Back to the Stuarts calendar
On 27 March 1625 James died at the age of 57 having ruled England for 22 years.
All the time he had been King, Parliament had been getting stronger. However James believed in something he called the Divine Right of Kings. In
simple terms this meant no one could disagree with him, certainly in religious matters, as God had given him the right to rule. He made going to church on Sunday
compulsory, the Catholics were not allowed to celebrate mass and the Puritans, who he liked even less, were only allowed to use James’ version of the bible.
The Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England from all
Catholic practices. They dressed in simple black clothes, felt the theatres now appearing around England were totally wrong and had long prayer meetings. They
wanted life to be built around religion and to be very simple.
James did several things which would affect the lives of the people of “his” Great Britain for years to come. One of these was the so-called Ulster
Plantation scheme which introduced Protestants into the north of Ireland.
He was said to be a well-educated and intelligent man but despite this he failed to solve the financial problems of England and when he died the
country was badly in debt.
In this instance the succession was simple. James was succeeded by his eldest son Charles, who became Charles I.
Forward to 1629AD
