from his wife attracted wide attention. Francis Osborne noted in a memoir, not published until many years later during Cromwell’s day, that "The love the King showed men was amorously conveyed as if he had mistaken their sex and thought them ladies, which I have seen Somerset and Buckingham labour to resemble in the effeminateness of their dressings; though in whorish looks and wanton gestures they exceeded any part of womankind my conversation did ever cope withal. Nor was his love, or whatever posterity will please to call it… carried on with a discretion sufficient to cover a less scandalous behaviour; for the king’s kissing them after so lascivious a mode in public, and upon the theatre, as it were, of the world, prompted many to imagine some things done in the tiring house that exceed my expressions no less than they do my experience, and therefore left them upon the waves of conjecture, which hath in my hearing tossed them from one side to another."^{[citation needed]}

A diary entry by Sir Simonds D'Ewes, after having spoken with James, said, "I discoursed with him of the things that were secret, as of the sin of sodomy, how frequent it was in the wicked city (London), and if God did not provide some wonderful blessing against it, we could not but expect some horrible punishment for it; especially it being, as we had probable cause to fear, a sin in the prince as well as the people, which God is for the most part chastiser of himself, because no man else indeed dare reprove or tell them of their faults."^{[citation needed]}

His severe stance against sodomy might be explained by pressure to respond to criticisms about his relationships. However, Jeremy Bentham in an unpublished manuscript denounced James as a hypocrite after his crackdown: "[James I], if he be the author of that first article of the works which bear his name, and which indeed were owned by him, reckons this practise among the few offences which no Sovereign ever ought to pardon. This must needs seem rather extraordinary to those who have a notion that a pardon in this case is what he himself, had he been a subject, might have stood in need of."^[6] Other nobles with whom James was close, and suspected of homosexual relations, included Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.

[edit] Death

James lapsed into senility during the last year of his reign. Real power passed to Charles and to the Duke of Buckingham, although James kept enough power to ensure that a new war with Spain did not occur while he was King. James died at Theobalds House in 1625 of 'tertian ague' probably brought upon by kidney failure and stroke, and was buried in the Henry VII Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey. Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded him as Charles I. James had ruled in Scotland for almost sixty years; the only English, Scottish or British monarchs to have surpassed this mark have been Victoria and George III.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Historical

Almost immediately after James I's death, Charles I became embroiled in disputes with Parliament. The disputes escalated until the English Civil War began during the 1640s, culminating in Charles I's execution for treason. The following Parliamentary period lasted for eleven years, 1649-1660. The Stuart dynasty was restored in 1660 with Charles I's son, Charles II coming to the throne. Some historians, particularly Whig historians, blame James for the Civil War. However, the general view now is that Charles I was more responsible for the state of affairs in 1640 than his predecessor.

[edit] Religious and Literary

James I’s religious tolerance, compared with that of his predecessors, permitted the continued existence of Catholicism in England and Scotland, the continuation of Calvinism in Scotland and the growth of Puritanism in England, while encouraging liturgical formality and "High Church" practices.

On the other hand, James’ paranoia over witchcraft eventually contributed, during the Parliamentary period, to the appointment of Matthew Hopkins, known as the Witch-finder General, and the execution of many people, mostly women, often for no greater crime than being widowed and owning a cat.^{[citation needed]}

William Shakespeare continued to write under James I as he had in the reign of Elizabeth. It is not surprising that one of his most popular plays, Macbeth, shows a would-be monarch beset by witches. Shakespeare’s witches, however, fulfil a prophetic role; it is personal ambition that causes the ensuing chaos, not spells and incantations.

