JAMES 1

Outlines Of british History ( Part II ) F.w. Tickner D.Lit.,B,Sc, - London University Of london Press Ltd.-

The direct Tudor line came to an end at the death of Elizabeth, and sovereignty passed to a new line of kings. The monarch chosen was James VI of Scotland, the great-grandson of Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, and the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. James was thirty-seven years of age when he came to be ruler of England; he was too old to learn new ways or to adapt himself to new conditions of life and rule, and so he never understood the English people or their character or their methods of government. His upbringing had been in many ways an unfortunate one. He had never known his father; he had been taken from a mother's care while still a baby; he had been brought up by stern guardians, and educated by domineering Presbyterian ministers of a very narrow-minded type. Their treatment had taught him to dislike Presbyterianism very much; and when he came to England he treated the English Puritans as if they were Presbyterians also.

His careful education led him to believe that he was a very wise person, a modern Solomon in fact, for he was one of those persons who mistake knowledge for wisdom; and his vanity and conceit made him very fond of argument, and a firm believer in his ability to convince all with whom he argued.

His views on methods of government did not agree with those of his new English subjects. He did not believe in Parliamentary government at all. He believed that a monarch was appointed by God, and was therefore answerable for his actions to God alone. Succession to the throne was strictly a matter of heredity, the ruler was above the law, and it was an act of impiety as well as of rebellion to oppose the king's commands, or even to criticise them. Moreover, being above the law, the ruler could, if he thought it necessary, dispense with any particular law for the time being. Such a doctrine of divine right was not likely to find favour with the English people, who had already on several occasions chosen rulers who were not persons of direct descent, and had gained rights and privileges entitling them to a share in the government of the land. The bishops and clergy might accept the doctrine of passive obedience to a ruler of this kind; the traders and lawyers of the English middle classes were not likely to do so. One right, in particular, which they cherished was the right to tax themselves, and here especially trouble was sure to come. Even Elizabeth had been careful not to, take much money from her subjects; James was a spendthrift, wasting money on favourites and their follies.

Unfortunately, too, for a monarch with these ideas, there was nothing attractive about James either in personal appearance or in habits. He was ungainly in person, his speech was spoiled by a slobbering tongue too large for his mouth; he was weak-kneed and shambling in gait, and lacking in personal dignity; he took little pains to please those who opposed him. The result was that his reign was one long quarrel with his Parliaments. It would be wrong to suppose that all the fault was on the king's side, but he was narrow-minded and conceited, and lacking in the tact which would have brought Elizabeth safely through a much more difficult situation than James was called upon to face soon after the commencement of his reign. Henry IV of France has summed James up for us in the phrase - " the wisest fool in Christendom."

But the right to share in the government and the problems of taxation were not the only matters that could cause trouble between the king and the English people. There was also the grave problem of religion. It is not easy for us to understand the point of view of our English forefathers on this question in the days of the Stuarts. We live in an age of toleration, when all the various religious sects are permitted to worship freely according to their own desires and convictions. In 1603 England had become a great Protestant country; and the majority of the people were now definitely committed to Protestantism. But in Europe at this lime the Roman Catholics were gaining very much ground at the expense of the Protestants. Their Church had been reformed, and the new religious zeal which accompanied this reformation, the Counter Reformation , as it is called, had strengthened the position of the Roman Catholic Church in many countries. France, Spain, Italy were definitely countries of that faith; Germany, the home of the Reformation, was divided; England, Scotland, Holland, and the Scandinavian countries were definitely Protestant. But the revival of Roman Catholicism naturally made the Protestants anxious for their future; some of them feared that their cause was lost; all of them watched carefully lest the king should do anything that might help to restore the Roman Catholic faith; and they were anxious to put into effect laws which bore hardly upon Roman Catholics.
At the same time the English churchmen were themselves dividing into two classes. You may remember that in her religious Reformation Elizabeth had aimed at keeping within the Church as many of her subjects as she possibly could. The result was that in the Church of England there were men and women of very diverse religious views. These were now dividing into two sections: the High Churchmen or Anglicans, who wished to preserve as many as possible of the ceremonies and practices and historical associations of the mediaeval Church; and the Puritans, as they were now being termed, who cared less for the religion of former days, and were intent upon obtaining a pure and simple form of faith and worship. The Anglicans naturally clung to the older ceremonies of the Church, and made much of music, stained glass, statuary, and vestments; they also emphasised the importance of the priest, as the chosen intermediary between God and man; and they believed in the divine right of bishops, as God's representatives on earth. The Puritans, on the other hand, were all for a simple service, without the aid of music or vestments. Many objected even to the use of a surplice, or to the wedding-ring, or to the sign of the cross in the baptismal service. All wished to purify the services of the Church, and the name of Puritan, given to them first in derision, became the title by which they were known and of which they were proud. At this time many of them were still members of the Church of England, and they hoped that James, who had been brought up a Presbyterian, would favour their views, just as the Roman Catholics hoped that the son of Mary of Scots would be inclined to favour them.

