The Wisest Fool in Christendom

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Lord Darnley was murdered on 10 February 1567 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 1567 to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering Darnley, heightened widespread bad feeling towards her. [b] In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Lochleven Castle; she never saw her son again. She was forced to abdicate on 24 July 1567 in favour of the infant James and to appoint her illegitimate half-brother James Stewart, Earl of Moray, as regent. [16] This made James the third consecutive Scottish monarch to ascend to the throne as an infant. DRPS:Course Catalogue: School of History, Classics and Archaeology: Postgraduate (History, Classics and Archaeology) Towards the end of his life, James was known as a slobberer and semi-incoherent speaker – his tongue was too big for his mouth. He was also known as the ‘wisest fool in Christendom’, but he was far wilier than his ‘fool’ tag suggests. James I was the most academically gifted monarch, being both stoic and practical. He had once hoped to bring peace to Europe but had to settle with peace between England and Scotland. James's English coronation took place on 25 July at Westminster Abbey. An outbreak of plague restricted festivities. The Royal Entry to London with elaborate allegories provided by dramatic poets such as Thomas Dekker and Ben Jonson was deferred to 15 March 1604. [89] Dekker wrote that "the streets seemed to be paved with men; stalls instead of rich wares were set out with children; open casements filled up with women". [90] William E. Thompson, Her Walls Before Thee Stand: The 235-Year History of the Presbyterian Congregation at Hampden-Sydney, Virginia (2010), revised 2011 edition, p. 17

James I was already King James VI of Scotland when he came to the English throne as the first of the Stuart line of monarchs. From 1603 to 1625 he ruled both England and Scotland. The King knew that he would have to keep his plan a secret because if they heard about it the Scots people would raise a chorus of justifiable disapproval. He appears to have succeeded; moreover, he made the trip fairly uneventfully and dispensing with all regal formalities married Anne in Norway. Then, after a trip to the Danish court, he returned to Scotland with his bride. demonstrate originality and independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers; and a considerable degree of autonomy

Unhappy family

The Howard party (consisting of Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton; Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk; Suffolk's son-in-law Lord Knollys; Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham; and Thomas Lake) soon took control of much of the government and its patronage. Even the powerful Carr fell into the Howard camp, hardly experienced for the responsibilities thrust upon him and often dependent on his intimate friend Thomas Overbury for assistance with government papers. [160] Carr had an adulterous affair with Frances Howard, Countess of Essex, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk. James assisted Frances by securing an annulment of her marriage to free her to marry Carr, now Earl of Somerset. [n] Milling, Jane (2004), "The Development of a Professional Theatre", in Milling, Jane; Thomson, Peter; Donohue, Joseph W. (eds.), The Cambridge History of British Theatre, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-5216-5040-3

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 Queen Elizabeth of England was the last of the children of Henry the Eighth who remained alive, and when she died at Richmond in 1603 James, as the great-grandson of Henry’s sister, Mary Tudor, was the heir to the throne. When the news of Elizabeth’s death reached Scotland James, who was now 37, prepared to go south to claim his new kingdom. This course will examine the ideas and writings of King James VI & I, beginning with his rule over Scotland and including England after 1603. Labelled 'the wisest fool in Christendom', and long regarded as one of the British Isles' less successful rulers, more recently he has been effectively rehabilitated by 'revisionist' historians who argue that he was a highly intelligent and politically astute monarch. The focus here will be mainly on James' ideas, as expressed though his own writings and those of his contemporaries. Steenie,” however, succeeded in making himself as thoroughly unpopular in Spain as he had made himself in England. Charles returned home with him at the end of eight months with no match made; the sum result of their achievements was that Villiers felt that he had been so insulted (whereas the reverse was true) that he was determined to lead England into a war against Spain. James’s controversial reign over two countries saw him in constant struggles with Parliament particularly when it came to spending treasury money. Parliament on the other hand was determined to control taxation. But James believed that he was only answerable to God alone and should be able to do as he liked. As James ignored Parliament for most of the decade, his personal relationships with favourites - offering them expensive gifts and high ranking titles - also irked the authorities. But few at the time were aware of the intimate nature of some of these relationships. Gay loversRichard Bucholz and Newton Key, Early Modern England, 1485-1714: A Narrative History (2009), p. 217 Stewart 2003, p.348: "A 1627 mission to save the Huguenots of La Rochelle ended in an ignominious siege on the Isle of Ré, leaving the Duke as the object of widespread ridicule." Spottiswoode, John (1851), History of the Church in Scotland, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, vol. 2, p. 120.

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 Barrels of gunpowder were hidden in the vaults of Parliament House and a Catholic soldier named, as everyone knows, Guy Fawkes, was hired to do the deed. But when warning was brought from an informer to the King “that Parliament shall receive a terrible blow,” James remembered how his father, Lord Darnley, was murdered in a gunpowder plot in Scotland, and he had the cellars searched and the conspirators arrested, tortured and executed.Herein is not only a great vanity, but a great contempt of God's gifts, that the sweetness of man's breath, being a good gift of God, should be willfully corrupted by this stinking smoke. 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. Bergeron, David M. (1999). King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. p.348.