{"id":2970,"date":"2022-01-26T10:23:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T10:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/?p=2970"},"modified":"2022-12-02T09:40:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T09:40:16","slug":"king-james-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/stuarts\/king-james-i\/","title":{"rendered":"King James I (1603 \u2013 1625): The First King of the United Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

King James I was the first king of the United Kingdom. He ascended to the throne in 1603, following the death of Queen Elizabeth I<\/a>. James was a controversial monarch, and his reign was marked by numerous conflicts with Parliament. Despite these disagreements, James made significant progress in establishing the foundations of the United Kingdom. He also oversaw a period of great artistic and literary achievement in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James was born in Scotland in 1566. He was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots<\/a>, and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. He was the great-great-grandson of Henry VII<\/a>. His father died when he was only eight months old and James was raised by his mother and her second husband, the Earl of Moray.<\/wpil-free-highlight><\/p>\n\n\n\n

James, therefore, became King of Scotland in 1567. He ruled jointly with his mother until she was forced to flee to England in 1568.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1589, James married Anne of Denmark. The couple had six children, but only two survived infancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

First King of the United Kingdom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When Queen Elizabeth died James ascended to the English throne which made him the first King of the United Kingdom uniting both the crowns of England and Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was not an easy task as the two countries had different laws, religions and ways of life. James worked to unite them by creating a single parliament for the entire kingdom and by promoting the Anglican faith over the Catholic faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also tried to make English the only language used in government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Gunpowder Plot<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 1605 there was an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate James. A group of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes<\/a>, planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament<\/a> while James was attending the State Opening. The plot was foiled and Fawkes and his associates were executed. <\/wpil-free-highlight><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led to an increase in hositlity toward the catholic faith and more persecution of Catholics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The King and the Puritans<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

James was also in conflict with the Puritans, a group of Protestants who wanted to reform the Church of England. The Puritans believed that James was too tolerant of Catholics and too fond of pomp and ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time James I had ascended to the English throne he was already an experienced king and had several disagreements with the English parliament. The English Parliament had been used to the dignity and regality of the Tudors<\/a> and didn’t take kindly to James’s attempts to rule as an absolute monarch. In 1607 James dissolved the English Parliament after they refused to pass a bill that would have allowed him to raise money without their consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The King and the Scots<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

James also had disagreements with the Scottish Parliament. The Scots were unhappy that James was trying to impose English laws and customs on them. In 1609 James tried to solve the problem by creating a new Scottish Parliament, which would be more loyal to him. This didn’t work and the two parliaments continued to clash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

King James Bible<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

James was a great patron of the arts and sciences. He supported many famous writers and writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James was a devout believer and played a leading role in the development of the King James Bible. This was the first English translation of the Bible to be printed and it was published in 1611. The King James Bible is still the most popular version of the Bible in English today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Raleigh was a well known explorer and soldier. He was a favorite of James I and was granted many honours including the title of Earl of Marlborough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Raleigh<\/a> fell out of favor with the King and was eventually executed for treason in 1618 after he came in to conflict with the Spanish in Guiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Death of King James I<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

James suffered from ill health for many years before he died on 27th March 1625 at the age of 59. He was succeeded by his son Charles I<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

King James I was the first king of the United Kingdom. He ascended to the throne in 1603, following the death of Queen Elizabeth I. James was a controversial monarch, and his reign was marked by numerous conflicts with Parliament. Despite these disagreements, James made significant progress in establishing the foundations of the United Kingdom. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2970"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4715,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2970\/revisions\/4715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}