Obverse of medal of James I. IAC I. TOTIVS. INS: BRYT. IMP: ET. FRANC. ET. HIB: REX. (The title Imperator is to be noted.) Bust of king, facing.

BOOK V.

A.D. 1603-1688.

CHAPTER XX.

JAMES I. A.D. 1603-1625.

§ 1. Introduction. § 2. Accession of James. § 3. Conspiracy in favor of Arabella Stuart. Conference at Hampton Court. § 4. Proceedings of Parliament. Peace with Spain. § 5. The Gunpowder Plot. § 6. Struggles with the Parliament. Assassination of Henry IV. of France. § 7. State of Ireland, and Settlement of Ulster. Death of Prince Henry, and Marriage of the Princess Elizabeth. § 8. Rise of Somerset. Murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. § 9. Somerset's Fall and Rise of Buckingham. § 10. English Colonization. Raleigh's Expedition to Guiana. His Execution. § 11. Negotiations for the Spanish Match. Affairs of the Palatinate. § 12. Discontent of the English. A Parliament. Impeachments. Fall of Lord Bacon. § 13. Rupture between the King and Commons. § 14. Progress of the Spanish Match. Prince Charles and Buckingham visit Madrid. § 15. The Marriage Treaty broken by Buckingham. Triumph of the Commons. § 16. Rupture with Spain, and Treaty with France. Mansfeldt's Expedition. Death and Character of the King.

§ 1. In the preceding narrative we have seen the liberties of the nation commenced and founded under the Plantagenets, eclipsed but not extinguished under the Tudors; in the present book we shall behold them tending through many dangers to their secure establishment. The reformation having been completed under the Tudor dynasty, the nation had more leisure to devote

their attention to their political condition; while the same movement had awakened in a large party not only a desire for farther ecclesiastical reforms, but also for an extension of civil freedom. Fortunately for the people, the sceptre had passed into the hands of a weak sovereign, whose vanity and presumption continually led him to parade that opinion of his absolute sovereignty which he had neither the means nor the ability successfully to assert. Thus, to the ruin of his son and successor, but to the everlasting benefit of the English nation, he provoked and precipitated the decision of the question as to what were the privileges of the crown and what were the constitutional liberties of the people. With the history of the progress of this great debate the following book will be chiefly occupied, for its engrossing nature left comparatively little leisure for other transactions.

§ 2. The crown of England was never transmitted from father to son with greater tranquillity than it passed from the family of Tudor to that of Stuart, in spite of the will of Henry VIII., sanctioned by act of Parliament, by which the succession had been settled on the house of Suffolk, the descendants of his younger sister Mary. Queen Elizabeth, on her death-bed, had recognized the title of her kinsman James, and the whole nation seemed to dispose themselves with joy and pleasure for his reception. Great were the rejoicings, and loud and hearty the acclamations, which resounded from all sides. But James, though sociable and familiar with his friends and courtiers, hated the bustle of a mixed multitude; and though far from disliking flattery, yet was he still fonder of tranquillity and ease. He issued, therefore, a proclamation, forbidding the resort of people, on pretense of the scarcity of provisions and other inconveniences, which, he said, would necessarily attend it; and by his repulsive, ungainly manners, as well as by symptoms which he displayed of an arbitrary temper, he had pretty well lost his popularity even before his arrival in London.

James, at his accession, was 36 years of age, and had by his queen, Anne of Denmark, two sons, Henry and Charles, and one daughter, Elizabeth. His education having been conducted by the celebrated George Buchanan, he had acquired a considerable stock of learning, but at the same time an immeasurable conceit of his own wisdom. He took every occasion to make a pedantic display of his acquirements both in conversation and in writing, for he was an author, and had published, for the use of his son, a book called Basilikon Doron (Baoiλikòr dwpor) or Royal Gift, besides works on demonology and other subjects. These qualities led the Duke of Sully to characterize him as the most learned fool in Christendom, while his courtiers and flatterers gave him the name of the British Solomon.

A.D. 1603, 1604.

ACCESSION OF JAMES I.

