James vi and i biography books

Above all, while fully acknowledging James's limitations, it rescues the king from undeserved contempt. Philosopher King and Lawgiver. Texts Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs.

Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to the archive" User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. It was just that his idea of unity and oneness didn't work for England and Scotland, two countries he was destined to rule.

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers. Show full review. Jeremy Perron. Irene Carrier's James is not a biography in the traditional sense, although it does contain some biographical narrative, it is an historical overview of the reign of the first monarch to rule over a united Britain. The book is divided into several chapters devoted to separate aspects of the reign.

Each chapter has a biographical-type introduction, a timeline, and is loaded with primary sources that are mostly letters from James and his various associates. After each section of letters the author has questions for the reader--most of whom would be college students--to help them focus on the point of the letters. The subject himself is pretty fascinating.

By the time he was a baby he was the son of a murder victim when his father, Henry Stuart, was killed. The primary suspect was his mother, the Queen. During Mary's and Darnley's difficult marriage, [ 8 ] Darnley secretly allied himself with the rebels and conspired in the murder of the queen's private secretary, David Rizziojust three months before James's birth.

James was born on 19 June at Edinburgh Castleand as the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. Five days later, the English diplomat Henry Killigrew saw the queen, who had not fully recovered and could only speak faintly. The baby was "sucking at his nurse" and was "well proportioned and like to prove a goodly prince".

James vi and i biography books: As the son of Mary

Lord Darnley was murdered on 10 February at Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge for the killing of Rizzio. James inherited his father's titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross. Mary was already unpopular, and her marriage on 15 May to James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwellwho was widely suspected of murdering Darnley, heightened widespread bad feeling towards her.

She was forced to abdicate on 24 July in favour of the infant James and to appoint her illegitimate half-brother James Stewart, Earl of Morayas regent. The care of James was entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar"to be conserved, nursed, and upbrought" [ 17 ] in the security of Stirling Castle. InMary escaped from Lochleven Castle, leading to several years of sporadic violence.

The Earl of Moray defeated Mary's troops at the Battle of Langsideforcing her to flee to England, where she was subsequently kept in confinement by Elizabeth. Morton was elected to Mar's office and proved in many ways the most effective of James's regents, [ 27 ] but he made enemies by his rapacity. Lennox was a Protestant convert, but he was distrusted by Scottish Calvinists who noticed the physical displays of affection between him and the king and alleged that Lennox "went about to draw the King to carnal lust".

On 19 Septemberduring James's imprisonment, John Craigwhom the king had personally appointed royal chaplain inrebuked him so sharply from the pulpit for having issued a proclamation so offensive to the clergy "that the king wept".

James vi and i biography books: John Matusiak's "James I:

After James escaped from Falkland on 27 June[ 36 ] he assumed increasing control of his kingdom. He pushed through the Black Acts to assert royal authority over the Kirk, and denounced the writings of his former tutor Buchanan. It was disbanded within a year after a riot in Edinburgh, which was stoked by anti-Catholicism and led the court to withdraw to Linlithgow temporarily.

One last Scottish attempt against the king's person occurred in Augustwhen James was apparently assaulted by Alexander Ruthventhe younger brother of John Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie at Gowrie Housethe seat of the Ruthvens. Given James's history with the Ruthvens and the fact that he owed them a great deal of money, his account of the circumstances was not universally believed.

InJames signed the Treaty of Berwick with England. That and his mother's execution inwhich he denounced as a "preposterous and strange procedure", helped clear the way for his succession south of the border. Securing the English succession became a cornerstone of his policy. Throughout his youth, James was praised for his chastity, since he showed little interest in women.

After the loss of Lennox, he continued to prefer male company. Shortly after a proxy marriage in Copenhagen in AugustAnne sailed for Scotland but was forced by storms to the coast of Norway. By all accounts, James was at first infatuated with Anne and, in the early years of their marriage, seems always to have shown her patience and affection.

Anne suffered from recurrent bouts of sickness and was seriously ill from James visited Anne only three times during her last illness. She died before her husbandin March James's visit to Denmark, a country familiar with witch-huntssparked an interest in the study of witchcraft[ 55 ] which he considered a branch of theology. Several people were convicted of using witchcraft to send storms against James's shipmost notably Agnes Sampson.

James became concerned with the threat posed by witches and wrote Daemonologie ina tract inspired by his personal involvement that opposed the practice of witchcraft and that provided background material for Shakespeare's Macbeth.

James vi and i biography books: Looking for books by James

I pray God ye may be my heir in such discoveries The forcible dissolution of the Lordship of the Isles by James IV of Scotland in had led to troubled times for the western seaboard. James IV had subdued the organised military might of the Hebridesbut he and his immediate successors lacked the will or ability to provide an alternative form of governance.

As a result, the 16th century became known as linn nan creachthe time of raids. InJames V had toured the Hebrides, forcing the clan chiefs to accompany him. There followed a period of peace, but the clans were soon at loggerheads with one another again. Official documents describe the peoples of the Highlands as "void of the knawledge and feir of God" who were prone to "all kynd of barbarous and bestile cruelteis".

Parliament decided that Gaelic had become a principal cause of the Highlanders' shortcomings and sought to abolish it. James wrote that the colonists were to act "not by agreement" with the local inhabitants, but "by extirpation of thame". Their landing at Stornoway began well, but the colonists were driven out by local forces commanded by Murdoch and Neil MacLeod.

