HISTORY OF ENGLAND: (1603-1690) FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TO THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE, BY J. DAVIES, Author of "Manuals" of Genesis, St. Matthew, &c.; GEORGE PHILIP & SON, 32, FLEET STREET. 1877. 226. k. 432. HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 1603-1690. JAMES I. Dates of Birth, Accession, and Death.-1566 (at Edinburgh), March 24, 1603-1625, March 27, (at Theobalds, Herts, of ague and gout, aggravated by his refusal to take medicine, and by unskilful treatment). Descent. Only child of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Lord Darnley. The table on next page will show his,-and also Arabella Stuart's, and William Seymour's,-descent from Henry VII. Became King (James VI.) of Scotland, when about a year old, his mother being compelled to resign, in consequence of his father's murder,-educated chiefly by Geo. Buchanan,-entered into alliance with Elizabeth, 1585, receiving £5,000 a year pension, continuing, from prudential motives, the connexion spite of his mother's execution. During his reign in Scotland two attempts, (one the Raid of Ruthven, successful, and resulting in his captivity for 10 months), were made by the lawless nobles to seize him. Chosen by Elizabeth as her successor. Married, 1589, Anne, daughter of Frederick II. of Denmark (1575-1619). Married James by proxy, bringing as part dower the Islands of Orkney and Shetland. Detained by storms on her way to England in Norway, whither James went to fetch her. Took no share in politics,-spent the latter part of her life in seclusion, through illness. Wanting in intelligence and education, gay, frivolous, good-natured, extravagant. Issue. Henry (a very accomplished and promising prince, d. 1612)-Charles I.-Elizabeth (m. Frederick, Elector Palatine)-Robert, and Mary (died young). Claim to the Throne.-Good by descent: bad legally. He was the nearest living lineal descendant of Henry VII., and consequently the hereditary successor to Elizabeth, the preceding sovereign; but Parliament had granted Henry VIII. the power to regulate the succession, which he had done by a will ordering that, if Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth died childless, the crown should pass to the heirs of his younger sister Mary, Duchess of Suffolkthus excluding the Scotch branch, descended from his elder sister Margaret, and to which James belonged. The legal heir, at James's accession, was, according to Henry VIII.'s will, William Seymour, who was the nearest living representative of the Suffolk family. The crowns of England and Scotland were united in James, who thus became the First King of Great Britain: the complete union of the two kingdoms was not, however, effected till 1707, by the ACT OF UNION. Character. Of medium height, stoutish, awkward in gait (through weak knees); slovenly; mean, and undignified, while pompous, in address. Of excellent natural abilities; shrewd, sagacious; but conceited, obstinate, selfish, crafty, pusillanimous, and childishly weak in his favoritism. "The most learned fool in Christendom," his scholarship being spoiled by vanity and pedantry: an ardent believer in, and student of, demonology and witchcraft; esteemed himself an all-accomplished theologian. An extraordinary mixture of sense and folly, and mass of contradictions: 66 no prince was ever so much exposed to the extremes of calumny and flattery, of satire and panegyric." Possessed with an overweening sense of his Divine right and prerogative, whence, as transmitted to his descendants, came the Civil War and the Revolution. Sincerely religious; on the whole, a good husband and father, though soft in the latter respect. WARS. 1. In Aid of the Elector Palatine.-The Bohemian Protestants, having revolted from the Emperor Matthias, on account of his intolerance and unconstitutional government, would not own his successor, Ferdinand II., but |