James I. OF ENGLAND (1603-25) AND VI. OF SCOTLAND (1567-1625) was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry, Lord Darnley. He was born in Edinburgh Castle on the 19th June 1566, at which time unpleasant relations between Mary and her husband were beginning to develop themselves. Then followed the murder of Darnley in February 1567, the marriage of Mary to Bothwell in May, the rising of the nobles at Carberry Hill in June, and the subsequent imprisonment of Mary and enforced resignation of her crown. In consequence of this rapid course of events James was proclaimed king of Scotland, 29th July 1567. The nation at this time was rent by factions, and, as was customary in Scotland under 'bairn kings,' each faction sought to have possession of the person of the monarch. James was placed in Stirling Castle in the keeping of the Earl of Mar, and here he received his education under the famous scholar George Buchanan. Within eleven years Moray, Lennox, Mar, and Morton had successively held the regency of the kingdom, and when, in 1578, the Regent Morton was driven from power James himself nominally assumed the direction of affairs. But the government of his advisers was unpopular, and Morton once more succeeded in re-establishing himself in the regency. About this time James began to exhibit that partiality towards favourites which was so characteristic a feature of his life; and an accomplished, but truculent and unprincipled soldier, Captain James Stewart, whom he created Earl of Arran, was the favourite with whose help and that of the Duke of Lennox (another favourite) the king was enabled finally to break the power of Morton. After Morton's execution (1581) James ruled the kingdom through his two favourites, not without much discontent and grumbling on the part both of the kirk and the nobility. Hence, on 12th August 1582, occurred the well-known Raid of Ruthven (q.v.), when the king was forcibly seized by a party of his nobles, and under their direction was obliged to sanction the imprisonment of Arran and the banishment of Lennox. In 1583 a counter-plot effected the king's freedom, when he immediately restored Arran to power. The confederate lords were obliged to flee to England, whence, in 1585, through the connivance of Queen Elizabeth, they returned, and with an army of 10,000 men forced James to capitulate in Stirling Castle. Arran once more was banished, and never again restored to power.
In 1586 Queen Mary, then a prisoner in England, was condemned by the English court to be executed. James's conduct at this time, taken in connection with his previous attitude towards his mother, and his subsequent friendly alliance with Elizabeth, has been severely censured by Mary's partisans, and in truth does not admit of much defence. In the winter of 1589 he went to Denmark, where he married the Princess Anne (1574–1619), daughter of Frederick II., king of that country. During these and subsequent years James was frequently in conflict with the Presbyterians on the one hand, and with the Roman Catholics on the other. Like Elizabeth, he hated Puritanism, and was not disinclined towards some modified form of Romanism. The spirit of Presbyterianism he regarded as too democratic, and was therefore disposed to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland, and did ultimately (in 1600) succeed in establishing bishops. In consequence of this tendency the king had frequent theological discussions with the Presbyterian ministers; which discussions, however, were not altogether unwelcome to him, as he had a strong taste for polemics. From 1591 to 1594 the Roman Catholic lords in the north were in a state of semi-insurrection; but James finally marched against them, and the disturbances were suppressed. In 1600 occurred that strange episode, the Gowrie Conspiracy (q.v.).
During the whole of Elizabeth's long reign the disturbing element in English politics had been the question of the succession to the throne; this was finally settled when, on the death of that queen in 1603, James VI. of Scotland ascended the English throne. He was at first well received by his subjects in England, but subsequently became unpopular by reason of his continued partiality towards favourites. He also degraded the prerogative of the crown by the sale of titles of dignity: the title of baronet, which he originated, could be bought for £1000, a barony for £5000, and an earldom for £20,000. His chief favourite at this time was Robert Kerr, or Carre, a Scotchman of the Border family of Kerr of Ferniehirst, on whom he showered honours and emoluments, finally creating him Earl of Somerset. When Carre fell out of favour he was succeeded by the notorious Buckingham. The king really governed through these minions, and the name and prestige of England, so formidable under Elizabeth, sank into insignificance. In 1617 James revisited Scotland, signalling his reappearance among his Scottish subjects by several angry disputes with the clergy, in which the king did not always come off victorious. His eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales, having, to the great grief of the nation, died in 1612, the succession devolved upon his second son Charles (afterwards Charles I.), between whom and a Spanish princess the king was long anxious to effect a marriage, but after years of negotiation the project was not successful. Buckingham, who was entrusted too much with the conduct of the affair, acted rashly and unwisely, with the consequence that war broke out between the two countries.
James died on 27th March 1625. His character has been painted in various colours by different historians. Sully epigrammatically described him as 'the wisest fool in Christendom;' and Macaulay, in one of his antithetical sentences, exaggerates this aspect of James's character by stating that 'he was indeed made up of two men—a witty, well-read scholar, who wrote, disputed, and harangued, and a nervous, drivelling idiot who acted.' By more recent historians, however, such as Von Ranke and Mr S. R. Gardiner, his character has been treated more broadly and mildly; but perhaps the best popular estimate of the man, his manners, and his peculiarities, is the representation of him which is given by Scott in The Fortunes of Nigel.
The literary tastes which James had acquired under the tuition of Buchanan appeared in after life in various works which he issued, but none of which ever became popular. These are Essays of a Prentice in the Divine Art of Poesie (1584); Poetical Exercises at Vacant Hours (1591); Demonologie (1597); Basilicon Doron (q.v.), in which he embodied his somewhat extreme views as to the divine right of kings; and the Counterblast to Tobacco (1616).
Besides the historians already named, as well as Burton, Tytler, Calderwood, &c., the following may be read: Goodman's Court of James I., edited by J. S. Brewer (2 vols. 1839); The Secret History of the Court of King James I., edited by Sir W. Scott (2 vols. 1811), containing Osborne's Memoirs, Weldon's valuable Court of King James, &c.