Thoughts on King James Therory

Mitchell Huskey

English III CP

Mrs. Nickols

January 12, 2008

King James

James Charles Stuart was born June 19, 1566 in Scotland. Before James reached the age of one, his father, Lord Darnley, was murdered. His mother, who he never knew, Mary Queen of Scots, then ascended to the Scottish throne. She was forced to step down from her reign in 1567. In 1587, she was imprisoned and later executed for taking part in the scheme to assassinate her cousin Queen Elizabeth (King James I). Her dethroning left James being crowned King James VI of Scotland when he was only thirteen months old.

King James was brought up by four tutors. George Buchanan was one of the most influential. Because of Buchanan's strict teaching methods, King James became one of the most intellectually curious men who ever sat on any throne. King James studied history, arithmetic, composition, Latin, Greek, cosmography, dialectics, rhetoric, and theology. He also spoke fluent Greek, Latin, French, English, and Scottish and was schooled in both Italian and Spanish (Cowley, 71).

King James, a bisexual man, later married Anne Oldenburg of Denmark. They had nine children, but unfortunately, two died at birth. They named their other seven children Henry, Elizabeth, Margaret, Charles I, Robert, Mary and Sophia Stuart.

In 1603 James I started his reign in England He was the ruler of England until 1625. During the Middle Age, the rulers of Europe and the Pope thought that they had the divine spark. James I's political theory was that he was going to be the leader with the absolute power. The terms that apply to James I are the Divine Right of Kings, True Law of Free Monarchies, sovereign, and absolute power. (Jacobsohn 63). Since the kings were different from the rest of the people in society they had rights that others did not possess. This meant that the kings were sovereign. With the kings being sovereign, they could read, speak, or write anything, whereas other members of society could do only what the state or church allowed. ).

James I used these political theories during his reign in England. The theories he mostly used were divine right of kings, true law of free monarchs, sovereign, and absolute power. The divine right of kings is the idea of which the kings are accountable to God alone. James used this theory to restrain the authority of the Pope to keep Roman Catholicism from dominating history. James's relations with the English parliament were strained from the beginning because of his insistence upon the divine right of kings. He also had the inability to recognize Parliament as a representative of a large and important body of opinion. In 1611, James dissolved Parliament and except for the Added Parliament of 1614, which produced no legislation, ruled without one until 1621. After his capable minister, Robert Cecil died, the king exercised the royal prerogative with even less restraint and entered into battle with the courts of common law (Comptons).

.James's political theory to rule with divine right during the Contemporary World did not carry over into our world today. Queen Elizabeth II is now controlling the throne in England, but she does not use the theory of the divine right of kings or absolute power. Saddam Hussein used James's political theory of absolute power during his time as President of Iraq. He did what he needed to do to get what he wanted done. There are hardly any countries in the contemporary world that operate solely under the leadership of a king.

All of James's political theories have been put to use since his reign of England, but none have existed within