34 Facts About James VI

1. James VI had no wish to involve his kingdom in this conflict.

2. James VI was strongly attracted to this Catholic cousin, and some believed them to have been lovers.

3. James VI relied to a great extent on the support and advice of close friends.

4. James VI coped with his unhappiness by devoting himself to learning.

5. James VI spent more than his treasury could afford, and he alienated the English Parliament because he insisted that his lawful powers as king were more extensive than Parliament would accept.

6. James VI was crowned at Scone and set about governing energetically.

7. James VI remains a notable Scottish hero, renowned alike for his efforts at good government and for the romantic aspects of his life.

8. James VI began to consider a Spanish bride for Prince Charles, who had succeeded his late brother as Prince of Wales—a most unpopular project, but one which endured for more than a decade.

9. James VI accepted the advice offered by Robert Cecil, Elizabeth's most astute minister, to abandon his harebrained plots with Catholics and Protestants alike and to adopt a respectful and calm tone toward the aging queen.

10. James VI died at his favourite country residence, Theobalds, in Hertfordshire.

11. James VI hardly understood the rights or the temper of the English Parliament, and he thus came into conflict with it.

12. James VI was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley.

13. James VI attempted to weed out nonconformity among the Puritans by calling the Hampton Court Conference and prosecuted Protestants who refused to adhere to the revised canons.

14. James VI styled himself "King of France", in line with other monarchs of England between 1340 and 1800, although he did not actually rule France.

15. James VI bequeathed Charles a fatal belief in the divine right of kings, combined with a disdain for Parliament, which culminated in the execution of Charles and the abolition of the monarchy.

16. James VI was strict in enforcing conformity at first, inducing a sense of persecution amongst many Puritans; but ejections and suspensions from livings became rarer as the reign continued.

17. James VI was conciliatory towards Catholics who took the Oath of Allegiance, and tolerated crypto-Catholicism even at court.

18. James VI forced the Parliament of Scotland to use it, and it was used on proclamations, coinage, letters, and treaties in both realms.

19. James VI was ambitious to build on the personal union of the Crowns of Scotland and England to establish a single country under one monarch, one parliament, and one law, a plan that met opposition in both realms.

20. James VI survived two conspiracies in the first year of his reign, despite the smoothness of the succession and the warmth of his welcome: the Bye Plot and Main Plot, which led to the arrest of Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Raleigh, among others.

21. James VI was himself a poet, and was happy to be seen as a practising member of the group.

22. James VI made statutory provision to reform and promote the teaching of music, seeing the two in connection.

23. James VI published his treatise Some Rules and Cautions to be Observed and Eschewed in Scottish Prosody in 1584 at the age of 18.

24. James VI wrote that the colonists were to act "not by agreement" with the local inhabitants, but "by extirpation of thame".

25. James VI became obsessed with the threat posed by witches and wrote Daemonologie in 1597, a tract inspired by his personal involvement that opposed the practice of witchcraft and that provided background material for Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth.

26. James VI attended the North Berwick witch trials, the first major persecution of witches in Scotland under the Witchcraft Act 1563.

27. James VI inherited his father's titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross.

28. James VI was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.

29. James VI tried but failed to prevent the rise of hawkish elements in the English Parliament who wanted war with Spain.

30. James VI was strongly committed to a peace policy, and tried to avoid involvement in religious wars, especially the Thirty Years' War that devastated much of Central Europe.

31. James VI achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced great difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and repeated conflicts with the English Parliament.

32. James VI was a major advocate of a single parliament for England and Scotland.

33. James VI succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother was compelled to abdicate in his favour.

34. James VI was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, positioning him to eventually accede to all three thrones.