James Flashcards
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
