A Monarch A Month - James I

Hi all!

As you are all fully aware by now, I have been, and am, stitching Kings and Queens by Bothy Threads at the rate of one monarch per month. It's been going for two years already. during which time I have stitched monarchs 1-24. This year I shall be stitching monarchs 25-36, which will leave me only five monarchs, numbers 37-41 next year, followed by the beading, the title and some sort of border I have yet to design. In other words, I may be over half way through monarchs, but I'm only about half way through the whole piece.

So, we start of this year with monarch number 25, James I.

Here he is, reading a very important version of the bible:

James I from Kings and Queens by Bothy Threads

Started - 3rd January 2021

Finished - 6th January 2021

Total stitching time - 5 hours 15 minutes

As a bit of background information, James had already been King James VI of Scotland for 36 years (since the age of 13 months) before also becoming King James I of England. His mother was Mary Queen of Scots, famously beheaded by Elizabeth for conspiring to overthrow her.

JAMES I
Preceded by Elizabeth I (first cousin twice removed)

Succeeded by Charles I (son)
Lived - 1566-1625

Reigned - 1603-1625
Married - Anne of Denmark 1589-1619

Children - 3 boys and 4 girls (four died very young and another in his teens)

James became King of England in 1603 following the death of Elizabeth I.

He was popular in both Scotland and England and was eager to unite them under one Parliament; neither country agreed.

He was obsessed with witchcraft, contributing to the burning of hundreds, possibly thousands, of witches during his reigns.

Yet James tolerated Catholicism and believed in negotiating peace, rather than going to war, with other countries.

An unintentional tip-off about a Catholic attempt to blow up Parliament and assassinate James and his ministers (The Gunpowder Plot) was foiled in 1605.

In 1607 Jamestown was established as the first permanent English colony in America. Others followed, including the Plymouth Colony settled by the Pilgrims sailing on the Mayflower in 1620.

In 1611 he published the Authorised King James Bible, consolidating a number of translations in one volume.

1612 marked a turning point in James' reign when his 18 year old son and heir, Henry, and his Chief Minister, Robert Cecil, both died.

James had a second son, Charles, to succeed him. But Cecil (who had been instrumental in negotiating James' smooth succession) had no such successor and factions began appearing in the previously-conforming Privy Council.

With Parliament opposing his requests, and his increasing belief in the absolute power of the monarch, James dissolved parliament and ruled without them from 1614 to 1621.

In his final few years, arthritis, gout and kidney stones took their toll on his health and James' power dwindled.

He died in 1625, a shadow of his former self, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

So next month, his son Charles I, a man not born to be king but who would take his father's belief in absolute monarchy a bit too far.

Take care,

Rachel x