inherited problems
Elizabeth left a debt of £240,000
BUT
£120,000 collected from a forced loan and “£300,000 still needed to be collected in subsidies
differences between james and elizabeth’s spending
James had to provide for a family elizabeths funeral his entrance into England his coronation but he also wasted money on unneccesary thing such as clothes/jewels the court and patronage food
Elizabeth was much more conservative with her spending leaving a hard example for James to follow
James royal extravagance
He wasted money on the court and his favourites
for example when Christian IV of Denmark came in 1606 and he held a court masquerade
gave money to Scotsmen (all men in his bedchamber were scots)
• 1606 £44,000
• 1611 £67,498
the ante-supper introduced by the Earl of Carlisle
to celebrate 12th night the court held an antesupper estimated to cost £3,300
Robert Carr (Earl of Somerset) given £400,000
1612 - had spent £185,000 on jewels
1603-1610, spending on the royal household was doubled
spent on average £400,000 on the crown (elizabeth had spent roughly £300,00)
quote about the court
The Jacobean Court has been roundly condemned as corrupt, drunken, promiscuous, and wasteful [which] has been seen as reflecting all the worse failings of James himself - C Durston
eg. the court was a symbol of the king himself and the king was bringing himself into disrespect and shame by being affiliated by such an
The Overbury scandal
1613-15
Frances Howard and Robert Carr (one of james’s favourites) developed an affair making Howard wish to divorce her current husband the Earl of Essex. After an embarrassing court trial for Essex being accused of sexual impotence he was arrested leaving Howard and Carr free to marry.
However Overbury one of Carr’s followers opposed the marriage, he was suddenly killed, when information came to light that Frances had poisoned him and the two sentenced to death James merely waived the sentence and they were imprisoned for six years in the tower instead.
This was a public scandal and revealed the corruption within court
Robert Carr
Earl of Somerset 1607-1615 (overbury scandal)
Carr was not very politically minded and was guided through politics by his follower Thomas Overbury.
He was given £400,000 and patronized greatly by James.
1611 became viscount
1613 became earl of somerset
James and court
James had a policy of ‘equal partition’ splitting all the positions in court equally between scottish and englishmen, however his bedchamber contained 11 scotsmen and no english men alluding to James irrational paranoia for his safety and favouritism to scotland
divided into the howard faction and anti howard faction as well as being dominated by Buckingham
George Villiers
1615-1625 (Earl of buckingham)
Replaced Earl of Somerset
was more politically minded than Carr but still got to his position due to his good looks. Was called darling steenie’ by James
1616 master of the kings horses, given crown lands worth £30,000
1617 earl of buckingham
1624 tried to get james to go to war with spain which failed
1625 - james died but buckinghams reign continued to Charles due to their trip to spain together
by the 1620’s he had risen to a position in which he controlled patronage, which was an effective way for him to remain in a position of power within court and eliminate all opposition. Buckingham gave most of the patronage to his family and extended family
why was buckingham so disliked?
within court the howard faction had tried to get him to a position of power in order to get rid of Carr because overbury disliked him. this backfired as now buckingham had a lot of influence over the king. they also didnt like his low social background
many english and scottishmen didnt like him due to his undue influence over the king, his families link to popery and his alleged connections with witchcraft and black magic
ways in which crown received income and their problems
sale of lands
overall amount decreased due to inflation and loss of rentage and also tainted the crowns reputation but made money quickly
purveyance - crowns right to buy goods at a discounted price
was the crowns right and historic royal privilege although it angered individuals sellers
wardship - the king took control of land when a minor inherited it and oversaw it until that minor came of age this scheme became corrupt as the land would be sold to the highest bidder instead of the child. annoyed the english landed society
monopolies - the king levying taxes and licenses on inidividual businesses
Robert Cecil earlier period
Earl of Salisbury
1603-1612
main acheivements: reduced debt from £816,000 to £300,000
1606 royal debt £816,000
1606 Salisbury tried to create a new source of revenue by imposing additional taxes on imports and exports. The judges agreed in Bates Case (1606) that these impositions were legal, and the crown extended them to many commodities. this was disputed by parliament
1608 cecil proposed the book of bounty which was a book that would set a limit for pensions and royal spending
Lionel Cranfield
Earl of Suffolk
1618-1625
1614 collected £200,000 as a gift of benevolence
he increased money for collecting tithes which however became corrupt and increased animosity between the new and the old peerage. Also brought some shame onto the crown
£200,000 received from the dutch for withdrawing troops
Cranfield relied on the marriage with spain (which never happened) to lift the crown out of debt (£600,000) and didn’t let go of this idea until 1625
he cut down some household spending
1619 reissued cecils book of bounty and placed a temporary prohibition on pension
the great contract
salisbury proposed that parliament pay off royal debt of £600,000 and commence an annual payment of £200,000
in return for this some agreements over wardship and abolish the court of wards/purveyance
Salisbury denied James extravagant royal spending and blamed it on Elizabeth instead
The coronation of Prince Henry to became the prince of wales hoped to please MP’s but this failed
in 1610 commmons agreed to the £200,000 payment but as a whole the contract failed
why did the great contract fail?