371

James signalized his accession by distributing a profusion of titles; and in three months after his entrance into the kingdom he is computed to have bestowed knighthood on no fewer than 700 persons. He had brought with him, to what he called the "Land of Promise," great numbers of his Scottish courtiers, many of whom were immediately added to the English privy council. Yet he left almost all the chief offices in the hands of Elizabeth's ministers, and trusted the conduct of political concerns, both foreign and domestic, to his English subjects. Among these, Secretary Cecil, afterward created Earl of Salisbury, was always regarded as his prime minister and chief counselor. The secret correspondence into which he had entered with James, and which had sensibly contributed to the easy reception of that prince in England, had laid the foundation of Cecil's credit.

§ 3. Shortly after the accession of James a double conspiracy to subvert the government was discovered. One of these plots, called the Main, is said to have been chiefly conducted by Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord Cobham, and consisted of a plan to place Arabella Stuart, the cousin of the king,* on the throne, with the assistance of the Spanish government. The other plot, called the Bye, the Surprise, or the Surprising Treason, was led by Broke, brother of Lord Cobham, and by Sir Griffin Markham, and was a design to surprise and imprison the king, and to remodel the government. Broke was engaged in both plots, and formed the connecting link between them. In this wild undertaking men of all persuasions were enlisted; as Lord Grey, a Puritan, Watson and Clarke, two Roman Catholic priests, and others. Their designs came to the ears of Secretary Cecil, and the conspirators were arrested. The two priests and Broke were executed; Cobham, Grey, and Markham were pardoned after they had laid their heads upon the block. Raleigh too was reprieved, not pardoned; and he remained in confinement many years afterward. His guilt rested on the evidence of Cobham; and there are good reasons for thinking that he was entirely innocent.

The religious disputes between the Church and the Puritans induced James to call a conference at Hampton Court, on pretense of finding expedients which might reconcile both parties. The Church of England had not yet abandoned the rigid doctrines of grace and predestination; the Puritans had not yet separated themselves from the Church, nor openly renounced episcopacy. The conference was opened Jan. 14, 1604. The demands of the Puritans were for purity of doctrine, good pastors, a reform in church government and in the book of Common Prayer. The

She was the daughter of the Duke of Lenox, the brother of Lord Darnley, the king's father. See genealogical table, p. 241.

king, from the beginning of the conference, showed the strongest propensity to the Established Church, and frequently inculcated the maxim, No BISHOP, NO KING. The bishops, in their turn, were very liberal of their praises toward the royal disputant; and after a few alterations in the Liturgy had been agreed to, both parties separated with mutual dissatisfaction. James was glad of this opportunity to display, his learning, and boasted mightily of his performance.

*

§ 4. Upon the assembling of the Parliament the Commons granted the king tonnage and poundage, but they demurred to vote him a supply when the question was brought before them by some members attached to the court. In order to cover a disappointment which might bear a bad construction both at home and abroad, James sent a message to the House, in which he told them that he desired no supply; and he was very forward in refusing what was never offered him. Soon after, he prorogued the Parliament, not without discovering, in his speech, visible marks of dissatisfaction. The struggle between the Stuarts and the Commons was already begun.

This summer a peace with Spain was finally concluded, and was signed by the Spanish ministers at London.

§ 5. The Roman Catholics had expected great favor and indulgence on the accession of James, and it is pretended that he had even entered into positive engagements to tolerate their religion as soon as he should mount the throne of England. Very soon they discovered their mistake, and were at once surprised and enraged to find James, on all occasions, express his intention of strictly executing the laws enacted against them, and of persevering in all the rigorous measures of Elizabeth. Catesby, a gentleman of good parts and of an ancient family, first thought of a most extraordinary method of revenge, and he opened his intention to Percy, a descendant of the illustrious house of Northumberland. The scheme was, to destroy, at one blow, the king, the royal family, the Lords, and the Commons, when assembled on the first meeting of the Parliament, by blowing them up with gunpowder. Percy was charmed with this project of Catesby; and they agreed to communicate the matter to a few more, and among the rest to Thomas Winter, whom they sent over to Flanders in quest of Fawkes, an officer in the Spanish service, with whose zeal and courage they were all thoroughly acquainted. When they enlisted any new conspirator, in order to bind him to secrecy, they always, together with an oath, employed the sacrament, the

*These, which are the origin of our custom-house duties, consisted chiefly of a duty of 3s. upon every tun of wine imported, and of 1s. in the pound on other articles.