The Swamp logo

THE HOUSE OF STUART

The Monarchs

By Ruth Elizabeth StiffPublished 4 years ago 18 min read
Like

JAMES VI AND I 1603 – 1625

CHARLES I 1625 – 1649

CHARLES II 1649 / 1660 – 1685

JAMES VII AND II 1685 – 1688

MARY II 1689 – 1694

ANNE 1702 – 1714

JAMES VI AND I James Charles Stuart (19th June 1566 – 27th March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24th July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24th March 1603 until his death in 1625. The Kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was born in Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland. He died in Theobalds, Hertfordshire, England. James was King of Scotland from 1567 to 1625 --- James VI. He was the first Stuart King of England from 1603 to 1625 --- James I. James styled himself “King of Great Britain” and was a strong advocate of Royal Absolutism, and his conflicts with an increasingly self-assertive Parliament set the stage for the rebellion against his successor, Charles I. James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. James’s father died in an explosion. After her third marriage, to James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, Mary was defeated by rebel Scottish lords and abdicated. At one year old, James became King of Scotland in 1567. Mary left the kingdom in 1568 and never saw her son again. For nine generations the Stuarts had been merely the ruling family among many equals, and James (all his life) retained a feeling for those of the great Scottish lords who gained his confidence. The young King was kept isolated but had a good education until 14 years of age. James studied Greek, French and Latin and made good use of a library of classical and religious writings that his tutors, George Buchanan and Peter Young, assembled for him. This education aroused literary ambitions rarely found in Princes but which also tended to make him a pedant. Before James was 12 years of age, he had taken the government nominally into his own hands when the Earl of Morton was driven from the regency in 1578. James escaped from his Protestant captors and began to pursue his own policies as King. James wanted to establish his claim to succeed Elizabeth I upon the throne of England. He realized that more was to be gained by cultivating Elizabeth’s goodwill and in 1585-1586 concluded an alliance with England. In his own way, James remained true to his policy, and even Elizabeth’s execution of his mother in 1587 drew from him only “formal” protests. James married Anne (daughter of Frederick II of Denmark) in 1589, and Anne gave birth to their first son, Prince Henry, in 1594. James’s rule of Scotland was basically successful and he was able to rule Scotland almost as absolutely as Elizabeth ruled England. The King was a convinced Presbyterian, but in 1584 he secured a series of acts that made him the head of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, with the power to appoint the church’s bishops. When James succeeded to the English throne (on the death of Elizabeth I in 1603), he was already “an old and experienced King” and one with a clearly defined theory of government. This did not help the new English King to solve the new problems now facing him, and James lacked the qualities of mind and character to supply the deficiency. Not understanding the rights or the temper of the English Parliament, James came into conflict with it. His 22 year long reign over England was to prove as unfortunate for the Stuart dynasty as his years before 1603 had been fortunate. There was much that was “sensible” in James’s policies, and the opening years of his reign as King of Great Britain were a time of material prosperity for both England and Scotland. His fondness for lecturing both houses of Parliament about his Royal prerogatives offended them. James’s shambling gait, restless garrulity and dribbling mouth ill befitted his exalted claims to power and privilege. In four years of peace, James practically doubled the debt left by Elizabeth I. He dissolved Parliament in 1611. In his later years, the King’s judgement failed. He aged rapidly, and in the last 18 months of his reign, exercised no power, his son Charles and Buckingham decided most issues. James died at his favourite residence, Theobalds, in Hertfordshire. Besides the political problems that he bequeathed to his son Charles, James left a body of writings which, though of mediocre quality as literature, entitle him to a unique place among English Kings since the time of Alfred. James famously oversaw a new authorized English translation of the Bible, published in 1611, which became known as the “King James Version.” James himself published many political “writings” as well as “The Poems of James VI of Scotland.”

