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| James VI and I | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Portrait attributed to John de Critz, c. 1605 | |||||
| King of England and Ireland | |||||
| Reign | 24 March 1603 – 27 March 1625 | ||||
| Coronation | 25 July 1603 | ||||
| Predecessor | Elizabeth I | ||||
| Successor | Charles I | ||||
| King of Scotland | |||||
| Reign | 24 July 1567 – 27 March 1625 | ||||
| Coronation | 29 July 1567 | ||||
| Predecessor | Mary | ||||
| Successor | Charles I | ||||
| Regents | See list
| ||||
| Born | 19 June 1566 Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland | ||||
| Died | 27 March 1625 (aged 58) (NS: 6 April 1625) Theobalds House, Hertfordshire, England | ||||
| Burial | 7 May 1625 | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue more... | |||||
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| House | Stuart | ||||
| Father | Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley | ||||
| Mother | Mary, Queen of Scots | ||||
| Signature |  | ||||
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. Although he long tried to get both countries to adopt a closer political union, the kingdoms of Scotland and England remained sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, ruled by James in personal union. He was the longest-reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Scotland.
James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, and thus a potential successor to all three thrones. He acceded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother was forced to abdicate in his favour. Four regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government until 1583. In 1589, he married Anne of Denmark. Three of their children survived to adulthood: Henry Frederick, Elizabeth, and Charles. In 1603, James succeeded his cousin Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, who died childless. He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625. After the Union of the Crowns, he based himself in England (the largest of the three realms) from 1603, returning to Scotland only once, in 1617, and styled himself "King of Great Britain and Ireland". He was an advocate of a single parliament for England and Scotland. In his reign, the Plantation of Ulster and English colonisation of the Americas began.
At 57 years and 246 days, James's reign in Scotland was the longest of any Scottish monarch. He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced great difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and conflicts with the English Parliament. Under James, the "Golden Age" of Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such as William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Francis Bacon contributing to a flourishing literary culture.[1] James was a prolific writer, authoring works such as Daemonologie (1597), The True Law of Free Monarchies (1598), and Basilikon Doron (1599).[2] He sponsored the translation of the Bible into English later named after him, the Authorized King James Version, and the 1604 revision of the Book of Common Prayer.[3][4] Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed "the wisest fool in Christendom", an epithet associated with his character ever since.[5] Since the latter half of the 20th century, historians have tended to revise James's reputation and treat him as a serious and thoughtful monarch.[6] He was strongly committed to a peace policy, and tried to avoid involvement in religious wars, especially the Thirty Years' War that devastated much of Central Europe. He tried but failed to prevent the rise of hawkish elements in the English Parliament who wanted war with Spain.[7] He was succeeded by his second son, Charles I.
- ^ Milling 2004, p. 155.
- ^ Fischlin & Fortier 2002, p. 39
- ^ Rhodes, Richards & Marshall 2003, p. 1: "James VI and I was the most writerly of British monarchs. He produced original poetry, as well as translation and a treatise on poetics; works on witchcraft and tobacco; meditations and commentaries on the Scriptures; a manual on kingship; works of political theory; and, of course, speeches to parliament ... He was the patron of Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, and the translators of the "Authorized version" of the Bible, surely the greatest concentration of literary talent ever to enjoy royal sponsorship in England."
- ^ 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.
- ^ Smith 2003, p. 238: "The label 'the wisest fool in Christendom', often attributed to Henry IV of France but possibly coined by Anthony Weldon, catches James's paradoxical qualities very neatly"; Anthony Weldon (1651), The Court and Character of King James I, quoted by Stroud 1999, p. 27: "A very wise man was wont to say that he believed him the wisest fool in Christendom, meaning him wise in small things, but a fool in weighty affairs."
- ^ Croft 2003, p. 6: "Historians have returned to reconsidering James as a serious and intelligent ruler"; Lockyer 1998, pp. 4–6; Smith 2003, p. 238: "In contrast to earlier historians, recent research on his reign has tended to emphasize the wisdom and downplay the foolishness".
- ^ Davies 1959, pp. 47–57