These years were chiefly marked by the struggles of the more zealous
clergy to replace the church upon a purely Presbyterian basis, and
to maintain their assumed independence of the civil power. The king
found his power encroached on, upon the one hand, by nobles richer,
and having a greater command of followers, than himself; on the other,
by divines who repudiated all subjection to civil authority in matters
ecclesiastical, and yet arrogated powers which greatly concerned the
secular rights and liberties of the people. While the reaction in
his youthful mind against these besetting troubles inspired him with
visionary ideas of the true rights of a monarch, the dissimulation
practised at his court by the astute emissaries of Elizabeth, the
restraints imposed on his liberty and natural sentiments by the more
zealous Protestant party while he was under their rule, and the tricks
he was tempted to have recourse to in order to recover his freedom,
and obtain some share of real power, gave him, before he was twenty,
such a tutoring in craft, as marked his character during the remainder
of life. A more manly and resolute person would have either broken
bravely through such a complication of troubles or perished in the
attempt. With the help of a good-natured pliancy, James floated on. He
was of a timid disposition, greatly disrelishing the sight of weapons,
and along with this temper he exhibited much good-nature. Trembling
at the outrageous dispositions of his nobles, and constitutionally
a lover of peace, he exerted himself to conciliate offenders, and
by persuasion to make them cease to break the laws, when a vigorous
procedure against them in courts of justice would have been required.
For the sake of his hopes of the English succession, if not from his
own convictions--which, however, are not to be doubted--he maintained
the Protestant cause. At the same time, seeing that the Catholics were
friends of monarchy, and might have something to say in the English
succession, he desired, if possible, to avoid offending them past
forgiveness. Even the ultra-zealous Presbyterian clergy, who came to
remonstrate with him, in his own palace, on his public acts or his
private foibles, he could treat with such pleasantry as often disarmed
them, when a more strenuous policy might have failed.
In February 1586-7, the unfortunate Mary was beheaded in Fotheringay
Castle, a victim to the necessities of the Protestant cause.
In 1588, when this cause was threatened with destruction by the Spanish
Armada, King James and his people manifested the greatest zeal in
preparing for the defence of their part of the island. They entered
into a Covenant or bond, in which they made solemn profession of the
Protestant faith, and avowed their resolution to oppose Popery by
every means in their power. After this danger had blown over, a new
alarm was excited by the discovery of a conspiracy amongst the three
leading Catholic nobles of Scotland, Huntly, Errol, and Crawford, to
aid in introducing a Spanish army, through Scotland, for the conquest
of the British island. These nobles having broken out in rebellion, in
concert with a Protestant noble of irregular character, Stuart, Earl of
Bothwell, the king led an army against them, and succeeded in reducing
them to obedience (April 1589). Huntly, Crawford, Errol, and Bothwell
were all convicted of treason; but the king shrank from inflicting a
punishment which was certain to damage his prospects with a large party
in England. They were liberated after only a few months’ imprisonment.
In the latter part of 1589, James effected his marriage with the
Princess Anne of Denmark. His young bride being detained in Norway
for the winter, in consequence of a storm, he sailed for that country
(October 22), and solemnised his nuptials at Upslo (now Christiania).
In May 1590, the royal pair arrived amidst great rejoicings at Leith.
The first year of the king’s married life was strangely disturbed by a
series of trials for the imaginary crime of witchcraft, in which the
character of the age is strongly marked.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1586.