CHARLES I (19th November 1600 – 30th January 1649) was the monarch over three Kingdoms: England, Scotland, Ireland from 27th March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles was born in Dunfermline Palace, Fife, Scotland. He was the second surviving son of James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark. Being a sickly child, Charles was left behind in Scotland when his father became King of England. Being devoted to his elder brother, Henry, and to his sister, Elizabeth, Charles became very lonely when Henry died in 1612 and when Elizabeth left England in 1613 to marry Frederick V, elector of the Rhine Palatine. Charles kept his Scots accent all of his life and also had a slight stammer. Being small in stature, Charles was less dignified than his portraits by the Flemish painter Sir Anthony Van Dyck would suggest. He was always shy and struck observers as being silent and reserved. Charles had an excellent temper, courteous manners, and his lack of vices impressed all who met him, but Charles lacked the “common touch,” travelled about little, and never mixed with “ordinary” people. A patron of the arts (notably of painting and tapestry), Charles brought both Van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens to England. Like all the Stuarts, Charles was a lover of horses and hunting and was sincerely religious. The character of the Court became less course as soon as Charles became the King. From his father, Charles acquired a “stubborn” belief that Kings are intended by God to rule, and his earliest surviving letters reveal a distrust of the unruly House of Commons with which he proved incapable of coming to terms. A marriage treaty was arranged, on Charles’s behalf, with Henrietta Maria, sister of the French King, Louis XIII. Charles I became King in March 1625 and married Henrietta Maria soon afterwards. When his first Parliament met in June, trouble quickly arose because of the general distrust of Buckingham, who had retained his ascendancy over the new King. The “sympathies” of the new King were with what came to be known as the High Church Party, which stressed the value of the prayer book and the maintenance of ritual. This brought antagonism between the new King and the Commons. Charles made many “mistakes” with regards to Parliament and Buckingham only made the situation worse. In 1629, Buckingham was assassinated. For the next eleven years, Charles ruled his Kingdom without calling Parliament. Charles now fell in love with his wife and had a few happy years. Charles came to value her counsel. Charles believed he answered to God, believing in “the divine right of Kings” and the Kingdom enjoyed some degree of prosperity until 1639, when Charles became involved in a war against the Scots. It seems that the early Stuarts “neglected” Scotland. Alienating the Scottish nobility with his “religious demands,” trying to force these demands with the sword, Charles ended up signing a truce on June 18th. King Charles I was always “fighting” against Parliament. Now Charles feared for his wife, who went to Holland to raise funds for her husband by pawning the Crown Jewels. The Civil War in England now started. Henrietta Maria came back to England, landing in Yorkshire with money and arms, and joined Charles in Oxford in mid-July. For about a year, the King’s forces had the upper hand, and eventually Charles I put out a number of peace feelers, which came to nothing, but hearing that his opponents were beginning to quarrel among themselves cheered Charles. In 1645, Charles sent his son (Charles) to the west, whence he escaped to France and joined his mother, who had fled there the year before. Charles I forces suffered defeats and the King was “handed” to the Parliamentary commissioners. When he was held in Northamptonshire, Charles lived a placid and healthy existence. He was then moved to Hampton Court where Charles was reunited with two of his children, Henry and Elizabeth. Charles I was “imprisoned” on the Isle of Wight, at Carisbrooke Castle. Charles was taken to Hampshire and then to Windsor Castle. In January 1649, Charles I was brought before a specially constituted high court of Justice in Westminster Hall. Charles I was charged with high treason and “other high crimes against the realm of England.” Charles refused to recognize the legality of the court because he believed that a “King cannot be tried by any superior jurisdiction on earth.” He refused to plead but maintained that he stood for “the liberty of the people of England.” The sentence of death was read on 27th January, his execution was ordered as a tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy. The sentence was carried out on a scaffold erected outside the banqueting hall of Whitehall on the morning of Tuesday 30th January, 1649. The King went bravely to his death, still claiming that he was “a martyr for the people.” A week later, Charles I was buried at Windsor.

