James VI as a Successful King of Scots - Essay Example

Running Head: JAMES VI WAS A SUCCESSFUL KING OF SCOTS BEFORE 1603 James VI Was a Successful King of Scots Before 1603 [Institution's name] James VI Was a Successful King of Scots Before 1603 Introduction Some historians feel that James VI was a successful king of Scots before 1603 but that he squandered that success after he became king of England. I completely agree with this statement as after he became king of England he went against the church which caused the English civil war apart from this due to him hid people had to loose their identity and be called Britons. The following analysis giving a clear understanding of how James VI was a successful king of Scots before 1603 but that he squandered that success after he became king of England. Analysis James was born to Mary Queen of Scots on June 19 in 1566 in Theobalds, Hertfordshire. His father Henry Stewart but widely known as Lord Darnley. Darnley, he lost his life in a mysterious explosion at his residence. Just seven months after this Mary Queen of Scots was forced to surrender her throne as she was beaten by rebels. Mary went away and James was left alone. James was given the throne of Scotland at the age of fifteen months this is when he became King James VI of Scotland (Harris& McDonald 2006 ). Today, James I of England also known as James VI of Scotland has addressed to Parliament on the divine right of kings. This was very disappointing to Parliament after many conflicts between it and King James. King James made a horrible statement to all religious eyes that kings are a figure like God himself. "Kings are fairly known as Gods, for that they use a manner of likeness of divine power upon this planet." This surprised the listeners as he spoke regarding the similarity of kings and God. This sent awe throughout the square where the speech was made. Many have said that this will send the king straight to hell with no judgment what so ever. The king made some over the edge of the earth similarities between the power of God and the power of kings. This is an exert from his speech showing the similarities: "God has the power to create, or destroy, make, or unmake at his pleasure, to give life, or send death, to judge all, raise low things, and to make high things low at his pleasure, and to God are both soul and body due. And the like power have Kings; they make and unmake their subjects: they have the power of raising and casting down: of life, and of death: judges over all their subjects, and in all causes, and yet accountable to none but God only." (www.thedukeofyork.org/files/pdf/jamesi) This statement surprised a lot of church officials at the time and numerous protesters were there in opposition to the King. One protester held up a sign saying, "You are not God, he made the Bible." After the King saw this sign, he promised to translate the Bible to English. This is not certain to happen, as the King has a bad relationship with parliament. This might cause him to not have enough money to translate the Bible, but it will bring us to no conclusions. . As a result, James VI of Scotland was put on the English throne as James I. Like his predecessor, James was a passionate supporter of the Anglican Church. Because of this, he did not have much leniency for Puritan's demands for the improvement of the church. What little tolerance he had went to the agreement of a new translation of the Bible to English, called the King James Version or Authorized Version (www.biblelife.org/calvinism.htm ) (one of the most commonly used English translations today). Other than that, James disapproved of further modifications to church doctrines. Upset by the king's refusal, many Puritans left England to flee to Holland and later sail on the Mayflower, heading for a new life in the Americas. King James I, a shred Scotsman, was head of both the state and the church in England. He saw his subjects could defy him as their spiritual leader. He therefore threatened to harass the more bothersome Separatists out of the land. Unfortunately for James, many members of Parliament intensely stood for the Puritans. As a result, they often opposed several of James' policies. His reign had problems with increasing inflation and mounting government activity. The money he collected from taxes was never adequate enough to capitalize his policies. As a result, most of the taxes passed by Parliament demonstrated to be deficient. This caused James to resort to raising money through selling titles to nobility, giving out monopoly rights to personal businesses, and augmenting customs duties. Parliament disagreed with James' way of earning money. Not only that, but they also protested against the king's attempts to formulate an alliance with Spain, England's long lasting adversary. Because of this, negotiations failed and once again, war erupted between the two countries. Puritans continued to insist on making changes to the church even after James' death, which troubled the reign of his heir, Charles I. The English Civil War started when James I (or James VI of Scotland) to the was given the English crown. James was an academic of royal dictatorship and wanted to breathe life into his standards via establishing what he called a "free" monarchy in the whole of England. This "free" monarchy was concerning king's utter power being free of any exterior pressure or control by means of the Parliament, the Church, or any prior customary laws actually King was given