Akrigg, G. P. V. (George Philip Vernon), ed. (1984), Letters of King James VI & I, Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California, ISBN 978-0-5200-4707-5 The Howard party (consisting of Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton; Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk; Suffolk's son-in-law Lord Knollys; Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham; and Thomas Lake) soon took control of much of the government and its patronage. Even the powerful Carr fell into the Howard camp, hardly experienced for the responsibilities thrust upon him and often dependent on his intimate friend Thomas Overbury for assistance with government papers. [160] Carr had an adulterous affair with Frances Howard, Countess of Essex, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk. James assisted Frances by securing an annulment of her marriage to free her to marry Carr, now Earl of Somerset. [n] In summer 1615, however, it emerged that Overbury had been poisoned. He had died on 15 September 1613 in the Tower of London, where he had been placed at the king's request. [162] [o] Among those convicted of the murder were the Earl and Countess of Somerset; the Earl had been replaced as the king's favourite in the meantime by Villiers. James pardoned the Countess and commuted the Earl's sentence of death, eventually pardoning him in 1624. [165] The implication of the king in such a scandal provoked much public and literary conjecture and irreparably tarnished James's court with an image of corruption and depravity. [166] The subsequent downfall of the Howards left Villiers unchallenged as the supreme figure in the government by 1619. [167] Health and death [ edit ] Portrait by Daniël Mijtens, 1621, in the National Portrait Gallery James’s family situation was complicated. He was born in Edinburgh Castle on 19 June 1566, the only son of Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. The marriage was falling apart and Mary's position as Queen was very insecure. Two months before James was born his father Lord Darnley sided with the rebels against his wife and became involved in the brutal and murder of Queen Mary’s Catholic private secretary David Rizzio, who was stabbed to death in front of the terrified and pregnant queen. Darnley himself was later murdered in an explosion at Kirk o’ Field in Edinburgh in February 1567 prompting Mary to move on to her second lover who was a suspect in her previous husband’s murder. Her new marriage wasn’t popular with the Protestant rebels who then imprisoned Mary at Loch Leven Castle near Perth in Scotland which resulted in her never seeing her son James again. analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship concerning the ideas and writings of James VI & I and their comparative context, primary source materials concerning these and conceptual discussions about intellectual history

Throughout his life James had close relationships with male courtiers, which has caused debate among historians about their exact nature. [142] In Scotland Anne Murray was known as the king's mistress. [143] After his accession in England, his peaceful and scholarly attitude contrasted strikingly with the bellicose and flirtatious behaviour of Elizabeth, [142] as indicated by the contemporary epigram Rex fuit Elizabeth, nunc est regina Iacobus (Elizabeth was King, now James is Queen). [144]

Croft 2003, p.45; George Nicolson quoted by Stewart 2003, p.154: "It is begun to be noted that the reports coming from the King should differ"; Williams 1970, p.61: "The two principal characters were dead, the evidence of eyewitnesses was destroyed and only King James's version remained"; Willson 1963, pp.126–130. The Gunpowder Plot against King James also initiated the most stringent laws against the Catholic population as James turned the screw preventing Catholics from taking up positions in public life. The Popish Recusants Act of 1605 was passed and an oath of allegiance was instated which forbade Catholics from practising law, medicine, joining the military and demanded Catholic clergy deny the authority of the Pope. Catholics also had to receive the sacrament in an Anglican service or face fines. His childhood was constantly disturbed by the struggles of the nobles who vied for control of him. Given a demanding academic education by his tutor George Buchanan (who tried to teach him to hate his mother) and advised by four successive regents, he grew up to be a shrewd, wary intellectual who managed to reconcile the warring factions among his nobility with such success that he has been described as 'the most effective ruler Scotland ever had'. Stewart 2003, p.248: "Latter day experts have suggested enteric fever, typhoid fever, or porphyria, but at the time poison was the most popular explanation ... John Chamberlain wrote that it was 'verily thought that the disease was no other than the ordinary ague that had reigned and raged all over England'."

Two years later, he married Anne of Denmark. Happy together at first they had three sons and four daughters, but gradually drifted apart. When the Earl of Salisbury died in 1612, he was little mourned by those who jostled to fill the power vacuum. [m] Until Salisbury's death, the Elizabethan administrative system over which he had presided continued to function with relative efficiency; from this time forward, however, James's government entered a period of decline and disrepute. [158] Salisbury's passing gave James the notion of governing in person as his own chief Minister of State, with his young Scottish favourite Robert Carr carrying out many of Salisbury's former duties, but James's inability to attend closely to official business exposed the government to factionalism. [159] Towards the end of his life, James was known as a slobberer and semi-incoherent speaker – his tongue was too big for his mouth. He was also known as the ‘wisest fool in Christendom’, but he was far wilier than his ‘fool’ tag suggests. James I was the most academically gifted monarch, being both stoic and practical. He had once hoped to bring peace to Europe but had to settle with peace between England and Scotland.The dour Scottish M.P.s were immediately besides themselves with horror and consternation. With no thought of looking upwards to see the obvious cause of the remark they concluded that little James had prophetically foreseen some great disaster that would befall one of them. When in the same year the Regent of Scotland, the Earl of Lennox, was violently assassinated, they decided that this justified the omen and that James was a remarkable juvenile prophet indeed. James briefly broke off diplomatic relations with England over Mary's execution, but he wrote privately that Scotland "could never have been without factions if she had beene left alive". [41] James's English coronation took place on 25 July at Westminster Abbey. An outbreak of plague restricted festivities. The Royal Entry to London with elaborate allegories provided by dramatic poets such as Thomas Dekker and Ben Jonson was deferred to 15 March 1604. [89] Dekker wrote that "the streets seemed to be paved with men; stalls instead of rich wares were set out with children; open casements filled up with women". [90] Northampton assumed the day-to-day running of government business, and spoke of "the death of the little man for which so many rejoice and few do as much as seem to be sorry." [157]