Parliament did not trust James as they thought if he had an annual payment independant from parliament he would have no need to call parliament
MP’s not pleased with the terms they were given from the great contract.
eg. warship only affected the south east were james spent most of his time
purveyance only affected individual landowners
James’s foreign policy 1604
war with spain stopped through the treaty of london
england in alliance with netherlands and low countries
some outcry from England that they could’ve won had the Dutch and English kept fighting
English soldiers transferred to Dutch regiments
left the markets open to trade and the english cloth business boomed
England had a small navy but no standing army making launching foreign attacks fairly difficult
James foreign policy 1613
helped settle the war between Sweden and Denmark 1613
marriage of Elizabeth to Frederick in 1613
However this led him to overestimate his skills as a peacemaker which proved fatal later
Julich-Cleves negotiations 1614
James’s foreign policy style and aims
he was opposed to war and violence
- because of his turbulent childhood
- because england had few allies, no navy and limited funds for war (parliament unwillingly to grant any)
saw himself as a rex pacificus figure and wanted to
- prevent a catholic bloc building up in Europe
- end war with spain and develop an alliance with them instead (helped by a royal marriage between spain and england)
- rex pacificus
1609 foreign policy
dispute between evangelicals and catholics, James committed some troops
alliance with protestant union in 1611
stopped war bringing about a truce between netherlands and spain
12 year truce
1609-1621
Religious wars had left Europe divided between the Spanish, Spanish Netherlands, Dutch
truce for 12 years
the defenestration of prague / frederick and elizabeth
ferdinand - hapsburg catholic emperor of
4 catholics were thrown out of a castle window in Prague near the town of Bohemia by the leader Ferdinand, local protestants rebelled and disposed of the leader thinking he was too anti-protestant. He was replaced with protestant Frederick V
Ferdinand wanted revenge for this so contacted James for aid who instead agreed to be a mediator between the two.
Ferdinand became the Holy Roman emperor
year later battle of white mountain Ferdinand invaded white castle near Prague exiling Frederick and Elizabeth to the Netherlands.
Frederick was crowned Catholic Maximilian of Bavaria
James called parliament in 1621, the 12 year truce was ending. he tried to use the Spanish match to ally with spain to then restore frederick and elizabeth to the palatinate
james had to help his son in law but did not agree with him taking the bohemian crown
quote about the defenstration of prague
the best known single event of seventeenth century european history - Geoffrey Parker
James foreign policy 1614
James hoped for a spanish match with the royal infanta of Spain, princess dowry was estimated to be £600,000
James built up a close working relationship with the Count of Gondomar
In 1622 negotiations were opened again
in 1623 Charles and the duke of Buckingham travelled to Spain incognito to try and win over the spanish princess
they stayed there for 8 months but had no sucess
Spanish princess was said to bring a dowry of £600,000
parliament of 1621
called after the defenestration of Prague
James needed money and needed to work on foreign policy, poor economic depression meant only 2 subsidies were granted amounting to £140,000
James tried to reopen negotiations of a Spanish match which led to:
MPs protestation, complaining about freedom of speech
false rumours that undertakers had helped james with the election
James got annoyed with parl as lords tried to impeach sir Francis Bacon, one of James’s advisors
impeachment of monopolists francis bacon and bill against monopolies was attempted but failed due to lords
Parliament of 1604
James was extremely focused on his plans for the union of scotland and england:
why did this fail?
Many english people had negative views of scotland and thought it was backwards
they had different armies and laws
how would james control both?
