Tuesday 6 February 2018

NOTES - FROM THE TUDORS TO THE STUARTS


When Queen Elizabeth I died with no heir in 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England. It was the beginning of the Stuart Dynasty.


James I Stuart 1603-1625

  • James was the son of Mary Stuart who had been condemned to death by Elizabeth I in 1587
  • As James the VI of Scotland he united the two kingdoms of England and Scotland under one crown with the name of James I
  • He was a protestant, unlike his mother
  • Like the Tudors, he worked with a small council of ministers
  • He only summoned Parliament to ask for money
  • He surrounded himself with Scottish favourites and his court was disreputable, corrupt
  • That caused a pessimistic view of human nature we can recognize in the works of two famous playwrights of the time, Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare (especially in his last works: Henry VIII , Othello, Macbeth, The Tempest)