James Charles Stuart (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) ruled as James VI, King of Scotland, and as James I, King of England and King of Ireland. He ascended the Scottish throne in 1567, when he was only a year old, succeeding his mother Mary I. On 24 March 1603, as James I, he succeeded Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, who died without issue. He then ruled the three kingdoms for 22 years until his death at the age of 58. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union, despite James' efforts to create a unified state. Upon accepting the English crown, James based himself in England (the largest of the three realms) from 1603, returning to Scotland only once, in 1617; this despite the fact that James was the longest reigning Scottish monarch. He even styled himself "King of Great Britain and Ireland", and advocated for a single parliament for England and Scotland. Under James, the "Golden Age" of Elizabethan literature and drama continued. Some of William Shakespeare's more famous plays (most obviously Macbeth) were written with a Jacobean agenda. James' reign saw a new translation of the Bible into English, that affirmed the divine right of kings to rule; his advocacy for absolutism brought him into conflict with the English Parliament. Nonetheless, James was also a strong advocate for peace, and avoided English involvement in the Thirty Years' War. In his reign the Plantation of Ulster and English colonization of the New World began. Upon his death, James was succeeded by his son Charles. James I in "We Haven't Got There Yet"[]
In 1606, the third year of James I's reign as King of England, a troupe of actors began performing a play at the Rose entitled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which borrowed several characters from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Soon after that, they performed another unconventional play. James VI in Ruled Britannia[]
King James VI ruled Scotland in the late 16th century. When England was conquered by Spain in 1588, Scotland maintained its independence and James maintained Scotland's throne.[1] Though his mother had been the Catholic martyr Mary Queen of Scots, James was himself a Protestant. He was wary of the militantly Catholic stance of the Spanish-backed Queen Isabella of England, and suspended the state visits which Scottish kings periodically made to London while she reigned, for fear of being imprisoned or killed.[2] Thus, the Scottish embassy in London became a pleasure park for Spaniards in James' absence.[3] James I in A Different Flesh[]
James' successor, Charles I, imposed the system of "Divine Right of Kings" upon England. James I in "The Yorkshire Mammoth"[]
The woolly rhinoceros went extinct in England during the reign of either Elizabeth I or James I at the latest.[4] See Also[]
References[]
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James I of England and VI of Scotland
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