Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_Younger_c.1595

John de Critz, 1606NPG

Transition: Elizabeth to James

March 24, 1602 (1603)

“I will have no raskalls son in my seat but one worthy to be a king”Cecil to Harington

You know all my former steps: good knight, rest content, and give heed to one that hath sorrowed in the bright lustre of a court, and gone heavily even on the best-seeming fair ground. Tis a great task to prove one’s honesty, and yet not spoil one’s fortune. You have tasted a little hereof in our blessed Queen’s time, who was more than a man and, in troth, sometimes less than a woman. I wish I waited now in her Presence Chamber, with ease at my foot, and rest in my bed. I am pushed from the shore of comfort, and know not where the winds and waves of a court may bear me.

More than 1000 mourners follow

A Retrospective

After a few years, when we had experience of a Scottish government, the Queen did seem to revive; then was her memory much magnified: such ringing of bells, such public joy and sermons in commemoration of her, the picture of her tomb painted in many churches, and in effect more solemnity and joy in memory of her coronation than was for the coming-in of King James.

Godfrey Goodman, bishop of Gloucester

Issues the New Monarch Will Face

• War with Spain• Ireland• The unsettled Elizabethan Settlement– Religious conflict

• The economy– Monopolies and price inflation– War– Estimated debt in 1603 £400,000

Increased reliance on taxation (DIRECT)

Increased reliance on

Parliament

Revenue (1598-1603)£2,600,000

Estimated GDP

Per Capita

East Asia

Succession

Defined Succession

Henry VIIIBy statute: Edward VI, Mary, ElizabethBy will: Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth and descendants of his sister, Mary

Edward VIGreys before Mary

Eliminate

• Philip II claim for his daughter based on descent from Edward III

• Greys– Jane executed as proxy to prevent succession of

Mary– Catherine’s secret marriage to Edward Seymour– Secret marriage of Arbella and William Seymour

Eliminate

• Anne Stanley– In 1579 Margaret Clifford (Stanley) had been

accused of opposing a proposed marriage of Elizabeth and of sorcery in predicting her death

James VI of Scotland • Had received support from Elizabeth

– Deathbed assent?• Favored by both Essex and Robert Cecil• Accession Council proclaims James VI

who is lineally and lawfully descended from the body of Margaret, daughter to the High and Renowned Prince, Henrie the seventh King of England, France, and Ireland, his great Grandfather, the said Lady Margaret being lawfully begotten of the body of Elizabeth, daughter to King Edward the fourth (by which happy conjunction both the houses of Yorke and Lancaster were united, to the joy unspeakeable of this Kingdome, formerly rent & torne by the long dissention of bloody and Civil Warres) the same Lady Margaret being also the eldest sister of Henry the eight, of famous memorie King of England as aforesayd …

The Record of James VI in Scotland

• The Stuart legacy and English connections• Opposition to presbyterian wing of the Kirk– Moderated until late 16th century

• Direct participation in parliaments– Extraordinary needs for money for marriage, son

Henry’s baptism, embassies

James I True Law of Free Monarchies, Scotland 1598, London 1603

Kings are called gods by the prophetical King because they sit upon God his throne in the earth and have the count of their administration to give unto him. Their office is "to minister justice and judgment to the people,” as the same David saith; "to advance the good and punish the evil," as he likewise saith; "to establish good laws to his people and procure obedience to the same,

Philosophy of GovernmentTrue Law of Free Monarchies, 1598

The King is above the law as both the author and giver of strength thereto, yet a good King will not only delight to rule his subjects by the law, but even will conform himself in his own actions thereunto; always keeping that ground, that the health of the commonwealth be his chief law.We see that in Parliament (which is nothing else but the head court of the King and his vassals) the laws are but craved by his subjects, and only made by him at their rogation and with their advice. For albeit the King made daily statutes and ordinances, enjoining such pains thereto as he thinks meet, without any advice of Parliament or Estates, yet it lies in the power of no Parliament to make any kind of law or statute without his sceptre be to it for giving it the force of a law.

