THE STUARTS, 1603-1714 James I., 1603-1625.—The first Stuart king ascended the throne of England under favourable auspices. In the war with Spain the English nation had asserted its political and religious independence and had laid the foundation of its naval supremacy. Trade was expanding and wealth increasing. By the union of the Crowns an old enemy of England became her partner and a fully insular kingdom was established. The Elizabethan conquest of Ireland made the new king effective master of that country.
James was in his 37th year, a mature and experienced man. He had maintained correspondence with ministers and courtiers of Elizabeth, so that her death found him prepared. For the most part he kept the old servants of the Crown in their places, giving his chief confidence to Sir Robert Cecil, the secretary, whom he successively created Viscount Cranborne and earl of Salisbury. James encountered no serious opposition. A lover of peace, he negotiated a treaty with Spain in 1604. At home ecclesiastical affairs claimed his first attention. Both of the parties which had suffered under Elizabeth looked to him for relief ; the Catholics expected much from the son of Mary Stuart ; the Puritans ex pected much from a king of Scots bred in Calvinist orthodoxy. James began by remitting the recusancy fines, but soon found that he could not dispense with that source of revenue. His return to the policy of intolerance revived Catholic discontent, which broke out in the Gunpowder Plot of 16o5. In Scotland he had often been incensed by the ministers of the Kirk, who claimed eccle siastical independence together with the right of admonishing sovereigns. On his journey southwards he received ungraciously the so-called Millenary Petition, in which a thousand ministers, it was said, asked for certain changes in rites and ceremonies. In a conference at Hampton Court between divines of opposite schools, where the king presided, he declared his abhorrence of Presbytery and refused all concessions save a new and more ac curate translation of the Scriptures, fulfilled in the Authorized Version.
The king met his first parliament in March 1604. With the advance of prosperity and enlighten ment, the classes represented in the House of Commons—the squires and yeomen, the citizens and lawyers—became more self confident and more desirous of power. But James held in its ex treme form the doctrine of Divine right then generally accepted. As the ,king, and the king alone, derives his power direct from God, he can in the last resort overrule every other authority; parliament holds its privileges merely by his free grace. Against this doctrine the Commons maintained that they held their priv ileges, like their lands and goods, not of grace but of right, thus implying that the royal prerogative could be limited by law. Con trary to the king's wishes, the Commons pressed for the strict execution of the laws against Catholics and for indulgence to Puritans. James wished the personal union of England and Scot land to be followed by an incorporating union, but the Commons, who disliked the Scots and feared their competition in trade, would only consent to a mutual repeal of hostile laws. The Com mons wanted the king to forgo his right of purveyance and his rights of wardship and marriage over minors who were tenants of the Crown in return for a fixed revenue somewhat larger than the product of these rights. The proposed bargain, known as the Great Contract, was repeatedly discussed, but came to nought because James demanded a larger equivalent than the Commons would grant. The Commons were penurious and James, a bad economist, sank into debt. The Commons took alarm at the de cision in Bates' case by the court of exchequer in 1606, which laid down, not merely that the king could levy customs duties at his pleasure (impositions, so-called), but also that he had a power of taking measures for the public safety unlimited by law (see BATES, JOHN) .
James dissolved his first parliament in 1611. Salisbury, whom he made treasurer in 16o8 and who did something to relieve his distress, died in 1612. The heir to the crown, Prince Henry, died in the same year. A new parliament in 1614 proved unmanage able, made no grant, enacted no law and was dissolved after a session of two months. James struggled on for seven years with out a parliament. Always under the influence of favourites chosen for their youth and good looks, he was fascinated at this time by a certain George Villiers, whom he made successively earl, marquess and duke of Buckingham. In 1615 and the following years a London merchant, Lionel Cranfield, who had been brought into the king's service, effected such reforms and economies that revenue at last balanced expenditure. But then the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War involved James in new difficulties.
Frederick, Elector Palatine, chief of the German Calvinists, who had married the king's daughter Eliza beth, gave the occasion for that war by accepting the crown of Bohemia. He was promptly expelled from Bohemia by the new emperor, Ferdinand II., and the Catholic princes of Germany, while a Spanish army overran the Palatinate. James had long fancied that he could ensure the peace of Christendom by marry ing his son to a daughter of the king of Spain, who was still re garded as the foremost Catholic sovereign. He hoped thus to en list Spanish mediation on behalf of his son-in-law. The English public, which believed that Spain was the contriver of every Cath olic attack upon Protestants, and that a Spanish war would be lucrative, wished to help Frederick by attacking Philip III. Philip had not instigated the war in Germany, but he felt no de sire to save a rebel and a heretic, nor did he wish to marry his daughter in England, unless the English king and people were ready to return to the Catholic faith. As it became clear that Frederick could recover the Palatinate only by force of arms, James was driven to meet a third parliament in Jan. 1621. The Commons, of ter making a small grant in earnest of their good will, went on to consider grievances, especially monopolies, which had been multiplied of late. Their enquiries led to the impeach ment of Sir Giles Mompesson (the first impeachment since the accession of the Tudors) and the condemnation of Lord Bacon, the chancellor, on charges of judicial corruption. A second ses sion having produced no further grant, James dissolved the par liament and sent one or two members to prison. He fell back on his project of a Spanish marriage. The new king of Spain, Philip IV., proving as dilatory as his father, Prince Charles and Buckingham thought to expedite matters by a visit to Madrid. By reckless concessions they obtained a marriage treaty, but the Infanta was to remain with her brother until it was known whether the promise of toleration to the English Catholics had been fulfilled. Even so, Philip refused to do anything on behalf of Frederick, and Charles and Buckingham returned bitterly re sentful and determined to break with Spain. They forced James to call a new parliament in 1624. It was eager for a Spanish war which the king still hoped to avert. It also passed the one im portant statute of the reign, the act prohibiting monopolies. But it did not work smoothly with the Crown. A negotiation with France for the hand of Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII., led the king and prince secretly to promise a toleration for the English Catholics. Soon afterward James died, on March 27, 1625.
His reign was memorable in Irish history. The submission of the earl of Tyrone almost immediately after the death of Elizabeth was followed by the enforcement of the English legal and administrative systems throughout the king dom. A few years later Tyrone and the earl of Tyrconnel, falling under the suspicion of the Government, fled from Ireland. Their flight being construed as proof of guilt, six of the northern coun ties were declared forfeit to the Crown. The actual possessors were moved into the less fertile tracts, and the best land was used for the great Ulster plantations, which created a strong English and Scottish colony in the north of Ireland. (See PLAN TATION..) The reign of James also witnessed the foundation of British rule in North America. The colony of Virginia was finally established in 1607; Plymouth, Mass., the starting point of New England, was founded in 162o.