The king also designed the British flag in 1603 by combining England's red cross of St. George with Scotland's white cross of St. Andrew. It is possible that the term Union Jack may have originated from "Jacobus" which is Latin for James.^[7] Technically, the term Union Jack is incorrect as "Jack" is a nautical term, thus the term is only appropriate at sea. The correct name of the flag is the Union Flag. Charles II issued a proclamation that the Flag only be flown as a Jack, a small flag off the bowsprit, on British vessels.^[8]

[edit] Geographical

In the Virginia Colony in the New World, the Jamestown Settlement, established in 1607, and the James River were named in honour of James I. In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale named his new promising "Citie of Henricus" (sic) in honour of his son, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who died in 1612. Although Henricus was wiped out in the Indian Massacre of 1622, its naming survives as Henrico County, Virginia in modern times.

[edit] Popular culture

King James was played by Dudley Sutton in the 1992 film Orlando and by Jonathan Pryce in the 2005 film The New World. Jim Cummings voiced James in Disney's direct-to-video film Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, which (quite un-historically) portrayed James as a pompous idiot. In Actus Fidei, a play by Steven Breese that premiered in 2007 at Christopher Newport University, James is portrayed as flamboyant autocrat.

[edit] Criticism and revisionism

Lacey Baldwin Smith in "This Realm of England” talks about James’s paternalism and political absolutism, including the breaking of traditional ties between the monarchy and old families, in order to decrease the political power of Catholicism. Despite his unpopularity with both Catholics and Puritans, Lacey Baldwin Smith indicates that it was his currying favour with those whom he felt could politically help him that earned the title of “The wisest fool in Christendom.” Traditionally, historians such as Samuel Rawson Gardiner and D. H. Wilson viewed James I as a poor king. This interpretation was almost solely depended on the writings of Sir Anthony Weldon. Weldon, dismissed by James for his writings against Scotland, wrote 'The Court and Character of King James'. This book influenced early 20th century historians who overlooked Weldon's bias.

Miriam Allen deFord, in her study, The Overbury Affair, writes “This slobbering, lolling King, …. a glutton and a spendthrift … came to England as a man comes to a banquet; he left government to others and occupied himself with processional visits, routs, and masques. And freed from the firm hand of Elizabeth, the courtiers ran riot, and provided under James’s influence one of the most corrupt and dissolute courts in English history.” (5)

Recent historical revisionism has argued to the contrary. Historians Gordon Donaldson and Jenny Wormald have argued for a revision of opinion towards James in the light of his successful rule in Scotland. A changed view of him has emerged since the 1970s. Also the historian Barry Coward has said 'of all the political problems in James I's reign, he dealt with religious non-conformity most successfully.'

[edit] Style and arms

Formally, James was styled "James, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc." (The claim to the Throne of France, which had been maintained since the reign of Edward III, was merely nominal.) By a proclamation of 1604, James assumed the style "James, King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc." for non-statutory use.

James's English arms, whilst he was King of England and Scotland, were: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland). James also introduced the unicorn, a symbol of Scotland, as an heraldic supporter in his armorial achievement; the other supporter remained the English lion. In Scotland, his arms were: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); II Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland), with one of the unicorns of Scotland being replaced as a heraldic supporter by a lion.

[edit] Ancestors

James VI and I's ancestors in three generations

James VI and I	Father: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley	Paternal Grandfather: Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox	Paternal Great-grandfather: John Stewart, 3rd Earl of Lennox
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Elizabeth Stewart, Countess of Lennox
		Paternal Grandmother: Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox	Paternal Great-grandfather: Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Margaret Tudor
	Mother: Mary I, Queen of Scots	Maternal Grandfather: James V of Scotland	Maternal Great-grandfather: James IV of Scotland
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Margaret Tudor
		Maternal Grandmother: Mary of Guise	Maternal Great-grandfather: Claude, Duke of Guise
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Antoinette de Bourbon

[edit] Issue

James' wife, Anne of Denmark, gave birth to nine of his children.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Henry, Prince of Wales	19 February 1594	6 November 1612
Unnamed child	July 1595	July 1595
Elizabeth Stuart	19 August 1596	13 February 1662	married 1613, Frederick V, Elector Palatine; had issue
Margaret Stuart	24 December 1598	March 1600
Charles I	19 November 1600	30 January 1649	married 1625, Henrietta Maria; had issue
Robert, Duke of Kintyre	18 February 1602	27 May 1602
Unnamed son	May 1603	May 1603
Mary Stuart	8 April 1605	16 December 1607
Sophia Stuart	22 June 1606	28 June 1606