James I Advice for a Monarch, 1599

• Advice to sonThe state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth, for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods.

Triumphal Arch of the New Augustus

Tolerance?I will never allow in my conscience that the blood of any man shall be shed for the diversity of opinion in religion … No! I am so far from any intention of persecution, as I protest to God I reverence their Church as our Mother Church, though clogged with many infirmities and corruptions, besides that I ever did hold persecution as one of the infallible notes of a false church. But . . . I would be sorry that Catholics should so multiply as they might be able to practise their old principles on us.

Letter to Cecil

Marriage to Anne of Denmark

"the greatest earthly felicitie or miserie, that can come to a man.”

• Children– Henry (1594-1612)– Elizabeth (1596-1662)– Margaret (1598-9); Mary (1605-7); Sophia (1607)– Charles (1600-1649)

Anne of Denmark 1595

Isaac OliverRoyal Collection

Anne of Denmark at Oatlands1617

Paul van SomerRoyal CollectionHampton Court

ComparsionsElizabeth JamesWoman ManCharismatic AloofNative ForeignerFrugal Less frugal

Elizabeth by her Contemporaries

She is certainly a great Queen and were she only a Catholic she would be our dearly beloved. Just look how well she governs! She is only a woman, only mistress of half an island, and yet she makes herself feared by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all…

Pope Sixtus V, ~1588

Millenary Petition

Ceremonies to be rejected– The signing of the cross during baptism– Confirmation– The administration of baptism by lay people (such

as mid-wives)– Use of the ring in marriage– Bowing at the name of Jesus

Reject use of the words ‘priest’ and ‘absolution’Request meeting on these demands

Millenary Petition - Clergy

Abolish– The requirement of the surplice and cap– Men given multiple ecclesiastical positions, and

receiving pay for eachPromote– More and better educated clergy paid for by tithes

Hampton Court Conference

Richard Bancroft Archbishop Whitgift

John Rainolds, Corpus Christi, Oxford

1604 Hampton Court Conference

• James acknowledged need for reforms“James was determined ‘to haue a resident Moyses in euerye parishe.” Patricik Galloway• Rejected changed Book of Common Prayer

• Authorization of a new translation of the Bible• Need for finances for the reforms– Return of church lands rejected by Parliament

Aftermath: 1-3% of clergy were dismissed (more radical puritans)

Catholic Plots

• 1603 The Main Plot • 1603 The Bye Plot • 1605 The Gunpowder Plot

The Conspirators

House of Lords Cellar

John Soane’s plan for HV, 1794

Main Plot

• Allegedly, Catholic noblemen Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, Sir George Brooke and Thomas Grey, 15th Baron Grey de Wilton, planned to replace James I with his cousin Arabella (or Arbella) Stuart.– Sought Spanish backing

• Walter Raleigh accused on involvement; Found guilty and imprisoned until 1616

Bye Plot

• Billed as either a counter to Jesuit or puritan plots

• Capture James• Demand replacement of Cecil and other anti-

Catholics• Forty conspirators identified; three executed,

some exiled, some pardoned, some released

Union of the Crowns

What God hath conjoined let no man separate. I am the husband and the whole isle is my lawful wife; I am the head and it is my body; I am the shepherd and it is my flock. I hope therefore that no man will think that I, a Christian King under the Gospel, should be a polygamist and husband to two wives; that I being the head should have a divided or monstrous body or that being the shepherd to so fair a flock should have my flock parted in two.

James I&VI, March19, 1603

Union of Kingdoms – Great Britain

• Union of England and Scotland Act 1603 set up a commission with representatives of both parliaments to look into political union– Anti-Scottish prejudices– Differences in legal systems; churches; economies1607 Treaties limited to removing hostile lawsJames: “The error was my mistaking. I knew mine own ends, but not others’ fears.”

Union Flag of James I (Jacobus)Westminster rejects name change to Britain

Unofficial Scottish version

Organization of the Court

• Bedchamber – Initially Scots• Privy Chamber – 24 English, 24 Scots• Outer Chamber – Split between English and

Scots• James increasingly gives power and money to

Scots favorites