But both were mistaken. James was all in favour of Anglicanism, for it recognised the king as the Head of the Church; and was, therefore, the form of religion that fitted best with his theories of divine right. "No bishop, no king," was one of his shrewd sayings to the Puritans who objected to the control of church affairs by bishops; and he remembered also that Popes had on occasion been responsible for deposing kings. On his accession, however, he agreed to a conference at Hampton Court between Anglicans and Puritans, partly, no doubt, that he might show his skill as a theologian and mediator; but the only good result of the conference was the issue of the Authorised Version of the Bible, 1611 ; the grandest prose work in the English language. His opposition to Puritanism added differences of opinion on religious questions to the demand the people were making for self-government and made still more bitter the struggle which now commenced between the king and the English Parliament.

For these differences of opinion made James's reign one long quarrel between his Parliament and himself. The king tried to interfere with the rights and privileges of the members; Parliament was little inclined to give him the large sums of money he wanted for purposes of government. They thought that James should be satisfied with the amount of money that Elizabeth had had; but this was really unfair to James. Elizabeth was single; James was married and had children to support; Elizabeth had been careful and almost miserly; James was wasteful; prices too were rising rapidly at this time, thanks to the quantities of silver and gold that the Spaniards were bringing to Europe from the New World, and it was impossible for James to live on the same income as was possible in Elizabeth's day.

When Parliament refused James the money he required he proceeded to get it by methods which Parliament held to be illegal. He imposed extra taxes on imports, impositions they were called; he granted monopolies (that is, the sole right of making and selling particular kinds of goods) to certain favoured individuals in return for money payments to him or his friends. One merchant refused to pay duties not sanctioned by Parliament, and was sued in the law courts. The judge decided that James had the right to levy these impositions; and this raised another important point. At this time the judges could be dismissed from office at any time by the king, and Parliament saw that this influenced them in their decisions.

His first Parliament lasted seven years (1604-1611); it is therefore the Parliament of the Gunpowder Plot, 1605. No lasting agreement with James was reached by it, though in these years he had the benefit of the wise advice of William Cecil, second son of the famous Lord Burghley. As the second Parliament, 1614, proved no better, James dissolved it after it had sat for a few weeks, and then for seven years he ruled without a Parliament, and in that time succeeded in turning the English people against him by follies of various kinds. His efforts to raise money by monopolies and impositions gained him the enmity of the trading classes; the nobility and gentry were annoyed by his readiness to sell peerages and baronetcies to those who would pay for them; Puritans of all classes were angry with him for trying to make an alliance with Spain, the leader of the Roman Catholic nations, and to marry his son to a Spanish princess. They were also deeply offended by the immoral character of his court. After Cecil's death in 1612, the control of affairs passed into the hands of royal favourites, for James was very susceptible to flattery, and to the pretty face of any young adventurer. His first favourite, a Scotch page named Robert Carr, who was made Earl of Somerset, proved a most worthless fellow, and had to be sent from court; his successor, George Villiers, who became Duke of Buckingham, was a more important person, and was not without ability, but his influence on James and his son Charles helped much to bring about the downfall of the Stuart line. On these persons and their relatives James lavished money and preferments, and gained the dislike of his subjects in consequence. But the ruler who would rule without Parliament must exercise the greatest possible economy before all things; and James's extravagance made Parliament necessary, and gave the members a weapon with which to attack him; for supplies of money could be withheld until James had listened to their complaints and redressed their grievances.

