• The Stuarts, that highly romantic but luckless dynasty, suceeded to the English throne on the death of the childless Tudor Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, in the person of James I and VI (16031625), son of Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who became the first joint ruler of the kingdoms of both England and Scotland. The spelling of the ancient Scottish dynasty of Stewart was changed by Mary, Queen of Scots, during her long residence in France.
Lennox, carried past him.
• Brought up by his mother's enemies, James was taught to regard Mary as an adulteress, a Jezebel and a murderess, who was responsible for the death of his father. He grew to be a timid child, deeply afraid of violence, who craved affection.
•
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James VI, King of Scots
James inherited nothing of his mother's legendary
Stewart charm. He had a strict Scots Calvinist upbringing and was given a rigorous programme of education by his tutors, displaying a marked precocity and intelligence from an early age.
Moray, later to be assassinated. At the age of five,
James had witnessed the bleeding body of his second
regent, his paternal grand-father, Matthew Stuart, Earl of
one held it a petty recreation to
• Early Years
James I
• England's first Stuart monarch,JamesI&IV, the son of that ill matched pair, Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was born at Edinburgh Castle after a difficult and protracted labour on 19th June 1566. Elizabeth I stood as godmother by proxy at his Catholic baptism when he was given the names James Charles. The domestic situation he was born into was a fractious one. By the time of James' birth his parents relationship was already failing. The Queen of Scots deeply regretted her impulsive second marriage and loathed her self-seeking, foolish and arrogant spouse.
James I. Click to enlarge.
•
'He was very constant in
all thingsepted) in which he loved
change. He ever desired to
prefer men in great places, that
when he turned them out again,
they should have no friend to
bandy with them: and besides
they were so hated by being
raised from a mean estate, to
over-top all men, that every
• The king reached his majority and begun to rule Scotland alone in 1583. With the succession to the English throne paramount in his mind he concluded a league with Elizabeth I in 1586 and accepted a pension from her.
•
During the troubled years of James' minority, four
successive regents ruled Scotland. His first regent was
his mother's bastard half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of