King James 1

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King James I, full name James Charles Stuart, was born to Mary Queen of Scots on June 19, 1566 at Edinburg Castle located in Scotland. James’ father Henry Stuart Lord Darnley was killed in February 1567 when James was eight months old. Many historians believe that Mary Queen of Scots arranged the murder of her husband. In July of 1567 James’ mother had to abdicate the throne in favor of James. Five days later James was crowned King James I at the young age of 13 months. Mary was imprisoned by her cousin Queen Elizabeth of England and in February 1587 (19 years later) she was executed for being part of a plan to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. Because James was so young when his mom imprisoned he never knew either of his parents. James married Anne of Denmark and enjoyed hunting with her. One day during a hunting trip Anne accidently shot James’ favorite hunting dog Jewell. Anne was so upset over killing James’ dog that James felt bad for her a bought her gift to show that it was all okay.

King James did not have many political accomplishments. One of the only political accomplishments was becoming the first King to be king of both Scotland and England. In 1603 Queen Elizabeth died and appointed James as king. James was now King James I of Scotland and King James VI of England. At that point James had been King of Scotland for 36 years. Even though James did not have many political accomplishments he was able to keep both England and Scotland out of war. King James was extremely lingual; he could speak Greek, Latin, English and Scots fluently and was taught some Italian and Spanish. Because of his wide variety of languages he nearly never needed a translator which helped make other rulers respect him more.

From when James was a young boy he had George Buchanan as a tutor. Buchanan was 64 when he started teaching James and taught him to love and understand literature. Some believe that because of Buchanan James was the most schooled and curious person to sit on any throne. With his teaching James wrote Basilicon Doron (The Kingly Gift). This 153 page document was not meant for the public. There was only supposed to be seven copies made, but since there was so many forged versions of the document James had it published for everyone to read and it became a best seller in Welsh, Latin, French, Swedish and German for over 50 years. The Basilicon Doron was meant for his oldest son Prince Henry to teach him how to rule in his footsteps because James had many assassination attempts. There are three volumes in the Basilicon Doron. The first of the three volumes is “A Kings Christian Duties Towards God”.

King James was a really big Catholic, and because of this many puritans were afraid of him. James did one thing that helped boost the catholic religion immensely. He created the first ever full translation of the bible, known as the Authorized King James Version of the Bible. James believed that the Holy Bible was the best gift he could give his subjects because it would save them with the “Word of God”. In July of 1604 James appointed 54 men to the task of translating the bible. The Authorized Version of the bible is respectively the greatest religious literary work in the world.

In 1612 King James suffered a major loss, his son and successor Price Henry died. Four years later his wife Anne of Denmark died. Six years later on March 27, 1625 at the age of 59 King James died. King James died in peace with his subject and the outside world, unlike many other Scottish monarchs and passed his power on to an adult son. King James I of England and VI of Scotland was buried at Westminster Abbey.

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