CHARLES II (29th May 1630 – 6th February 1685) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was King of Scotland from 1649 until his “disposition” in 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the “Restoration of the Monarchy” in 1660 until his death. Charles II was also known as “The Merry Monarch.” The years of this King’s reign are known in English history as the “Restoration” period. His political adaptability and his knowledge of men enabled Charles to steer his country through the convolutions of the struggle between Anglicans, Catholics and Dissenters that marked much of his reign. Charles II was the eldest surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France and was born at St. James’s Palace, London. His early years were unremarkable, but before he was 20 years of age his conventional education had been completely overshadowed by the harsh lessons of defeat in the Civil War against the Puritans and subsequent isolation and poverty. Thus Charles emerged into precocious maturity, cynical, self-indulgent, and skilled in the sort of moral evasions that make life comfortable even in adversity. The early years of tawdry dissipation have tarnished the romance of his adventures, not all his actions were discreditable. Charles tried to fight his father’s battles in the west of England in 1645, he also resisted attempts of his mother and his sister, Henrietta Anne, to convert him to Catholicism and remained openly loyal to his Protestant faith. In 1648, Charles made strenuous efforts to save his father, and when his father (Charles I) was executed in 1649, he was proclaimed Charles II by the Scots in defiance of the English Republic, Charles was prepared to go to Scotland and swallow the stringently anti-Catholic and anti-Anglican Presbyterian covenant as the price for alliance. But the sacrifice of friends and principles was futile and left Charles II deeply embittered. In 1651, Charles II invaded England but this ended in defeat at Worcester. The young King was now a fugitive and was hunted though England for 40 days but he was protected by a handful of loyal subjects until he escaped to France in October 1651. Charles was now destitute and friendless, unable to bring pressure against an increasingly powerful England. The “European Princes” took little interest in Charles II and his cause, and his proffers of marriage were declined. Even when Cromwell died, this did little to improve Charles II’s prospects. However, one of Cromwell’s leading generals, George Monck, realized that Cromwell’s successors would leave the country in danger of being torn apart, George created a favourable situation towards Charles II’s restoration in 1660. Most English men now wanted the stability of a legitimate monarchy, and under the steadying influence of Edward Hyde (Charles’s chief advisor), he avoided any damaging compromise of his religion or constitutional principles. In April 1660, (with Hyde’s help) Charles issued his “Declaration of Breda,” expressing his personal desire for a general amnesty, liberty of conscience, an equitable settlement of land disputes and full payment of arrears to the army. The actual terms were to be left to a free Parliament, and on this provisional basis Charles II was proclaimed King in May 1660. Landing at Dover on May 25th Charles reached a rejoicing London on his 30th birthday. The unconditional nature of the settlement that took shape between 1660 and 1662 owed little to Charles’s intervention and must have exceeded his expectations. He was bound by the concessions made by his father in 1640 and 1641, but the Parliament elected in 1661 was determined on an uncompromising Anglican and Royalist settlement. The Militia Act of 1661 gave Charles unprecedented authority to maintain a standing army, and the Corporation Act of 1661 allowed him to purge the boroughs of dissident officials. However, even with all of these Acts, there were irksome limitations on Charles’s independence. His efforts to extend religious toleration were rebuffed. A more damaging limitation was on his financial independence. Charles was incapable of thrift. Even his vigorous attempts to save London during the Great Fire of September of 1666 could not make up for the negligence and maladministration that led to England’s naval defeat in June 1667. Charles II married Princess Catherine of Braganza of Portugal in 1662. His subjects deplored a French alliance and distrusted the whole tendency of Charles II’s policies. The miscarriages of the Queen reduced hopes of Charles having a legitimate heir. Charles II managed to finally get some control of his country and when he died in 1685, was able to end his reign in the kind of tranquil prosperity he had always sought.

JAMES VII AND II (14th October 1633 – 16th September 1701) was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6th February 1685 until he was deposed in the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. The last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland, his reign is remembered for the struggles over religious tolerance. However, it also involved the principles of “Absolutism” and “Divine Right of Kings” and his deposition ended a century of political and civil strife by confirming the primacy of Parliament over the Crown. James inherited the throne from his elder brother Charles II. James was the last Stuart monarch in the direct male line. He was deposed in the “Glorious Revolution” (1688-1789) and was replaced by William III and Mary II. That revolution, engendered by James’s Roman Catholicism, permanently established “Parliament” as the ruling power of England. James II was the second surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria. During his brother’s (Charles II’s) reign, James became Lord high Admiral and did much to maintain the efficiency and improve the organization of the Navy. James married Anne (the daughter of the Earl of Clarendon) in September 1660. He was admitted to the Roman Catholic Church but Charles II insisted that James’s daughters, Mary and Anne, be raised in the Protestant faith. For most of his life, James was the spokesman of the conservative Anglican courtiers, who believed that his views on monarchy and Parliament coincided with theirs, who found his formal and humourless nature more congenial than Charles’s slippery geniality, and who respected his frank acknowledgement of his religious beliefs. James resigned all of his offices in 1673 rather than take an anti-Catholic oath imposed by the so-called “Test Act” and thus made his position known publicly. Later that year, as his first wife had died, James gave offense by marrying a Roman Catholic Princess, Mary of Modena. The new Royalist Parliament that assembled in May 1685, voted James a large income, and there seemed to be no reason why he should not in time secure adequate toleration for his coreligionists. Some of James’s utterances suggest a genuine belief in “religious tolerance” as a matter of principle. On 12th February 1689, the “Convention Parliament” declared that James had abdicated and the next day offered the Crown to William and Mary. The Scots Parliament followed suit in May.

