James the 1st fact file

To prevent this, he excluded Margaret and her descendants from the line of succession in his will. The Scottish supporters of Mary became weak and James could use this to reduce the influence of Catholic nobles in Scotland. He grew even more pleasing to the Protestants by marrying Anne of Denmark, daughter of Frederick II of Denmark and the princess of a Protestant nation.

The marriage was celebrated by proxy in and in in person, when James visited Denmark. Initially, James' marriage to Anne of Denmark was happy but it gradually turned strained. The couple had five children and only three lived to adulthood, namely Henry Frederick, Elizabeth and Charles. With the death of their last daughter in , the couple completely drifted apart. James attended the North Berwick witch trial, in which some people were convicted of using witchcraft in an attempt to cause a storm and wreck the ship that the king and queen were travelling on.

Witches and witchcraft worried the king and he even wrote a treatise on demonology. As a result, hundreds of women were sentenced to death for witchcraft. In , James faced a Catholic rebellion and was forced to reconcile with the Church of Scotland, agreeing to abolish the Black Acts in Fearing that he would provoke excessive hostility of English and rebel Catholics, James reunited with his opponents causing ire with the Protestants.

In , James faced a conspiracy headed by the son of the 1st Earl of Gowrie, John Ruthven, who was executed along with his accomplices after the failure of the conspiracy. Thereafter, Protestant nobles restrained themselves before the king.

Succession to the English throne At the time of the death of the last Tudor monarch, James was powerful enough to claim the English throne. In fact, since , influential politicians of the English court, particularly the queen's chief minister Sir Robert Cecil, had contacted James to prepare him for a smooth succession. He was crowned on 25 July in Westminster Abbey. This did not, however, formally unite Scotland and England into a single kingdom. A closer union between the two countries remained James' great ambition: he even assumed the title King of Great Britain which was refused by the English Parliament but accepted in Scotland.

Salisbury strictly supervised the day-to-day running of the government to prevent financial disaster whilst focused on other policies. The king created new titles of nobility to reward his courtiers: in total, there were 62 compared to 50 during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Moreover, he was almost immediately confronted with the religious conflicts of England: after his ascension to the throne, a petition was presented asking to tolerate the Puritans. In , during the Hampton Court conference, James decided not to tolerate them. Instead, he granted them an official translation of the Bible, known as the King James Version. He also extended penalties against those who exercised any invocation or conjuration with the Witchcraft Act of Although he was fair to Catholics, his Protestant subjects made sure that Catholics were not granted equal rights.

Thus, in the first years of his reign, when his subjects ignored his tolerant policies towards Catholicism, there were several plots to remove him from power, the most famous of which was the Gunpowder Plot of The Catholic conspirators, led by Robert Catesby, planned an explosion in the Parliament at a time when the king and the members of both houses would be present.

However, the conspiracy was discovered. The act required any citizen to take an Oath of Allegiance denying the Pope's authority over the king. Darnley was murdered in February In July Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son. James's tutor, the historian and poet George Buchanan, was a positive influence and James was a capable scholar. A succession of regents ruled the kingdom until , when James became nominal ruler, although he did not actually take control until He proved to be a shrewd ruler who effectively controlled the various religious and political factions in Scotland.

When his mother was executed by Elizabeth the following year, James did not protest too vociferously - he hoped to be named as Elizabeth's successor. In , James married Anne of Denmark. Three of their seven children survived into adulthood. In March , Elizabeth died and James became king of England and Ireland in a remarkably smooth transition of power.

After he only visited Scotland once, in View all World History worksheets. View all Famous War worksheets. View all famous figure worksheets. View all President worksheets. View all author worksheets. View all musician worksheets. View all inventor worksheets. View all athlete worksheets. View all civil rights worksheets.

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