XVIII.-BOURBON KINGS OF FRANCE, 1589–1715.

Henry IV., 1589-1609.

Louis XIII., 1609-1643.

Louis XIV.. 1643-1715.

CHAPTER I.

JAMES I., 1603-1625 (22 years).

Born 1566; married, 1589, Anne of Denmark.

Chief Characters of the Reign.-Sir Walter Raleigh; Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; Catesby; Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset; George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; Sir Francis Bacon (Viscount St. Alban's); Edward Coke; John Selden; John Pym.

Lord Darnley, became James I. of England by right of descent from his great-grandmother, Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. He was the first of the Stuart sovereigns, a family who, with the exception of the Commonwealth from 1649 to 1660, reigned in England one hundred and eleven years. At his accession James was thirty-seven years old. He had been King of Scotland since he was a baby, and he had very

James' character and views on

government. exaggerated ideas as to the rights of sovereigns. The Tudors had never troubled about the theory of government so long as they had the power to do what they liked, and they had usually taken care that what they did agreed with the wishes of the majority of their subjects. James, on the contrary, thought much of the theory of government, but had little idea of winning respect, while his slovenly and gluttonous habits contrasted ill with the dignity of the Tudors. For all that, James was a learned man, and knew more about foreign affairs, and about history and religious controversy, than most of his contemporaries; but he had little judgment, and was called by the witty Henry IV. of France, "the wisest fool in Christendom." Parliament had begun

to be restive under Queen Elizabeth, and it was not likely that it would be more steady when the reins were handed to such a man as the pedantic James. On the other hand, it could not be expected that the new sovereign would give up rights which had been exercised by his predecessors, so that a quarrel between king and Parliament was inevitable. On his road from Scotland, James hanged a pickpocket at Newark without the form of trial, and this act, which violated a host of statutes from Magna Carta downwards, was a fitting prelude to the new era.

James took for his minister Robert Cecil, the son of Elizabeth's minister Burleigh, who inherited the policy of his father. This was a very sore blow to Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord Cobham, who had hoped to supplant Cecil, and were disappointed to find that James intended to give him his confidence. Raleigh, moreover, was deprived by James of the post of captain of the royal guard. They therefore discussed a plan for getting rid of Cecil, and possibly thought of placing on The Main and the throne Arabella Stuart (see p. 211), niece Bye Plots. of Lord Darnley, in case James proved obdurate. At the same time, some Roman Catholics and Puritans, led by Watson, a priest, and Lord Grey de Wilton, a Puritan, who had been friends of Essex, talked of seizing the king and forcing him to grant toleration. These two plans were called the Main and the Bye Plots. Cecil heard of them, arrested the leaders, and cleverly tried them as if the two plots were the same. By this means he contrived to get rid of his rivals, Cobham and Raleigh, who were condemned to death and thrown into the Tower; and for nine years Cecil was the leading minister.

Imprisonment of Raleigh and Cobham.

Both Roman Catholics and Puritans hoped to find favour with James. The first relied on his descent from Mary, Queen of Scots, the second on his Presbyterian education; but they soon found that he was determined to uphold the religious settlement of Elizabeth. In 1604 a conference was held at Hampton Court between the bishops and the representa

The Hampton

Court Conference.

New

tives of the Puritans. It simply served to show how translation of much they differed, and the only good that came from

the Bible.

it was an order for a new translation of the Bible. This translation

was made carefully, and is still used in churches under the name of the Authorized Version. With the Roman Catholics James had more sympathy, but Parliament alone could alter the laws, and James' first Parliament, which met in 1604, was Puritan in feeling, and, so far from doing this, pressed for greater severity.

The Gun

The more reckless Roman Catholics, therefore, who had shared in Essex' conspiracy and the Bye Plot, under the lead of Catesby, determined to blow up king and Parliament together. powder Plot. Their plan was well laid, and they were fortunate enough to hire some cellars under the House of Lords, where they stored their gunpowder; but the date of Parliament's meeting being again and again put off, and their funds running short, they were obliged to let some rich men into their secret, and their plans were made known to the government. The meeting of Parliament was at length fixed for November 5th, 1605, but at the last moment the cellars were searched, and Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshireman, who had fought in the Spanish service, was found feady to fire the train. On learning the news of his arrest, the other conspirators, who had assembled at Dunchurch, in Warwickshire, intending to raise the country as soon as the catastrophe occurred in London, fled for their lives, and fought desperately when attacked. By accident, however, their powder blew up, and many of them were killed. The rest, with Fawkes, were tried and executed. Their plot was a terrible misfortune for their fellow-Catholics. Quite unjustly they were credited with a reckless willingness to use any means, however horrible, to gain their ends, and many years passed away before ignorant people ceased to believe that when any evil happened the Roman Catholics were at the bottom of it. As soon as Parliament again met, the laws against the Roman Catholics were made more severe. As might have been expected, from the divergence of their views on religion and politics, the relations between James and his Parlia

How the plot affected the Catholics.

James' first
Parliament.

Control over elections.

ments were from the first unfriendly. In his first summons, issued in 1604, James ventured to warn the electors not to choose outlaws, or men of extreme religious views. Buckinghamshire, however, chose Goodwin, an outlaw; and a new election was ordered by the Chancellor. The House of Commons remonstrated against this