[edit] Descendants

Descendants of King James I of England, in three generations

James I King of England, Scotland and Ireland	Children	Grand Children	Great-Grand Children
	Charles I King of England, Scotland and Ireland	Charles Stuart King Charles II King of England, Scotland and Ireland	Henry FitzRoy 1st Duke of Grafton
			Charles Lennox 1st Duke of Richmond
		James Stuart King James II King of England, Scotland and Ireland	James Francis Edward Stuart Old Pretender
			Anne of Great Britain Queen Anne of Great Britain
			Mary II of England Queen Mary II, of England, Scotland and Ireland
		Mary Stuart Princess Royal Princess of Orange	William III of England King of England, Scotland and Ireland
		Henrietta Anne Stuart Princess of England Duchess of Orléans	Maria Luisa of Orléans Queen Consort of Spain
			Anne Marie of Orléans Queen of Savoy and Sardinia
	Elizabeth of Bohemia Electress Palatine and Queen of Bohemia	Sophia of Hanover Electress of Hanover	George I King George I of Great Britain

[edit] See also

• Personal union
• King James Bible
• Jacobean era
• Jamestown, Virginia
• Union Jack

[edit] Notes

1. ^ The Stuarts > James I. Official website of the British Monarchy. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
2. ^ The wisest fool. The Economist. Retrieved on March 22, 2007.
3. ^ Velde, François R.. Royal Styles and Titles in England and Great Britain. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
4. ^ Atherton, Ian; Como, David (2005) "The Burning of Edward Wightman: Puritanism, Prelacy and the Politics of Heresy in Early Modern England", English Historical Review, Volume 120, Number 489, December 2005, Oxford University Press, pp. 1215–1250(36).
5. ^ Norton, Rictor. Queen James and His Courtiers. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
6. ^ Bentham, Jeremy. Offences Against One's Self. Journal of Homosexuality v.3:4(1978), p.389-405; continued in v.4:1(1978). Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
7. ^ Union recognition. BBC website. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
8. ^ Ceremony and Symbol > Union Jack. Official website of the British Monarchy. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.

[edit] Bibliography

• Chambers, Robert (1856). "James VI", Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. London: Blackie and Son. 
• Fraser, Antonia (1974). King James VI of Scotland, I of England. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-76775-5. 
• Lee, Maurice (1990). Great Britain's Solomon: James VI and I in his Three Kingdoms. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01686-6. 
• Stewart, Alan (2003). The Cradle King: A Life of James VI and I. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0-7011-6984-2. 
• Williamson, David (1998). The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England. London: National Portrait Gallery. ISBN 1-85514-228-7. 
• Willson, D. Harris (1956). King James VI and I. London: Jonathan Cape. 

[edit] External links

• James I Chronology
• Proclamation styling James I King of Great Britain on October 20, 1604
• James I, illustrated biography
• The Descendents of James I & VI of England & Scotland
• Works by James I of England at Project Gutenberg
• King James, at the Gunpowder Plot Society website
• King James I at Find A Grave
• King James' Original Writings and Family Tree

House of Stuart Born: June 19, 1566 Died: March 27, 1625
Preceded by Mary I	King of Scots July 29, 1567–March 27, 1625	Succeeded by Charles I
	Lord of the Isles July 29, 1567–March 27, 1625
Preceded by Elizabeth I	King of England July 25, 1603–March 27, 1625
	King of Ireland July 25, 1603–March 27, 1625
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by Lord Darnley	Duke of Albany June 19, 1566–July 29, 1567	Vacant Title next held by Charles I
Preceded by James Stewart	Duke of Rothesay June 19, 1566–July 29, 1567	Vacant Title next held by Henry Stuart