James I: Final Years

• KEY POINTS

  From 1619-1625 James was ill and he died at 58. Buckingham wanted to stay in power to he took Charles under his wing from 1620
• The Madrid Trip

  1623
• Charles and Buckingham's trip to Madrid

  • Travelled under the names John and Jack Smith
  • Personal argument between Buckingham and the Count of Olivares started, so Charles had to carry out negotiations alone
  • Maria disliked Charles and the Spanish demanded that he turned Catholic
  • They were poorly treated due to anti-protestant beliefs
• Charles agreed to marry the French princess instead

  1624
• Charles and Buckingham agreed with the majority of MP's

  They wanted war
• James warned Charles and Buckingham that Their alliance with MP's could be damaging in the future politically. This did torment Charles in the first four years of his reign.
• Parliament had not been called since

  1614
• Parliament was dissolved in anger

  1622
• Factors causing tension throughout the years

  • Finance: Parliament not granting James' money made tensions worse, so did James' reckless spending
  • Foreign policy: disagreements over the Spanish war
  • Religion: parliament always thought James was not harsh enough on Catholics
  • Factions + favourites: James favouriting people made parliament angry
  • Divine right of kings: was going out of style but James still believed in it
• Happy Parliament

  1624
• James wanted to start again with peace and passed the Monopolies Act
• Charles and Buckingham asked parliament to push the war, they gave him £300,000 to fund it