The Wisest Fool in Christendom

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develop and sustain original scholarly arguments in oral and written form in seminar discussions, presentations, research reports and essays by independently formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence considered in the course The Gunpowder Plot against King James also initiated the most stringent laws against the Catholic population as James turned the screw preventing Catholics from taking up positions in public life. The Popish Recusants Act of 1605 was passed and an oath of allegiance was instated which forbade Catholics from practising law, medicine, joining the military and demanded Catholic clergy deny the authority of the Pope. Catholics also had to receive the sacrament in an Anglican service or face fines. Northampton assumed the day-to-day running of government business, and spoke of "the death of the little man for which so many rejoice and few do as much as seem to be sorry." [157] The people’s enthusiasm, however, was perhaps more motivated by self-interest than James’s own firm belief in the Divine Right of Kings to govern as they alone felt. Of course the English Puritans were delighted to see him. He was sure to be on their side, for the Reformation had been carried out much more strictly in Scotland than in England. And of course the English Catholics were delighted to see him – for was he not the son of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots?

Anne, however, exercised little influence over her ungainly husband. She had a passionate temper which often made her behave like a spoilt child. She was says a historian, “utterly ignorant of the art of governing either herself or others, or of calculating the probable consequences of her words and actions.” Under James, the Plantation of Ulster by English and Scots Protestants began, and the English colonisation of North America started its course with the foundation of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 [182] and Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland, in 1610. During the next 150 years, England would fight with Spain, the Netherlands, and France for control of the continent, while religious division in Ireland between Protestants and Catholics has lasted for 400 years. By actively pursuing more than just a personal union of his realms, James helped lay the foundations for a unitary British state. [183] e.g. Dean, Geoffrey (2002), The Turnstone: A Doctor's Story., Liverpool University Press, pp. 128–129. Roger A Mason (ed.), Scots and Britons : Scottish political thought and the union of 1603 (Cambridge, 1994)James quoted by Willson 1963, p.131: "Kings are called gods by the prophetical King David because they sit upon God His throne in earth and have the count of their administration to give unto Him." e.g. Young, Michael B. (2000), King James and the History of Homosexuality, New York University Press, ISBN 978-0-8147-9693-1; Bergeron, David M. (1991), Royal Family, Royal Lovers: King James of England and Scotland, University of Missouri Press; Murphy, Timothy (2011), Reader's Guide To Gay & Lesbian Studies, Routledge Dearborn Publishers, p.312.

Look upon all Englishmen who shall come to visit you, as your loving subjects, not with ceremoniousness as towards strangers but with heartiness which at this time they deserve.”Regencies [ edit ] James (right) depicted aged 17 beside his mother Mary (left), 1583. In reality, they were separated when he was still a baby. a b Cummings, Brian, ed. (2011). The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.737. The Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland under James was symbolised heraldically by combining their arms, supporters and badges. Contention as to how the arms should be marshalled, and to which kingdom should take precedence, was solved by having different arms for each country. [194] In fact, both of these famously intelligent men are not famous for intelligent things they did or said, or even for possessing a modicum of ordinary common sense. They're famous for actually stupid things that they did and said. In fact, as far as I can tell, the career trajectories of nearly everyone commonly regarded as a "genius" seem to be marked by one boneheaded blunder after another.

demonstrate in research reports and essays a detailed and critical command of the body of knowledge concerning the ideas and writings of James VI & I Although King James seemingly preferred men’s company sexually and romantically, he understood that his role as king meant he would be expected to have children and future heirs. In 1589 he decided to marry 14-year-old Anne of Denmark to stop gossip that he was a secret Catholic. James was 23 years of age when he got engaged to the Danish princess. They were to produce seven children, including the future Charles I, who would be the first king in Europe to be beheaded. To marry Anne he decided to sail to Denmark and collect her. The journey was beset by dangerous storms, which James suspected at the time were the result of a ‘curse’ by ‘witches’ to drown him and his new bride. This was the catalyst to what was to become an obsession for King James to hunt down ‘witches’ throughout the country, inspired by what he believed was an attempt through sorcery to kill him. Mythical tales and witch trials

Krugler, John D. (2004), English and Catholic: The Lords Baltimore in the Seventeenth Century, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-7963-0

Remark to the Spanish Ambassador, as quoted in A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume Two: The New World (1956) by Winston Churchill, p. 157 Basilikon Doron was written as a book of instruction for the four-year-old Prince Henry and provides a more practical guide to kingship. [70] The work is considered to be well written and perhaps the best example of James's prose. [71] James's advice concerning parliaments, which he understood as merely the king's "head court", foreshadows his difficulties with the English House of Commons: "Hold no Parliaments," he tells Henry, "but for the necesitie of new Lawes, which would be but seldome". [72] In the True Law, James maintains that the king owns his realm as a feudal lord owns his fief, because kings arose "before any estates or ranks of men, before any parliaments were holden, or laws made, and by them was the land distributed, which at first was wholly theirs. And so it follows of necessity that kings were the authors and makers of the laws, and not the laws of the kings." [73] Literary patronage [ edit ] The occasion was the opening of the Scottish Parliament. In those days the Scots liked to have their king on view, no matter how young he was, so James, at four, was obliged to perform the royal opening before the M.P.s. From his throne the little fellow silently and curiously summed up his surroundings, and among other things he noticed a hole in the roof of the hall, where probably a slate had slipped. When he was required to make his speech he recited it with astonishing gravity and precision, and added to it, in the same tone, the words, “There is one hole in this parliament.”

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Alas, James rarely put a foot right after the Gunpowder Plot. Financially he was a poor King who nevertheless loved extravagance and was soon deep in money troubles. He was a hard drinker and was seen drunk in public on at least one occasion. He appointed weak and worthless men like Robert Carr, a squire whom he made Earl of Somerset, to high office, with disastrous consequences. While the people trumpeted their discontent the King proclaimed his belief in the Divine Right of Kings –“I will govern,” he announced, “according to the common weal*; not according to the common will.” Krugler 2004, pp.63–64: "The aging monarch was no match for the two men closest to him. By the end of the year, the prince and the royal favourite spoke openly against the Spanish marriage and pressured James to call a parliament to consider their now repugnant treaties ... with hindsight ... the prince's return from Madrid marked the end of the king's reign. The prince and the favourite encouraged popular anti-Spanish sentiments to commandeer control of foreign and domestic policy".