James,
the son of Mary,
Queen of Scots
and Henry
Darnley, was born in Edinburgh Castle in 1566. The marriage was
not a happy one and when Darnley was mysteriously killed while recovering
from smallpox at Glasgow in January 1567,
when the house in which he was in was blown up by gunpowder.
Suspicion
fell on Mary and her close friend, the Earl
of Bothwell. When Mary married Bothwell two months later, the
Protestant lords rebelled against their queen. After her army was
defeated at Langside in 1567, Mary fled to England.
James was proclaimed king
and during his infancy and power was held by a series of regents.
The most important of these was James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton.
Douglas was executed in 1581 and the following year James was kidnapped
by William Ruthven. However, he escaped ten months later. He then
came under the influence of the Earl of Arran until he was removed
from power in 1585 and was replaced by John Maitland.
Over the next few years
James managed to strengthen the power of the crown over Parliament
and the Church of Scotland. He also successfully developed good relations
with the government in England.
Elizabeth
ordered Mary, Queen of Scots
execution in 1587.
James accepted the decision and two years later married Anne of Denmark.
On the death of Elizabeth
in 1603, James, became king of England. He moved to London
and although he promised
he would make regular visits to Scotland he did not return for thirteen
years.
The Catholics in England
were upset that there was going to be another Protestant monarch.
They also became very angry when James passed a law that imposed heavy
fines on people who did not attend Protestant church services.
In 1605 a small group
of Catholics, led by a man called Robert Catesby, devised a scheme
to kill James and
as many Members of Parliament as possible. Catesby planned to James's
young daughter, Elizabeth, queen. In time, Catesby hoped to arrange
Elizabeth's marriage to a Catholic nobleman.
Catesby's plan involved
blowing up the Houses of Parliament on 5th November. This date was
chosen because James was due to open Parliament on that day. At first
the group tried to tunnel under Parliament. This plan changed when
a member of the group was able to hire a cellar under the House
of Lords. The plotters then filled the cellar with barrels of
gunpowder.
One of the people involved
in the Gunpowder Plot was Sir Thomas
Tresham. He was worried that the explosion would kill his friend and
brother-in-law, Lord Monteagle. Tresham therefore sent Lord Monteagle
a letter warning him not to attend the House of Lords on 5th November.
Lord Monteagle became suspicious and passed the letter to Robert
Cecil, the king's chief minister. Cecil quickly organised a thorough
search of the Houses of Parliament. While searching the cellars below
the House of Lords they found the gunpowder and Guy Fawkes, one of
the men involved in the plot.
Within a few weeks the
other conspirators were either killed resisting arrest or executed
after being found guilty of treason.
This is the traditional
story of the Gunpowder Plot. However, in recent years some historians
have begun to question this version of events. Some have argued that
the plot was really devised by Robert Cecil.
This version claims that Cecil blackmailed Catesby into organising
the plot. It is argued hat Cecil's aim was to make people in England
hate Catholics. For example, people were so angry after they found
out about the plot, that they agreed to Cecil's plans to pass a series
of laws persecuting Catholics.
James VI of Scotland and
James I of England, died in 1625, and was replaced by his son Charles
I .
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