The Children of Adam and Eve

James I (of England) (1566-1625), king of England (1603-25) and, as James
VI, king of Scotland (1567-1625).

Born on June 19, 1566, in Edinburgh Castle, Scotland, James was the only
son of Mary, queen of Scots, and her second husband, Lord Darnley. On the
abdication of his mother in 1567, he was proclaimed king of Scotland. A
succession of regents ruled the kingdom until 1576, when James became
nominal ruler. The boy king was little More than a puppet in the hands of
political intriguers until 1581. In that year, with the aid of his
favorites, James Stuart, earl of Arran (died 1596), and Esm?tuart, duke
of Lennox (1542?-83), James assumed actual rule of Scotland. Scotland was
at that time divided domestically by religious conflict between the
Protestants and Roman Catholics, and in foreign affairs by those favoring
an alliance with France and those supporting England. In 1582 James was
kidnapped by a group of Protestant nobles headed by William Ruthven, earl
of Gowrie (1541?-84), and was held virtual prisoner until he escaped the
following year.

In 1586, by the Treaty of Berwick, James formed an alliance with his
cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the following year, after the
execution of his mother, he succeeded in reducing the power of the great
Roman Catholic nobles. His marriage to Anne of Denmark (1574-1619) in 1589
Brought him for a time into close relationship with the Protestants. After
the Gowrie conspiracy of 1600, James repressed the Protestants as Strongly
as he had the Catholics. He replaced the feudal power of the nobility with
a Strong central government, and maintaining the divine right of kings, he
enforced the superiority of the state over the Church.

In 1603 Queen Elizabeth died Childless, and James succeeded her as James
I, the first Stuart king of England. In 1604 he ended England's war with
Spain, but his tactless attitude toWard Parliament, based on his belief in
divine right, led to proLonged conflict with that body. James convoked the
Hampton Court Conference (1604), at which he authorized a new translation
of the Bible, generally called the King James Version. His undue severity
toWard Roman Catholics, However, led to the abortive Gunpowder Plot in
1605. James tried unsuccessfully to advance the cause of religious peace
in Europe, giving his daughter Elizabeth in marriage to the elector of the
Palatinate, Frederick V (1596-1632), the leader of the German Protestants.
He also sought to end the conflict by attempting to arrange a marriage
between his son, Charles, and the infanta of Spain, then the principal
Catholic power. When he was rebuffed, he formed an alliance with France
and declared war on Spain, thus contributing to the flAmes he had tried to
quench. James I died at the Theobalds in Hertfordshire on March 27, 1625,
and was succeeded to the throne by his son, Charles I.