The age of Salisbury.
1. James I
 | James I met no real opposition when he succeeded to the throne of England. The only serious rival claim was that of Arabella Stuart, who had no supporters. (in 1610, she married Sir William Seymour, the Grey/Suffolk claimant, and this posed enough of a threat to James for him to imprison them both. Arabella died in prison (1615), but William was released and became a loyal supporter of Charles I in the Civil War). | ||
| England's Roman Catholics hoped that James would
treat them better than Elizabeth had done, since they had supported
his mother, Mary Queen of Scots.
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| On his accession, James made a leisurely journey south, handing out knighthoods as he went. Many nobility and gentry looked askance at James being equally generous to his Scots' supporters, who were rewarded lavishly from English assets. However, James was pleased to leave Scotland, and only returned for one visit. He had Scots' favorites but few of them were elevated to positions of real power in England. | ||
| James was an intellectual - a true scholar who wrote poetry, political theory (maintaining the rights of kings) and theology (against the radical Dutch Protestant Conrad Vorstius). He easily grew bored of routine administration and devoted far more time to hunting and drinking with his favorites. |
| "On
Saturday last the King killed a buck in Eltham Park and so soon
as it was opened stood in the belly of it and bathed his bare
feet and legs with the warm blood; since which time he has been
so nimble that he thinketh this the only remedy for the gout." (1619) |
2. The Catholic threat - the Gunpowder Plot and the Oath of Allegiance
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James soon faced Roman Catholic
conspiracy. Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, and Guy Fawkes
led some Catholic gentlemen in the
Gunpowder Plot to blow up the king and his two sons on the day
that Parliament opened. (They intended to capture James I' daughter,
Princess Elizabeth (1596-1662) and rule through her). One of the conspirators warned his relative, Lord Monteagle not to attend the opening of Parliament, he took the letter to the government and the whole plot unraveled. On 5 November 1605, Guy Fawkes was arrested amongst his barrels of gunpowder in a cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament. (Bonfire Night has been celebrated in England ever since with fireworks and the burning of a "guy" - the stuffed replica of Guy Fawkes.) Under torture, he confessed and gave the names of his fellow conspirators. The conspirators fled but were pursued and those who were not killed were captured and executed. The involvement of the Jesuit priest, Henry Garnet, who confessed to knowing of the plot in advance increased anti-Catholic feeling. | ||
| In the wake of the Plot, Parliament passed new legislation against English Catholics, including a requirement that they should take an Oath of Allegiance repudiating all intentions of overthrowing James. | ||
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After 1605, the Catholic threat
diminished, especially as internal squabbles between the Jesuits and
the secular priests continued.
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3. The Hampton Court Conference and puritanism
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"… now we, to the number of more than a thousand of your Majesty's subjects and ministers, all groaning as under a common burden of Human rites and ceremonies, do with one joint consent, humble ourselves at your Majesty's feet, to be eased and relieved in this behalf". From the Millenary Petition (1603). |
| As James rode to London in 1603, he was presented with a Millenary Petition (so-called because it claimed more than a thousand petitioners) asking for various puritan reforms of the English Church (abolition of the use of the sign of the cross in baptism, of the ring in marriage, of the surplice and so on). | ||
| In response, James appointed a conference between puritan representatives and the bishops with himself as arbiter. It met from 14 - 18 January 1604, and James took the Bishops' side. He spent far more time talking with them, threw a tantrum when the puritans' leader John Reynolds mentioned 'presbytery', and ended the Conference with no concessions except some minor changes of wording in the Book of Common Prayer. | ||
| In 1604, Convocation passed canons (church
regulations) that specifically enforced and defended the very
practices puritans disliked (such as bowing the head at the name of
Jesus and the use of the sign of the cross in baptism). About 90
puritans who would not conform were deprived of their livings.
Puritans complained about this, particularly to Parliament whose
consent to canons many thought necessary, but was not obtained.
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| A few puritan extremists founded small sects outside the Church of England. The "semi-Separatists" or "Independents" were established by Henry Jacob; and the General Baptists by John Smith the se-baptist. Although tiny in number, these congregations were important because of their part in settling New England from 1620. |
4. Salisbury and finance
| Under Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset, (James' first Lord Treasurer) royal revenues increased. Peace with Spain led to more trade and higher customs revenues. Unfortunately, James' expenditure increased still more quickly and by 1608 the royal debt stood at £600,000. | ||
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Salisbury was forced to sell
crown land to defray the debt. He also tried to introduce new
sources of revenue - in particular, impositions.
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Impositions angered Members of
Parliament who saw them as taxation without consent. Their anger
made James less willing to call Parliament, believing they would not
grant him direct taxation. An attempt was made to resolve the conflict with the Great Contract proposal of 1610. In exchange for a guaranteed income of £200,000 per annum from a land tax, James would give up impositions, purveyance and wardship as sources of revenue. The negotiations collapsed in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust, and reluctance by both sides to make concessions.
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5. Parliament
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The first Parliament of James I |
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(i) |
19 March -16 July 1604 |
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(ii) |
5 November 1605 - 27 May 1606 |
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(iii) |
18 November 1606 - 4 July 1607 |
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(iv) |
9 February - 23 July 1610 |
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(v) |
16 October - 6 December 1610 |
Only one Parliament met while Salisbury was chief
minister, but it had several sessions.
| The 1604 session saw a dispute between
King and Parliament over the question of who should decide in the
case of a disputed election. Two gentlemen Goodwin and
Fortescue both claimed that they had been elected as knight
for the shire of Buckinghamshire. The king said that the Court of
Chancery should decide the case; the House of Commons said that it
should decide. The House of Commons won, and established the right
to decide its own membership. A few members angered by James' intervention drew up an Apology asserting parliamentary rights against the crown, but it was never officially adopted by the House of Commons. | |
| 1605-6: united in reaction to the
Gunpowder Plot, king and parliament cooperated smoothly in drawing
up anti-Catholic legislation.
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| 1607: James hoped that this parliament
would enact the Union of England and Scotland, but the
Commons resisted his proposals for free trade and reciprocal
citizenship. They thought that this would benefit only poor
Scotsmen, who would take English jobs. James obtained part of what he wanted through the courts. The judges in Calvin's Case (1608) ruled that all Scotsmen born since James' accession in 1603 were naturalized Englishmen and vice versa. (Some Members of Parliament believed that this ruling infringed parliamentary rights). | |
| 1610: This session saw bitter debates
over impositions, the Commons' insistence on its right to free
debate of all questions, and the failure of the Great Contract.
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