King James I
James VI of Scotland and I of England was born in 1566. He
was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband,
Lord Darnley.
His early life was overshadowed by the tense political situation
in Scotland at the time, in part the result of religion. His
mother was a Catholic, and through her own mother she was
closely related to the Guise family, the leaders of the Catholic
faction in France. James was himself christened as a Catholic
but was brought up as a Protestant.
This family tree was published in 1619.
It shows how James I was related to the Tudor dynasty, and
his claim to the English throne. 
The Roiail Progenei of our Most Sacred King
James, National Portrait Gallery, London
After James's mother was deposed in 1567 James was declared
King. Scotland was at this time ruled by a succession of regents
but crippled by struggles for power, while the boy was educated
by one of the foremost academics of his day, James Buchanan.
From 1583 onwards James asserted his own control over the
government in Scotland. After his mother's execution by the
English government in 1587, he became the obvious successor
to Elizabeth I.
Zoom
King James I of England and VI of Scotland after John De Critz
the Elder, early 17th century (circa 1606). National Portrait
Gallery, LondonAlthough the Queen was extremely reluctant
to confirm his status as the heir apparent, or even to discuss
the subject of her successor, English observers became particularly
interested in his religious attitudes. James opposed the strong
form of Presbyterianism, which had taken root in Scotland,
and resisted the persecution of Catholics.
On Elizabeth's death in 1603 he was formally invited to take
the English throne by the English Privy Council. But James
soon ran into political difficulties in England, where politicians
and lawyers were suspicious about his determination to unite
England, Wales and Scotland into a single kingdom and he soon
found it impossible to get Parliament to agree to it.
Later in the reign he found it increasingly difficult to
finance his extravagant expenditure, and struggled with arguments
over the Church and foreign policy. James died in 1625.
Unusually for a King in the seventeenth century,
James I was a prolific author who enjoyed political and theological
debate. His works dealt with questions of the authority of
Kings and the danger of religious dissent. The Workes of the
Most High and Mighty Prince James, 1616, Trustees of Lambeth
Palace Library
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