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The Stuart Period

James I

The Stuart Period

The Stuart period was an important stage of English history. It represented the time frame from James I of England (or James VI of Scotland) all the way to the reign of Queen Anne. James I came to the throne in 1603. This is considered to be the beginning of the Stuart period. It would end with Anne in 1714. Much like its predeccesor, the Tudor Dynasty, all of the Stuarts were plagued by internal and religious strife. The climax of these various tensions resulted in the English Civil War(s) during the reign of Charles I, the second Stuart monarch. This ended in victory for the Parliamentarians and Charles was executed. After this conflict the line of kings was temporarily replaced by the Commonwealth of England, which was ruled by the Puritan dictator, Oliver Cromwell. After Cromwell's death the Commonwealth fell apart and the Convention Parliament welcomed Charles II, son of Charles I to return from exile and become king. This event was known as the Restoration. The strife continued, however, and during the reign of James II, Charles II's brother, yet another Convention Parliament welcomed the kings relation Mary II and her husband William III of Orange to take the throne. This was due primarily to the fact that James II was a devout Catholic who was ruling a decidedly Protestant nation. The coup was successful and would be known to history as the Glorious Revolution, most likely because no blood was shed on either side. (James II had fled). The line would continue onwards until Queen Anne. After her reign, the Hanoverian Dynasty began.

James I

The greatest accomplishment of the Tudor regime is not their victory over the Spanish Armada under Elizabeth I and definitely not their religious reforms which mostly occurred under Henry VIII and Edward VI, but their peaceful transition from one regime to another. James I was, in fact, Elizabeth's 3rd cousin. He was descended from Henry VIII's sister Margaret Tudor. James came to the throne of England in 1603 after successfully ruling Scotland for two decades. He was considered by his contemporaries as odd and weak, especially in comparison to the recent Tudors. He was rather odd looking and perhaps a homosexual. Despite these seeming shortcomings, James was actually a relatively good ruler. He was not so much a warrior as his Tudor predeccessors, but a scholar. He was also tolerant towards Puritans and Catholics. James was adept at balancing off factions. He worked with arguing groups in private, while publicly acting like he wasn't involved and exalted his status a God's lieutenant on Earth. In a famous speech to Parliament he once stated that the king was the supreme power on the Earth behind God. While many of his contemporary kings and queens would have agreed wholeheartedly, they never would have put it so bluntly in front of so many powerful people. James I was a grandiose king. He spent huge amounts of the treasury on large building projects and filled his courts with exquisite paintings. While this made his palaces and cities more beautiful, it did nothing to improve the impovershed state of the populace. They began to grow discontent. Also,as was said before, James was very tolerant of other religions, which made the most powerful people in the Courts and Parliaments very angry. So, with the common people and several high ranking nobles beginning to grow upset over policy decisions made by James, the country was in a ripe state for rebellion. These problems would be further enlarged by James' son Charles I, and would lead ultimately to the English Civil War and the end of Stuart rule over England for several years.
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