James VI and I

“ His "Civil Wars" were now a Seven Years' War, and he achieved Book VI. In 1603 he addressed a panegyric to James VI and I, the new King: he obtained a Court post in connexion with the Queen's Masques, and held his place and salary till 1618; wrote a History of England, and died at Beckington, Somerset, in 1619. He had written Masques, and a "Defence of Rhyme" against the friends of unrhymed verse in classical metres. His "Civil Wars" are a chronicle in rhyme—he spares neither himself nor the infrequent reader. ”

“ Here were all the elements which caused Elizabeth's cruel persecution of Catholics, the long struggle of the puritans under Elizabeth and James I, the wars under Charles I, and the strife with Spain and Catholic Ireland. In the words of James VI, it was "a world-wolter," and Spenser, [Pg 185] as a poor young man, eager to make his fortune, had to swim as best he might in the cross-currents of this troublesome world. He never enjoyed the peaceful leisure of a Tennyson or a Wordsworth; he had to play an active part in strenuous and most unhappy affairs. ”

“ The accession of James VI. in 1603 gave a favourable turn to his fortunes: he was knighted, and endeavoured to set himself right with the new powers by writing his Apologie (defence) of his proceedings in the case of Essex, who had favoured the succession of James. In the first Parliament of the new king he sat for St. Alban's, and was appointed a Commissioner for Union with Scotland. In 1605 he pub. The Advancement of Learning, dedicated, with fulsome flattery, to the king. The following year he married Alice Barnham, the dau. ”

“ King James VI was at this time only in his twentieth year, but he had other and more cogent reasons for hesitating about marriage. Queen Elizabeth, who still kept the mother in durance, assumed to herself the right of controlling to some extent the conduct of the son. Whether or not James was to be her successor, he must be her subservient ally; and she would not hear of the Danish connection. Towards the end of 1585 King James had gone so far as to send his almoner, Peter Young, to Denmark, to make polite speeches and discreet inquiries, and to promise a more honourable embassy. ”

“ In 1600 he proceeded to Scotland, and injudiciously solicited the intervention of James VI with the lords of the council. He had a favourable reception, and composed a thanksgiving for the delivery of James from the Gowrie conspiracy, which was presented to the king. His good reception aroused Elizabeth's anger, and on his return to England he was promptly arrested and imprisoned for a short time ‘as a dangerous member to the state.’ In 1601 appeared ‘The Right Way to Heaven: and the true testimonie of a faithfull and loyall subject. ”

“ Perceiving this, I demanded, instead of water, a glass of Rostock beer for every man, and, accompanied by Sergeant Phadrig Mhor, entered the kitchen of the house, where the first objects I observed were two of those many pasquils or caricatures of his majesty James VI., which were then circulated through all Germany, in ridicule of the poor and tardy assistance he sent to his son-in-law, the timid Elector of Bohemia. One represented the king in a Scots bonnet and plaid, with a number of men striving in vain to draw his sword from its scabbard ”

“ It was he who had been sent by the Duke of Tuscany on the secret mission to Edinburgh to tell James VI that he was going to be poisoned, and to carry with him the little packet of Italian antidotes, not known at that time in the Scottish pharmacopœia. He had stayed three months with the Scottish King; and no wonder that when James ascended the throne of England Sir Henry Wotton [44] was one of the men then in London whom the King desired to see. He was a favourite at Court; and his lifelong homage to the Princess Elizabeth, the unhappy Queen of Bohemia, is well known. ”

“ It was to meet this danger that Charles resolved to offer William the hand of the Duke's daughter, Mary. Such a marriage secured James against the one formidable rival to his claims, while it opened to William a far safer chance of mounting the throne at his father-in-law's death in right of his wife. The prospect too of such a Protestant succession might well allay much of the panic which was spreading through the country as men looked forward to the accession of a Catholic king. ”

“ Both Catholic and Protestant writers have misrepresented James II. He deserves neither the execrations of the one nor the eulogies of the other. The candid historian must admit that he was, after all, a better man than his brother Charles II. He was a sincere and bigoted Catholic, and was undoubtedly honest in the declaration, which he made in that unlucky letter which Burnet ferreted out on the Continent, that he was prepared to make large steps to build up the Catholic Church in England, and, if necessary, to become a martyr in her cause. ”

“ The return fell so very short of his expectation that he abandoned the design in disgust; but several years after he made a tour over the whole kingdom himself, the result of which appeared in the first volume of his 'History and Antiquities of Scotland from the earliest account to the Death of James I ... 1437; and from that period to the Accession of James VI to the Crown of England, 1603, by another hand,' 2 vols, fol., London, 1757, a posthumous work. ”

“ While still a young man he went to Spain to the court of Philip II, by whom he was made knight of the royal order of St. Jago and master of the household. He was appointed master of the stable to James VI of Scotland some time before 1581, when he had an encounter with James, earl of Arran (Calderwood, History, iii. 592) . The same year he was sent as ambassador to complain to Elizabeth regarding her conduct in interfering in behalf of the Earl of Morton, but was not permitted to enter England. ”

“ The Essayes were reprinted by Arber, London, 1870, and again published, with the omission of Uranie, Phoenix, and other pieces, in a volume entitled A Royal Rhetorician, edited by R. S. Rait, London, 1900. ↑ T. F. Henderson's excellent James VI and I (Gouphil & Co., London, 1904) is prohibitively expensive, and chiefly political in character. ”

“ He spent the next two years in attendance on his father at Calder, and in 1588 he entered the king's service. In October 1589 he accompanied James VI as gentleman-usher on his voyage to meet his bride [see Anne of Denmark, (1574–1619) ] , and on 27 Dec. 1591 he raised the alarm which saved James from seizure by the Earl of Bothwell [see Hepburn, Francis Stewart, fifth Earl of Bothwell] . ”