The English still hated Spain with all the religious fervour of the days of Elizabeth, and objected to the king's attempts to make an alliance with the hated enemy. James believed sincerely in the text " Blessed are the peacemakers, " and thought that his mission on earth was to bring about a great reign of peace throughout Europe. But the only weapon he could use for this purpose was his ability in argument, and, as he could not back his arguments by force, his opponents only laughed at him behind his back, and went on their way, using James as they pleased. He was no match for the clever ambassadors from Spain, who played with him by flattering him as a fountain of wisdom in European politics, and so were able to gain what they wanted in the interest of their own country. He even sacrificed Raleigh at the desire of Spain, and that famous Elizabethan was executed in 1618, after an unsuccessful expedition to South America in search of gold, in which his followers had shed Spanish blood.
In 1613 James had married his daughter Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine of the Rhine, who was the leader of the Calvinist Protestants in Germany. This marriage was just as popular in England as the suggested Spanish match was unpopular. But in 1618 Frederick very unwisely accepted the vacant throne of Bohemia at the invitation of the Protestants of that country, although such an acceptance was sure to bring about war, for the other claimant to the throne was the ruler of Austria, the Archduke Ferdinand, who was the leader of the German Catholics and the cousin and brother-in-law of the King of Spain . In short time a terrible religious war broke out in Germany (1618-1648 ) the Austrians overan Bohemia , and the Spanish forces in the Netherlands occupied the Palatinate; Frederick and Elizabeth were driven into exile; and James was compelled to summon a third Parliament to obtain supplies to furnish help to his son-in-law, 1621.

Parliament met in an angry mood, though leaders were lacking to give point to its protests. The members were eager to help their princess, but James was still negotiating with the Spaniards and Austrians in the belief that he could bring about peace without resorting to arms. While James hesitated, Parliament, which had no other business to do, began to attack the monopolists and impeached and punished the worst offender, Sir Giles Mompesson, who was a relative of Buckingham. It next made an attack upon the corruption of the courts of law, and chose as its victim, Francis, Lord Bacon, the Lord Chancellor, by no means the worst offender. He was found guilty of receiving bribes from suitors, and was dismissed from his office and heavily fined.

Meanwhile the Protestants in Germany were suffering serious defeats, and Parliament turned its attention to foreign affairs. It sent to the king a letter of advice offering aid on behalf of Elizabeth and advising him not to associate with Catholic Spain. James in anger replied that Parliament had no right to interfere in foreign affairs. The Commons then passed a resolution that the right to advise the king on all matters of state was the undoubted birthright and privilege of Parliament, and James in anger sent for the Journal of the Commons, tore out the offending resolution from it, and then dissolved the Parliament. But the situation on the Continent showed no improvement; the Roman Catholic cause was triumphant in Germany, and the Protestants were divided among themselves. Yet James still hoped to play the part of peacemaker, and the Spanish ambassador still held out the possibility of the Spanish marriage, for an English naval attack would have forced Spain to withdraw from the contest.
But now Charles became impatient, and he and Buckingham decided to visit Madrid as private persons and see the princess themselves - a dangerous course when the countries were not very far from war. They were well received; but they soon found out that no Spanish match was possible, and started home disgusted with Spain and all things Spanish. On their outward journey they had visited the French court; and they now began to wish for a French alliance, and the marriage of Charles to Henrietta Maria, the sister of the French king.

Alliance with France meant antagonism to Spain; and Charles and Buckingham forced this new policy on the reluctant James, who still believed in the Spanish alliance, but could not refuse their wishes. A fourth Parliament, 1624, was called to vote the money necessary for war with Spain. It impeached the Lord Treasurer, Weston, for misuse of the public funds, and, as Weston was disliked by Buckingham, the impeachment was successful, though James warned Buckingham and Charles of the danger they were incurring. " The time will come," he said, "when you will have a bellyful of impeachments." This impeachment was a very important victory for Parliament, for no minister had been impeached for nearly two hundred years; and this success marks the beginning of the doctrine of the responsibility of ministers to Parliament for their actions. Parliament also did away with monopolies, replacing them by the grant of letters patent in all cases where new inventions or new methods of industry or trade demanded protection, very much as is done to-day. An army was raised for service in the Low Countries, though Parliament would have preferred to continue the old Elizabethan naval attacks on Spain and her colonies. It seemed for the moment as if the new turn that foreign politics had taken would unite Parliament and king. But before much could happen James died, worn out by the cares of his reign and the errors of his life.