James I, King Of England (VI Of Scotland)

(1566-1625)

   Born at Edinburgh Castle, the son of Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, he succeeded Elizabeth in 1603 as "King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland" (Henry VII was their common ancestor). His insistence on the divine right of kings, or absolutism, brought him into conflict with Parliament and set the scene for the Revolution and the execution of his son, Charles I. The True Lawe of Free Monarchies (1598) expounded his views on the divine right of kings. James died at his country palace, Theobalds, Hertfordshire, on 27 March 1625, and his funeral took place on 5 May. His tomb is in the Chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey. The King James Bible was published in 1611. The Poems of James VI of Scotland, 2 volumes, was edited by James Craigie (1955-1958). One of his sonnets was written with the poet Sir William Alexander (see entry). Some of his poems: "Admonition to Montgomerie," "An Epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney," "First Ioue, as greatest God aboue the rest," "Lady Cicely Wemyss," "The azur'd vault, the crystal circles bright."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Elizabethan Lyrics. Norman Ault, ed. William Sloane Associates, 1949. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language. Francis Turner Palgrave, ed. Oxford University Press (1964, Sixth edition, updated by John Press, 1994). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Sonnet: An Antholog y. Robert M. Bender and Charles L. Squier, ed. Washington Square Press, 1987. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).