The colonists tried again in with the same result, although a third attempt in was more successful. In the True Lawhe sets out the divine right of kingsexplaining that kings are higher beings than other men for Biblical reasons, though "the highest bench is the sliddriest to sit upon". Basilikon Doron was written as a book of instruction for the four-year-old Prince Henry and provides a more practical guide to kingship.

And so it follows of necessity that kings were the authors and makers of the laws, and not the laws of the kings. In the s and s, James promoted the literature of his native country. It was both a poetic manual and a description of the poetic tradition in his mother tongue of Scotsapplying Renaissance principles. One act of his reign urges the Scottish burghs to reform and support the teaching of music in Sang Sculis.

In furtherance of these aims, James was both patron and head of a loose circle of Scottish Jacobean court poets and musicians known as the Castalian Bandwhich included William Fowler and Alexander Montgomerie among others, Montgomerie being a favourite of the king. By the late s, James's championing of native Scottish tradition was reduced to some extent by the increasing likelihood of his succession to the English throne.

Fromin the last years of Elizabeth's life, certain English politicians—notably her chief minister Robert Cecil [ f ] —maintained a secret correspondence with James to prepare in advance for a smooth succession. Elizabeth died in the early hours of 24 March, and James was proclaimed king in London later the same day. On 5 April, James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return every three years a promise that he did not keepand progressed slowly southwards.

James arrived in the capital on 7 May, nine days after Elizabeth's funeral. James's English coronation took place on 25 July at Westminster Abbey. An outbreak of plague restricted festivities. The kingdom to which James succeeded, however, had its problems. James survived two conspiracies in the first year of his reign, despite the smoothness of the succession and the warmth of his welcome: the Bye Plot and Main Plotwhich led to the arrest of Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham and Walter Raleighamong others.

James vi and i biography books: This new biography presents an

In the early years of James's reign, the day-to-day running of the government was tightly managed by the shrewd Cecil, later Earl of Salisburyably assisted by the experienced Thomas Egertonwhom James made Baron Ellesmere and Lord Chancellorand by Thomas Sackvillesoon Earl of Dorsetwho continued as Lord Treasurer. James was ambitious to build on the personal union of Scotland and England to establish a single country under one monarch, one parliament, and one law, a plan that met opposition in both realms.

James achieved more success in foreign policy. Never having been at war with Spain, he devoted his efforts to bringing the long Anglo—Spanish War to an end, and a peace treaty was signed between the two countries in Augustthanks to the skilled diplomacy of the delegation, in particular Robert Cecil and Henry Howard, now Earl of Northampton. James celebrated the treaty by hosting a great banquet.

A dissident Catholic, Guy Fawkeswas discovered in the cellars of the parliament buildings on the night of 4—5 Novemberthe eve of the state opening of the second session of James's first English Parliament. Fawkes was guarding a pile of wood not far from 36 barrels of gunpowder with which he intended to blow up Parliament House the following day and cause the destruction, as James put it, "not only The Earl of Salisbury exploited this to extract higher subsidies from the ensuing Parliament than any but one granted to Elizabeth.

The co-operation between monarch and Parliament following the Gunpowder Plot was atypical. Instead, it was the previous session of that shaped the attitudes of both sides for the rest of the reign, though the initial difficulties owed more to mutual incomprehension than conscious enmity. I am not of such a stock as to praise fools You see how many things you did not well I wish you would make use of your liberty with more modesty in time to come".

As James's reign progressed, his government faced growing financial pressures, partly due to creeping inflation but also to the profligacy and financial incompetence of James's court. Another potential source of income was the prospect of a Spanish dowry from a marriage between Charles, Prince of Wales, and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain. The policy was supported by the Howards and other Catholic-leaning ministers and diplomats—together known as the Spanish Party—but deeply distrusted in Protestant England.

When Walter Raleigh was released from imprisonment inhe embarked on a hunt for james vi and i biography books in South America with strict instructions from James not to engage the Spanish. Matters came to a head when James finally called a Parliament in to fund a military expedition in support of his son-in-law. In Novemberroused by Edward Cokethey framed a petition asking not only for war with Spain but also for Prince Charles to marry a Protestant, and for enforcement of the anti-Catholic laws.

In earlyPrince Charles, now 22, and Buckingham decided to seize the initiative and travel to Spain incognito, to win Infanta Maria Anna directly, but the mission proved an ineffectual mistake. Though a treaty was signed, Charles and Buckingham returned to England in October without the infanta and immediately renounced the treaty, much to the delight of the British people.

For once, the outpouring of anti-Catholic sentiment in the Commons was echoed in court, where control of policy was shifting from James to Charles and Buckingham, [ ] who pressured the king to declare war and engineered the impeachment of Lord Treasurer Lionel Cranfield, by now made Earl of Middlesexwhen he opposed the plan on grounds of cost.

In MayParliament passed the Popish Recusants Actwhich could require any subject to take an Oath of Allegiance denying the pope's authority over the king. In the Millenary Petition ofthe Puritan clergy demanded the abolition of confirmationwedding rings, and the term "priest", among other things, and that the wearing of cap and surplice become optional.

The King James Versionas it came to be known, was completed in and is considered a masterpiece of Jacobean prose. In Scotland, James attempted to bring the Scottish Kirk "so neir as can be" to the English church and to reestablish episcopacya policy that met with strong opposition from presbyterians. James's bishops forced his Five Articles of Perth through a General Assembly the following year, but the rulings were widely resisted.