The Stuart dynastyJames IStudy Questions
James I
•James VI of Scotland James I of England (1603 – 1625)
• Divine right of kings to rule subjection of Parliament to the king’s will.
Domestic policy
Religious policy
• Strict conformity to the rites of the Anglican Church.
• Those who refused to attend the Church of England were fined and
excluded from public offices;
• Puritans (an extreme faction of Protestantism) did not approve of a
church governed by bishops and rejected the presence of Catholic
rituals in religious ceremonies;
• Catholics refused to recognize the king’s supremacy in ecclesiastical
matters.
Exclusion of Catholics and Puritans from public offices.
James I
Religious policy
Catholics’ “Gunpowder Plot”
November 5, 1605
King James’s Bible or “Authorised Version of the Bible” of 1611
• used by the Church of England for more than three centuries,
• great contribution to the spread of literacy and writing
James’s choices in religious matters disappointed both Catholics
and Puritans who reacted differently.
Puritans’ voyage to America
on the “Mayflower” in 1620
•Study questions
1.What was the internal policy of James I?
James I believed in the divine right of kings to rule and this brought aboutdifficult relations between the monarch and Parliament. Moreover, heinsisted on strict conformity to the rites of the Anglican Church.
2.What were the main events during his reign?
– A plot, organized by English Catholics, which tried to blow up the kingand Parliament in session ; the attempt failed and many Catholics wereexecuted.
–Persecuted Protestants, known as “Pilgrim Fathers”, sailed to Americaon the “Mayflower”, where they founded a colony in Massachusetts.
3.Is the birth of the United States in any way related to the religiouspersecution in England?
Yes, New Plymouth, the colony founded by the “Pilgrim Fathers” inMassachusetts , was the first English settlement in North America andthe beginning of the future United States.