King James I
1566 – 1625 · Generation XXV · King of Scots (r. 1567), of England and Ireland (r. 1603–1625) · House of Stuart
James I & VI Stuart (1566–1625). King of Scots (r. 1567), of England and Ireland (r. 1603–1625). Married Anne of Denmark in 1589. United the crowns in 1603; the King James Bible carries his name. Placed on the Scottish throne at thirteen months after his mother’s forced abdication, he was raised a Protestant under four successive regents and went on to reign in Scotland longer than any other of its monarchs. He pressed for a true union with a single parliament, but the kingdoms kept their own laws and legislatures; after 1603 he governed from England, returning north only once. His English years brought the Gunpowder Plot and running quarrels with Parliament, yet also the Plantation of Ulster and the beginnings of English colonisation in the Americas. A prolific author — of Daemonologie and Basilikon Doron among other works — he held to a peace policy and tried to keep clear of the Thirty Years’ War; a courtier’s barb called him “the wisest fool in Christendom.”
One of 14 people of House of Stuart (from 1371) in this archive. Scotland’s royal house for three centuries before James VI inherited England and wore both crowns.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I.
Parents
- Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1546 – 1567)
- Mary Queen of Scots (1542 – 1587)
Partners
- Married Anne of Denmark (1574 – 1619) in 1589 — 3 children together
Children
- Henry Frederick Stuart (1594 – 1612)
- Elizabeth Stuart (1596 – 1662)
- King Charles I (1600 – 1649)
Life
- 1566 — Born
- 1589 — Married Anne of Denmark
- 1603 — James VI of Scotland becomes King James I of England, Scotland, and Ireland after the death of Elizabeth I uniting the thrones of Scotland and England.
- 1603 — The Millenary Petition is presented to James I. It expresses Puritan desires for reforms to the Church of England.
- 1603 — Plot against James to set his cousin Arabella Stuart on the throne. Sir Walter Raleigh is implicated and imprisoned.
- 1604 — James proclaims that smoking is harmful to the lungs and imposes a tax on tobacco
- 1607 — Common citizenship of English and Scottish persons is granted to those born after the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne.
- 1611 — The King James Authorized Version of the Bible is published.
- 1611 — Dissolution of the first Parliament of James I.
- 1611 — Arabella Stuart secretly marries William Seymour. When James finds out Seymour is imprisoned but escapes with Arabella. They are captured on the way to France and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Arabella starves herself to death there in 1615.
- 1613 — James' daughter Elizabeth marries Frederick V, Elector of Palatine. Their descendants in House of Hanover will eventually inherit the British Throne.
- 1614 — Second Parliament of James I meets.
- 1615 — George Villiers becomes James’s favourite.
- 1625 — Died
- 1625 — Death of James I, aged 58.