JAMES VI. JAMES VII. 



207 



secret to be communicated to him, where he found a 

 man in complete armour; and a dagger was put to 

 his breast by Ruthven, with threats of immediate 

 death. His attendants, being alarmed, came to his 

 aid. Cowrie and his brother were slain, and the 

 king escaped unhurt. In 1603, James succeeded to 

 the crown of England, on the death of Elizabeth, and 

 proceeded, amidst the acclamations of his new sub- 

 jects, to London. One of his first acts was to bestow 

 a profusion of honours and titles on the inhabitants 

 of both countries, in which, as in many other points, 

 he displayed a contrast to the maxims of the late 

 reign. A conference held at Hampton court, between 

 tiie divines of the established church and the Puritans, 

 afforded James an opportunity of exhibiting his skill 

 in theological controversy, and the ill will he bore to 

 popular schemes of church government. The meet- 

 ing of parliament also enabled him to assert those 

 principles of absolute power in the crown which he 

 could never practically maintain, but the theoretical 

 claim of which provided the increasing spirit of free- 

 dom in the house of commons with constant matter of 

 alarm and contention. Although James had behaved 

 with great lenity to the Catholics in Scotland, those in 

 England were so disappointed in their expectations of 

 favour, that the famous gunpowder plot was concerted 

 in 1605, the object of which was to blrw up the king 

 and parliament. (See Gunpowder Plot.) His cares 

 for reducing and improving Ireland do him honour. 

 In 1612, he lost his eldest son, Henry, a prince of 

 great promise, then of the age of nineteen ; and, in 

 the following year, the eventful marriage of his 

 daughter Elizabeth with the elector palatine took 

 place. About this time, the object of the weak pas- 

 sion of James for handsome favourites was Robert 

 Carr, a youth from Scotland, who in a short time was 

 raised from a court page to be earl of Somerset, and 

 was loaded with honours and riches. The scandalous 

 murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, by the machina- 

 tions of this minion and his infamous countess, put an 

 end to the king's partiality, although he disgracefully 

 pardoned the principals in the murder, while he 

 allowed their agents to be executed. The fate of 

 Somerset paved the way for the rise of George 

 Villiers, duke of Buckingham. (See Buckingham.) 

 No circumstance in the reign of James was more un- 

 popular than his treatment of the celebrated Sir 

 Walter Raleigh. Soon after the king's accession, 

 that statesman, who had been opposed to the Scot- 

 tish succession, engaged in a plot to set aside James 

 in favour of the lady Arabella Stuart, for which he 

 was tried and capitally convicted, but, being re- 

 prieved, was kept thirteen years in prison. In 1615, 

 lie obtained his release by dint of money, and was 

 allowed to set out upon an expedition to the South 

 seas, in search of gold, with the sentence of death 

 hanging over his head. He was unsuccessful in his 

 objects, and James, instigated, as it is supposed, by 

 his desire of an alliance between prince Charles and 

 the Infanta of Spain, listened to the suggestions of 

 the latter power, and, to the great scandal of the 

 whole nation, Sir Walter was executed upon his for- 

 mer sentence. The match with the Infanta, notwith- 

 standing, failed, and Charles married Henrietta Maria, 

 daughter of Henry IV. of France, with the disgrace- 

 ful stipulation, that the children should be brought up 

 by their mother until thirteen years of age ; to which 

 arrangement the future religious opinions of Charles 

 II. and James II. may, perhaps, be attributed. The 

 close of the life of James was marked by violent con- 

 tests with his parliament, which prepared dreadful 

 consequences for his successor. He was also much 

 disquieted by the misfortune ot his son-in-law, the 

 elector palatine, who, having been induced to accept 

 the rrowu of Bohemia, and to head the Protestant 



interest in Germany, was stripped of all his domin- 

 ions by the emperor. Urged by national feelings 

 for the Protestant cause, he was at length, in 1624, 

 induced to declare war against Spain and the empe- 

 ror ; and troops were sent over to Holland to act in 

 conjunction with prince Maurice. The defeat of 

 this enterprise, through sickness and mismanage- 

 ment, it is thought, produced the king so much un- 

 easiness as to cause the intermittent fever by which 

 he was soon after attacked, and of which he died in 

 March, 1625, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. 



James was not destitute of abilities, nor of good 

 intentions, but the former were not those of a ruler, 

 and the latter were defeated by pliability and un- 

 manly attachments. His reign, although not un- 

 prosperous to his subjects, was inglorious in charac- 

 ter and loss of influence, and he was neither beloved 

 at home nor esteemed abroad. He received during 

 his lifetime a great deal of adulation, on the score of 

 his literary abilities ; but he merits far more as an 

 encourager of learning, than for the fruits of it dis- 

 played by himself, all of which were debased by 

 pedantry and prejudice. Upon the whole, the good 

 qualities of James were unstatesmanlike, and his bad 

 ones unmanly and puerile. 



JAMES VII., king of Scotland, and II. of Eng- 

 land, second son of Charles I. and of Henrietta of 

 France, was born in October, 1 G33, and immediately 

 declared duke of York. After the capture of Oxford 

 by the parliamentary army, he escaped, in 1648, at 

 the age of fifteen, and was conducted to his sister, 

 the princess of Orange. He soon after joined his 

 mother at Paris, and, when he had reached his twen- 

 tieth year, served in the French army nnder Turenne, 

 and subsequently entered the Spanish army in Flan- 

 ders, under don John of Austria and the prince of 

 Conde. In these campaigns he obtained reputation 

 and experience, although with the display of no very 

 great or shining qualities. At the restoration, he 

 took the command of the fleet, as lord high admiral. 

 He had previously married Anne, daughter of chan- 

 cellor Hyde, afterwards lord Clarendon (see Claren- 

 don), and ungenerously attempted to free himself 

 from the union ; but the marriage being satisfactorily 

 established, he could not succeed. In 1664, he took 

 a leading part in promoting a Dutch war, for the 

 alleged interests of trade, and, June 3, 1665, with a 

 powerful fleet under his command, engaged that ol 

 the Dutch under Opdam, who, with his ship, was 

 blown up in the action, and nineteen of his squadron 

 were sunk or taken, with the loss of only one on the 

 part of the English. In 1671, the duchess of York 

 died, leaving her husband two daughters, who became 

 successively queens of England. Before her death, 

 she declared herself a convert to the Roman Catholic 

 faith, which had been secretly that of the duke for 

 many years, and was now openly avowed by him. 

 This declaration produced a great impression on the 

 people, and laid the foundation of the opposition 

 which finally drove him from the throne. In the 

 Dutch war of 1672, he was again placed at the head 

 of the fleet, and, being attacked by De Ruyter, a 

 furious engagement ensued. The Dutch fleet at 

 length retired. A test act being soon after passed, 

 to prevent Roman Catholics from holding public em- 

 ployments, the duke was obliged to resign his com- 

 mand a result which induced him to join heartily in 

 the plot of the king and certain of his counsellors, to 

 restore the Roman Catholic religion. In 1671, he 

 married Mary Beatrice of Este, daughter of the duke 

 of Modena, and, in 1677, his eldest daughter, Mary, 

 was united to William, prince of Orange. During the 

 violent proceedings on account of the supposed popish 

 plot in 1679, by the advice of the king, he retired to 

 Brussels, and a bill passed the commons for his exclu 