WILLIAM III AND MARY II Mary II (30th April 1662 – 28th December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, King William II and II, from 1689 until her death. Popular histories refer to their joint reign as that of “William and Mary.” Her father was a Roman Catholic but Mary, with her sister Anne, was brought up a Protestant. In 1677, Mary was married to her cousin William of Orange and settled in Holland. Mary was unable to bear children, but in later life, William and Mary became a devoted couple. During the quarrel between James II and William (1687-1688) over James’s pro-Catholic policies, Mary felt it her religious duty to side with her husband. She agreed to support William’s invasion of England in November 1688. James fled the country in December and two months later Mary arrived in London. On April 11th 1689, Mary and William were crowned joint Sovereigns of England, Scotland and Ireland. While her husband was directing military campaigns in Ireland and on the Continent, Mary administered the government in her own name, but she relied entirely on his advice. When William was in England, Mary willingly retired from politics. She was, however, concerned with ecclesiastical appointments. Mary enjoyed great popularity, and her Dutch tastes had a marked influence on English pottery, landscape gardening and interior decoration. She never settled down happily to life in England and was deeply troubled by her estrangement from her deposed father (James II). Mary died of smallpox at the age of 32.

ANNE (6th February 1665 – 1st August 1714) was the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland between 8th March 1702 and 1st May 1707. On 1st May 1707, under the “Acts of Union,” the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single “Sovereign State” known as Great Britain. She continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1714. Anne was the last Stuart Monarch. She wished to rule independently, but her intellectual limitations and chronic ill health caused her to rely heavily on her ministers. The bitter rivalries between Whigs and Tories that characterized her reign were intensified by uncertainty over the succession to her throne. Anne was the second daughter of James II and Anne Hyde. Although her father was a Roman Catholic, Anne was raised a Protestant at the insistence of her uncle, Charles II. In 1683, Anne was married to the handsome Prince George of Denmark (1653-1708), who became her devoted companion. Anne’s intimate relationship with her childhood friend, Sarah Jennings Churchill, (wife of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough) was of great political consequence. The beautiful, intelligent Sarah became Anne’s lady of the bedchamber and soon had the Princess in her power. It was Sarah who persuaded Anne to side with the Protestant ruler William III of Orange when William overthrew James II in 1688. Thus, when William and Mary became King and Queen of England, Anne was placed in line for the succession to the throne. Anne was pregnant 18 times (between 1683-1700) but only 5 children were born alive but none lived, the son who live past infancy died in 1700. Anne acquiesced to the “Act of Settlement” in 1701, which designated her successors the Hanoverian descendants of King James I of England, through is daughter Elizabeth. Anne became Queen upon William’s death in 1702. From the beginning, she was motivated largely by an intense devotion to the Anglican Church. The influence of Sarah (now Duchess of Marlborough) over Anne was now slight after 1703, the Duke remained Commander of the British forces. During her reign, Anne favoured moderate Tory politicians, who were more likely to share her Anglican religious views than their opponents, the Whigs. Anne’s gout rendered her lame for much of her life. Around the court, she was carried in a sedan chair, or used a wheelchair. Around her estates, she used a one-horse chaise, which she drove herself. Anne gained weight as a result of her sedentary lifestyle. However, Anne still took a lively interest in affairs of state, and was a patron of theatre, poetry and music. She subsided George Frideric Handel with £200 a year. She sponsored high-quality medals as rewards for political or military achievements. They were produced at the Mint by Isaac Newton and John Croker. Anne knighted Newton when she visited Cambridge in 1705. Anne was devastated when her husband died in 1708. Queen Anne was unable to walk between January and July 1713. At Christmas, she was feverish and lay unconscious for hours. A stroke left Anne unable to speak in 1714. Queen Anne died around 7.30 am on 1st August 1714, and was buried beside her husband and children in the Henry VII Chapel on the South Aisle of Westminster Abbey on 24th August.

Look out for more articles on the Kings and Queens of England.

history
Like

About the Creator

Ruth Elizabeth Stiff

I love all things Earthy and Self-Help

History is one of my favourite subjects and I love to write short fiction

Research is so interesting for me too

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.