Chapter 2: James and Charles I - character,court,favourites

• King James I's character

  Intellectual, outgoing, enjoyed debate and dealing with people, pragmatic, great ability to communicate and engage with people
• King Charles I's character

  Shy, hampered by a speech defect, unapproachable, uncommunicative, had an inferiority complex, unwilling to compromise
• Points of contact


  Methods of communication between the Political Nation and the monarch (crucial to the functioning of the English political system), including the Court and Parliament
• Peacemaker king


  How James I saw himself in his foreign policy and how he sought compromise and negotiation with the Political Nation while defending his prerogative
• Charles I's view on monarchy


  Unwilling to negotiate and defended his prerogative provocatively
• Privy Council


  Monarch's official body of advisers and administrators who held considerable power, but the monarch did not have to follow its advice
• Gentlemen of the Bedchamber


  Courtiers who attended to the monarch in their private apartments, potentially held more influence over the monarch as a result of their position
• Faction


  Competing groups in politics
• The court of James I


  Open and lively place that reflected the king's enjoyment of life, James I had open, physical interaction with his courtiers, criticised as drunken, immoral, and debauched
• The dominance of the Scots in the Bedchamber

  Caused early tension as there was concern over the influence the Scots could wield over James
• George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham


  Appointed Gentlemen of the Bedchamber in 1615, first Englishman appointed by James to the role, was a new source of tension in his court
• The court of Charles I

  Included only his supporters, making it feel isolated from the rest of the country, also dominated by Catholics and Arminians
• Court masques


  A type of dramatic entertainment popular among the English nobility in the 16th and 17th centuries, Charles I's court held them regularly, often reflecting the role that Charles thought he was fulfilling bringing order to the country
• Historian Roy C. Strong: 'Charles 'made every Stuart court masque a vehicle for exposition of the political theory of the Divine Right of Kings''
• Histrio-mastix (Actor's Tragedy)


  Published 1633 by Puritan William Prynne in opposition to the imagery of the court masques, also because the masques had associations with Catholicism, due to the nature of it acting like a ceremony
• Anthony Van Dyck


  An artist who held Charles I's favour and produced many portraits for Charles, Van Dyck's work furthered the belief that Charles aimed to be an absolutist Catholic monarch
• Favourite


  A courtier who was especially close to the monarch, gaining enormous political influence
• Male favourites


  A cause of tension in James I's court because, as men, they were in a position to have an open political role, and the monarch allowed them to have one, also seen as another example of his debauched lifestyle and immoral court
• Esme Stuart


  Duke of Lennox, favoured between 1579-81
• Robert Carr


  Earl of Somerset, favoured between 1607-13
• George Villiers


  Duke of Buckingham, favoured between 1615-25, also a favourite of Charles I
• The role of Buckingham


  His prominence at court was a major source of political tension in the years 1618-1628, also had a dominant role in the management of royal patronage (forced others to look to Parliament in order to pursue their interests)