the divine right to rule by God, and as a result was accountable only to God, and the king could decide on any course for he betterment of his subjects. Naturally, James, being a Scot, was already viewed in a negative light by the English, and upon his death, his son Charles I inherited his fathers free monarchy visions coupled with the desire to force Parliament to help further the possibility of achieving this goal by granting revenues (the "tunnage and poundage") to create the necessary funds. Unhappy with the refusal of the (mostly Puritan) Parliament, James threatened the existence of the Puritans and, following the course of the rest of the period, pushed England into Civil War on what, on the surface, appeared as religious differences. When James I, king of Scotland, took up the thrown, Parliament's determination and James's beliefs clashed to cause problems in the governing of England. James was a firm believer in divine right. This meant that a monarch's power to rule came directly from God, and that therefore was absolute. He wished to have unyielding control of England, only going to Parliament when he needed money to fight a war, or to just to fund his excessive life-style. This irritated Parliament and was their basis for the resentment of James I. Parliament eventually began denying finances to James, and after a while he dissolved them and enforced his own taxes. Supporting absolutist policies was Thomas Hobbes's book, Leviathan. Along with the Stuart monarchs, Hobbes was a believer in absolute monarchy as the top way to govern. Hobbes wrote of a life in a state without government control, he described that it would be "nasty, brutish, and short." He believed that people should form contracts, giving themselves up to their present monarch. By suspending their freedom, the monarch would be able to protect them and keep the land in a state of order. Hobbes believed that no matter how much people disliked their government, they had no right to go against it. Hobbes believed that the only way to maintain an orderly state was by the way of absolute ruling. To add to problems with government in England, was its religious state. Most English people were members of the Church of England, yet that had different beliefs about the doctrine and rituals of the church. The Puritans were a group belonging to the church who wanted the church to be rid("purified) of its remaining Catholic practices. James I, who was head of both the government and the church, believed that anyone going against the Church of England in any way was disloyal to their religion. If these Puritans didn't conform to the church, James stated, then they would be kicked out of England. As a result of being rejected by James, the Puritans moved to and settled in North America, in search of religious freedom. James' aim was to promote domestic and international religious peace. James was absolutely determined to avoid war. In 1604 he made peace with Spain. After 1618 James came under increasing/ intensifying pressure to go to war against resurgent Catholic power in Germany. Also in 1618 The English governing class pressed James for war against Spain. In 1621 the House of Commons made a Protestation in which it claimed the right to advise the King on important issues and had freedom of speech to facilitate this process (Mackie 1958). James ripped it out of the Commons Journal and dissolved parliament. James' gesture was a theatrical one which aimed to divert attention from his aim to avoid war with Spain at all costs, even at the expense of conflict with his governing class. It was a Scottish king who wanted his people to be known as "Britons," while the English found themselves clinging stubbornly to their Englishness. The long struggle over the meaning and future of British ways was waged mostly by textual means, giving rise not only to innumerable propaganda pamphlets and treatises, but also to literary masterpieces such as Spenser's Faerie Queene and Shakespeare's King Lear. Successfully, James united Scotland and England and Wales peacefully creating Great Britain. James created a congruent church taking the best aspects of Scottish and English churches using them and not forcibly combining them. James wanted to soothe religious tension. In 1624 he rammed home to the partisans of war in Parliament just how much war would cost. In religion James sought domestic and international peace, with a degree of success. Conclusion James was victim to the political battles and James's greatest political problem was his Catholicism, which left him alienated from both parties in Parliament. In the seventeenth century, there were several important factors that led the English to move from absolutism to a government in which the monarch had little power and Parliament had more power. Scotland was united with England when James VI. Of Scotland was crowned James I. Of England in 1603. A struggle between Parliament and the Stuart kings led to a bloody Civil War. The country was divided between the supporters of the king who wanted to rule absolutely, and the supporters of Parliament. References Harris Bob and Macdonald R. Alan (2006), Scotland: The Making and Unmaking of the Nation, C. 1100-1707: 1 Dundee University Press Ltd R. L. Mackie (1958); King James IV of Scotland: A Brief Survey of His Life and Times. Vol. 74, No. 290, 153, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd publishers. www.thedukeofyork.org/files/pdf/jamesi retrieved on July 7, 2008. Read More