The beginning of the Stuart Dynasty

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Data:	17.04.2007
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The beginning of the Stuart Dynasty

When Elizabeth died in 1603, James I, son of Mary o Scotland, became the first Stuart king of England. He was learned and he wrote treatises in English and in Latin. He based his power on the “divine right” so he thought he was the representative of God on the earth. He ruled with a council formed by few people and summoned Parliament only to asked money. But parliament always refused to levy new taxes, so the king got the money in other ways. His court was characterized by corruption.
The religious problem began strong again: the Catholics were fined if didn’t follow the English Church and the Puritans disapproved the Church of England bishops. When the Puritans suggested that the Church should be governed by lay elders, James insisted on retaining the bishops. All those ministers who refused to use the book of the common prayer or refused the authority of bishops were removed from their livings and some of them went to Holland or America. The king encouraged a new version of the Bible, the “King James Bible”. The Catholics plotted against him but the plot failed and the plotters were killed. This event is commemorated in England on 5th November, when children burn figures of Guy Fawkes.
James I was a peacemaker because war was too expensive and this made him unpopular peace with Spain. The English power began to decade because the king neglected the navy and didn’t care of foreign policy. However in this period the English settlement overseas began: in the 1690,. The Pilgrim Fathers religious dissenters left England for America on the Mayflower and founded New Plymouth. These new colonies received the political and economical agitators and traded with England. In the soon period, the East India Company founded trading posts in India and Indonesia.