“ The difference between an old and a new member was as great as the difference between a veteran soldier and a recruit just taken from the plough; and James's Parliament contained a most unusual proportion of new members, who had brought from their country seats to Westminster no political knowledge and many violent prejudices. These gentlemen hated the Papists, but hated the Whigs not less intensely, and regarded the King with superstitious veneration. To form an opposition out of such materials was a feat which required the most skilful and delicate management. ”

“ Innocent VIII died the same year, and Adrian returned to Rome, ‘thrown’ as he himself expresses it, ‘into the mill of affairs by Pope Alexander VI.’ He was made clerk of the papal treasury, while at the same time he was Henry VII's ambassador at Rome. In 1498 he was sent to France with a message of condolence on the death of Charles VIII, but did not go on to England. In a contemporary letter it is hinted that Henry VII was not at this time quite satisfied with the manner in which he had disbursed some moneys in his behalf at Rome. ”

“ James, while his power was still new, had thought that on this point it was advisable to be cautious, and had not ventured to inter his brother with the rites of the Church of Rome. For a time, therefore, every man was at liberty to believe what he wished. The Papists claimed the deceased prince as their proselyte. The Whigs execrated him as a hypocrite and a renegade. The Tories regarded the report of his apostasy as a calumny which Papists and Whigs had, for very different reasons, a common interest in circulating. ”

“ CHARLES I. succeeded his father James VI. and exactly trod in the same steps, and with no better success. He grasped at the prerogative; and to establish absolute power, prelacy, superstition and Arminianism seemed his principal aim.—In England he infringed the liberties of parliament, and by his marriage the nations became pestered with papists: in Scotland he pressed Perth articles, the service book, and then, by Laud's direction, the book of canons (28) which he and the rest of the bishops had compiled for them about 1637, contrary to his coronation-oath taken at Edinburgh 1633. ”

“ As it was, the only result of that will was a tragedy initiated by Elizabeth and consummated by James. In the Scottish line the nearest heir after James VI., both to the Scottish and English crowns, was Arabella Stuart, only child of Charles, earl of Lennox, younger brother of Lord Darnley—Lady Margaret Douglas, the mother of Darnley and his brother, having been the daughter of Archibald, sixth earl of Angus, by Margaret of England, queen dowager of James IV. James VI. (I. of England) was thus nearest heir by a double descent, Arabella Stuart being next heir by a single descent. ”

“ The popularity of William throughout the Protestant world was great; and in England, as the terror of a Popish king increased, men remembered that were James and his house excluded from the throne William as the king's nephew, the son of his sister Mary and the grandson of Charles the First, stood next in succession to the Crown. The Prince was drawn by his desire to detach England from the French alliance into close connexion with Shaftesbury and the leaders of the Country party, and already pledges from this quarter had reached him that he should be declared heir to the throne. ”

“ It is evident that, in such circumstances, the greatest service which an English Roman Catholic could render to his brethren in the faith was to convince the public that, whatever some rash men might, in times of violent excitement, have written or done, his Church did not hold that any end could sanctify means inconsistent with morality. And this great service it was in the power of James to render. He was King. He was more powerful than any English King had been within the memory of the oldest man. ”

“ It was in vain that he offered to waive his plans of exclusion and to fall in with the king's older proposals of a limited monarchy in the case of James's accession. The loss of London left him without a shelter, and drove him to wild conspiracies with a handful of adventurers who were as desperate as himself. ”

“ In taking the measure of James VI as a statesman, it is important not to overlook the method which he adopted to carry on the government of Scotland as an absentee king. It is assuredly no sign of weakness or incapacity that the nearest approach to that absolutism that he had set up as his ideal was made by him after his departure to take possession of the crown left him by Elizabeth. What he achieved in this respect was once set forth by him in a speech to his refractory English Parliament. "This I must say for Scotland, and may truly vaunt it: here I sit and govern it with my pen ”

“ In 1540 he signed, as a member of convocation, the casuistical opinion as to the invalidity of the king's marriage with Anne of Cleves (State Papers, Henry VIII, i. 633) . When Edward VI came to the throne, though he was placed on the commission to examine and revise the offices of the church, he joined with a small minority in the Lords in protesting against the introduction of the new liturgy, and against several other changes. He seems to have had some difficulty in those days in maintaining the rights of his see ”

“ He was present at the coronation of the young king James VI at Stirling on 29 July 1567 (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 537) , and at the convention at Perth in July 1569 he voted against the queen's divorce from Bothwell (ib. ii. 8) . ”

“ He was educated with James VI, who throughout his life treated him with marked favour. On his coming of age his father gave him the lands and titles of the abbey of Inchaffray in Strathearn, in virtue of which possession he was known as ‘commendator’ of Inchaffray. ”

“ Forrester was thus obliged to betake himself north to Aberdeen, where Bishop Forbes placed him in the church of Rathven, to which he was admitted on 20 April 1620. Here, however, he signalised himself by his energetic measures against the papists, and James VI again gave orders for a process being laid against him. Through the influence of his wife's cousin, Sir William Alexander [q. v.] of Menstrie, afterwards first earl of Stirling, this was averted, and he was restored to his former charge as ‘minister of the word of God at the north side of the bridge of the town of Leith,’ on 20 Sept. ”

“ Had James IV. lived he would doubtless have continued, firm-handed as he was, to hold in check both churchmen and nobles, and the reforms which were in the air might have taken effect like leaven, and not, as they did, like gunpowder. They might have been grafted upon the existing stem, as in England, instead of overturning it. But during the long minority of James V. the abuses of the feudal system, political and ecclesiastical, attained too rank a growth to be pruned by the hand of that king when he came of age, notwithstanding his energy and good intentions. ”