ames I of England and VI of Scotland (1566-1625), son of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, and grandson of James V, was born in Edinburgh Castle. On the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, James became the king of England and Ireland. His view that he held the kingship by divine right, his impression that Puritanism was the same as Presbyterianism, his wish to tolerate the Roman Catholics, and his determination to exercise absolute power over Parliament, led to conflicts with the House of Commons which continued throughout his reign. From 1612 to 1628 he made strenuous efforts to bring about a marriage between the Infanta of Spain and his son Prince Charles, hoping thereby to secure the peace of Europe. He had already, by his Ulster settlement, begun in 1607, attempted to give peace to Ireland. But the native Irish disliked the settlement, and were not conciliated; and in 1618, the Thirty Years War broke out, and all hopes of the Spanish match were destroyed. Hoping by diplomacy to secure the restoration of Frederick to the palatinate, James sent Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham to Spain. The mission having failed, James made a treaty with Denmark, and arranged a marriage alliance with France. James was known as a good scholar though somewhat pedantic and was so desirous of preserving peace that a vacillating policy made him more or less an object of contempt. [World Wide Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1935]

Notes on James VI and I
He became King of Scots on 24 July 1567 as an infant on his Mother’s abdication. He was crowned 29 July 1567 at Stirling. On 24 March 1603, upon Queen Elizabeth’s death, he ascended the throne of England as James the I of England. He was crowned at Westminster on 25 July 1603. It has been suggested that his father was not Darnley but Rizzio, his mother's Italian lover... [GADD.GED]

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. When Mary was forced to abdicate 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, and Esmé Stuart, duke of Lennox, James assumed actual rule of Scotland. Scotland was at that time divided domestically by conflict between the Protestants and the 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, and was held virtual prisoner until he escaped the next 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 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, 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. [Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia]

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