Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/535

JAMES I. (ENGLAND), VI. (SCOTLAND) JAMES II. (ENGLAND), VII. (SCOTLAND) 517 his liberty and power, and banished his ene- mies. The latter returned in 1585, and forced the king to capitulate. He formed an alliance with Elizabeth in behalf of Protestantism, then threatened by the great Catholic powers, and wrote a book to prove that the pope was Anti- christ. He sought, but ineffectually, to save his mother's life, when she had been sentenced to death in England. He adhered to England during the expedition of the armada, knowing that Philip II. would not conquer it for him. In 1589 he made a voyage to Denmark, and married Anne, second daughter of Frederick II. His reign was much disturbed by internal trou- bles caused by the nobles, the clergy, and the citizens of Edinburgh. His Basilicon Doron, intended for the instruction of his son Henry, was published in 1599. He endeavored to re- store episcopacy, but with no success. On the death of Elizabeth, March 24, 1603, James was proclaimed king of England by the queen's council, in violation of the will of Henry VIII. His right, however, had been recognized by Elizabeth, and rested upon his descent from Henry VII. through his great-grandmother Margaret. He left Edinburgh April 5, and journeyed to London, his clumsy person and gross manners making a most unfavorable im- pression on. his new subjects. Cecil monopo- lized power. Raleigh was tried and condemned for treason, and was kept for 13 years in prison. A disgraceful peace was made with Spain in 1604. Arbitrary sentiments prevailed at court, and the king had trouble with his parliaments. The gunpowder plot, in 1605, was caused by the disappointment of some Catholics, whom he had encouraged to hope for the mitigation of the penal laws under which they suffered. In 1612 two heretics were burned at Smith- field, the last executions of the kind in England. Henry, prince of Wales, died the same year, under suspicions circumstances. The princess Elizabeth, ancestress of the present English dynasty, was married to the elector palatine, Feb. 14, 1613. The "grand oyer of poison- ing" took place in 1615-'16 (see OVEBBUET, SIB THOMAS), ending in the disgrace of the earl of Somerset, who had been a royal favorite, though now superseded by George Villiers, first duke of Buckingham of that name. Raleigh was released, and allowed to make his voyage to Guiana, but was put to death on his return, to gratify the Spanish government. James's foreign policy was shameful, and the English felt the flisgrace all the more because of the contrast it made with that of Elizabeth. When the thirty years' war broke out, though it involved the fate of his daughter and son-in- law, and they lost their dominions and became exiles and beggars, he would do nothing for them. A leading object with him was to con- ciliate Spain, and obtain the hand of a Spanish princess for his eldest son. Other means hav- ing failed, Buckingham, who now ruled both king and prince, persuaded Charles to go to Spain, to urge his suit for the infanta. This journey led only to disappointment, Bucking- ham taking offence, and, it is said, causing the marriage to be broken off. Bacon, who was lord chancellor and a peer, was disgraced in 1621, on account of his corrupt acts. War was declared against Spain in 1624, and parlia- ment was dissolved the same year. The hand of the princess Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France, was now sought for Charles, and an alliance with that country against the house of Austria was contemplated. A small force was sent to the continent, to help the Protestant cause, and this was fol- lowed by a larger one; but the first accom- plished nothing, and of the second one half the men perished on board their ships, France and Holland not allowing them to land. Bucking- ham's favor with the king was now lost, but he had great influence over the prince of Wales ; and the king falling sick, the duke and his mother were suspected of having poisoned him. His death was really caused by a tertian ague, acting on a constitution undermined by intemperance, chagrin, and mortification. The most remarkable event of James's reign was the authorized translation of the Bible into English, which was done under his patronage and by his direction. James was a man of considerable learning, but his scholarship was deformed by the most offensive pedantry, as his writings were by the grossest superstition, witches being the especial objects of his fear, hatred, and persecution. JAMES II. of England, and VII. of Scotland, second surviving son of Charles I. and Henri- etta Maria, born at the palace of St. James, Oct. 15, 1633, died at St. Germain, France, Sept. 16, 1701. He was called duke of York at once, but not by patent until 1643. He was about nine years old when the civil war broke out, and was an eye-witness of the battle of Edgehill, where he came near losing his life. He was present at the siege of Bristol in 1643. When Oxford was captured in 1646, James be- came prisoner to Fairfax. At a ceremonious visit of the chiefs of the parliamentary army, Cromwell was the only man who knelt to him. The prince was well treated, and allowed fre- quent interviews with his father, living most of the time in company with his brother Glou- cester and sister Elizabeth, at St. James's, under the guardianship of the earl of Northumber- land. He escaped in 1648, and fled to the Netherlands, whence, after a residence in Flan- ders, he went to Paris in 1649. The same year he accompanied his brother Charles to the island of Jersey, residing there four months. Returning to the continent, he visited Brussels, Rheenen, the Hague, and Breda. After the triumph of the enemies of the Stuarts in 1651, he entered the French service, distinguishing himself under Turenne. When, in 1655, the relations between England and France became close, James was forced to depart, and he en- tered the Spanish army, where he fought against the English and French. He was treat-