james pursued this policy until 1610
goodwin vs fortescue case, dispute over who was the MP for Buckingham
Shirley’s case: MP releasedafter arrest for debt, showed James respecting parliamentary privilege
apology of the house of commons
parliament of 1606
second session of first parliament, delayed due to gunpowder plot
dealing with gunpowder plot, further actions against catholics eg. recusancy fines and oath of allegiance
bill outlawing purveyance which had been found illegal, was passed
james was granted a bill of £400,000 showing relationships between parliament had greatly improved after the failure of the gunpowder plot
great contract not passed
addled parliament
1614
James called parliament as he needed money for Henry’s funeral and Elizabeth’s marriage
Issues over subsidiaries and impositions and the parliament was abruptly dissolved
Challenged the relationship between parliament and monarchy
James gave a speech thinking that his kings prerogative had been challenged
no legislations were passed
religious policies and the growth of arminianism beg. of reign
used recusancy fines to collect money at the beginning of his reign
Hampton Court Conference of 1604 which brought about:
- The king james bible
- book of sports
- some to end pluralism
- more explanation of the 39 articles
- preaching minister for every parish
- some changes to common prayer book
after the gunpowder plot he enforced an oath of allegiance to catholics/recusants 1604
puritanism
believed in the doctrine of the elect, milleniarilism, gadding, accepted bishops
used the sabbath as the holy day
didn’t appeal to the majority of CofE due to it being too conservative and strict
hampton court conference
1604
king james bible published
puritan ‘book of sports’ on what to do on the sabbath and it to be observed more eg. archery, dancing, morris men and may pole was permitted but bear baiting, football and going to the pub were not allowed. had to go to church
pluralism to be reduced greatly
authorised king james bible published
1611
james’s accession as king of england
1603
gunpowder plot
5th November 1605
they had rented out a house near the house of commons and loaded 36 barrels of gunpowder in the cellar/
guy fawkes and 11 other conspirators tried to blow up parliament whilst in session.
led to tighter recusancy fines and two oaths of allegiance no catholics were allowed to live in London or hold office
fawkes was sent to the tower of london and tortured, the others were hung drawn and quartered
millenary petition
roughely 1000 signatures from the english clergy presbyeterian calling for the church to be reformed as it was too catholic, get rid of popish elements
services to similiar to catholic ones
objection to ceremonial rituals like, the use of marriage rings, signing the cross in baptism
movement of the table from the altar
bishops only have one congregation/church
french marriage charles to henrietta
failed spanish match with infantata in 1623
she was fifteen so good for having children?
they were actually in love
bad
she was catholic and wanted the children raised catholic and going to catholic church
she wasn’t officialy crowned queen because it wass in an Anglican church
sources of income for the crown
tonnage and poundage tax / impositions wardships - £50,000 a year, parl wanted to abolish as was corrupt selling of land purveyance subsidiaries
cockayne project
1614-17
one of the worst financial decisions he took as king
allowed a change to cloth production in the London which ruined the industry
showed him making poor business choices
disputes with parliament
james outwardly expressed a dislike for parliament calling them a ‘body with no head’
1606 - apology of house of commons
tensions hidden within commons, never directly given to the king, supporting parliamentary privilege
james responded with a two hour speech
1621 - MPs protestation, directly presented to him, shows that relations had clearly deteriorated. complained about religious policy
bishops / arch bishops
1603-1610 Bancroft was Archbishop
1610 archbishop George Abbot appointed, was puritan
parliament 1604:
issued canons which angered parliament as said only bishops could make church law not parliament (withdrawn)
religious opposition
an old gag for a new goose - richard montague
publicly accepted Richard Montagu’s critique of puritanism as anti-authoritarian and his Arminian position in 1624
the main plot - 1604, conspiracy that opposition forces wanted to overthrow James
religious policies later in his reign
1621 – Laud was appointed to the bishopric of St David’s in Wales (pro-Arminian move)
1622 – Declaration of Preachers issued by James (anti-puritan/arminian move)
1624 – James began secret talks with the French to marry the King’s sister Henrietta Maria to his son Charles (pro-catholic move)
1624 – The Montagu controversy saw James openly support an Arminian position which was challenged by parliament for being anti-puritan (pro-Arminian and anti puritan move).
robert cecil later period
1609 limited how much royal lend James could spend which reduced debt by a million although this was wasted on spending in 1612
1610 the great contract, a contract proposed between the king and parliament involving parliament giving James financial help. It did not pass
royal debt - figures
- 1606 - £700,000+ (went up extremely from inherited debt of Elizabeth)
- 1610 - £500,00 (had been reduced a bit by Cecil but still gave away lots of money to scotsmen and foreigners etc)
- 1618 – £900,000 (cranfield failed to control his expenses succesfully)
fluctuated immensely but was never really resolved
reasons why James made poor financial choices and stayed in debt
- being outright wasteful through patronage, the court, crown lands
- making poor business and financial choices and not adhering to the measures put in place by his treasurers (treasurers, great contract, Cockayne project)
- inherited problems, problems with english system, parliament and corruption within ordinary revenue
- foreign policy and having to finance this
basically ..his fault!
james taxation and financial choices
created a more secure income by ‘farming out’ impositions in 1604
by 1610 had made £70,000 a year through impositions / custom duties, angered parliament
didn’t enforce tax properly on his favourites eg. cranfield only taxed £150 and major landowners not paying tax - corruption
failure of great contract 1614
cockayne project 1614