James I

• Elizabeth I died childless


  1603
• Elizabeth I was the last Tudor monarch
• James VI of Scotland

  Son of Elizabeth's closest relative and rival, Mary Queen of Scots
• James VI of Scotland became King of Scotland, England and Ireland as James I, and was the first Stuart king in England
• James I


  • Grew up in Scotland, deserted by his mother who had abdicated in his favour before fleeing to England
  • Was only two and the country was ruled by regents until he came of age
  • Was a Protestant and based his rule on the theory of the divine right of kings
  • Believed that, as monarch, he was the representative of God on Earth
  • Was determined to rule directly and summoned Parliament only to ask for money
• Members of Parliament refused to raise any taxes unless the money was needed for war
• Religion


  The most urgent problem of the new reign
• Catholics could not hold public positions and were fined if they refused to attend the Church of England
• The Protestant religion actively encouraged personal knowledge of the Bible
• James authorised a new translation of the Bible that is still widely used today


  1604
• King James Bible


  • Nearly fifty scholars, influenced by Humanists and using the original Hebrew and Greek, worked on the translation for seven years
  • Written to be heard and read by laymen
  • Used by the Church of England for more than three hundred years and greatly influenced the spread of literacy
• A group of radical Catholics, including Guy Fawkes, conspired to blow up the king in the Houses of Parliament, in what is known as the 'Gunpowder Plot
• The Gunpowder Plot was discovered

  5th November 1605
• The Gunpowder Plot conspirators were later executed
• Puritans


  • Extreme Protestants who disapproved of both the rites and the bishops of the Church of England
  • Had a high sense of duty and morality and did not want to live in a country which they believed was going to fall into moral decline
• A group of Puritans, the Pilgrim Fathers, applied for a government patent to colonise a part of New England
• The Pilgrim Fathers left England for America on the Mayflower and founded New Plymouth


  1620