James I

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James I (1566–1625) King of England (1603–25) and, as James VI, king of Scotland (1567–1625). Son of Mary, he acceded to the Scottish throne as an infant on his mother's abdication. In 1589, he married Anne of Denmark. James inherited the English throne on the death (1603) of Elizabeth I, and thereafter confined his attention to England. James supported the Anglican Church, at the cost of antagonizing the Puritans, and sponsored the publication (1611) of the Authorized, or King James, Version of the Bible. The Gunpowder Plot (1605) was foiled and James suppressed the Catholics. In 1607, the first English colony in America (Jamestown) was founded. James' insistence on the divine right of kings brought conflict with Parliament. In 1611 he dissolved Parliament, and (excluding the 1614 Addled Parliament) ruled without one until 1621. The death (1612) of Robert Cecil saw James' increasingly dependent on corrupt favourites such as Robert Carr and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. He was succeeded by his son, Charles I. See also Jacobean

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James I

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