Speaker 1: Hello, and Welcome to Western Sieve episode three hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty one, Trouble in Germany. Somerset's trial and conviction, along
Speaker 1: with that of his wife, marked a transition in James's reign,
Speaker 1: and not a positive one. It was widely believed that
Speaker 1: the king had behaved cowardly throughout the episode. After attempting
Speaker 1: to pardon his favorite, he had pulled back completely and
Speaker 1: ignored him as justice took its course. That wasn't seen
Speaker 1: as admirable to an extent. There were two factors that
Speaker 1: made his behavior seem worse. The first was George Villiers.
Speaker 1: The king doted upon his new faith it more than
Speaker 1: he had Somerset. The people liked Villiers, but the court
Speaker 1: did not. Their suspicions would prove correct. The second factor
Speaker 1: was the King's health, which was now clearly on the decline.
Speaker 1: James drank frequently and immoderately. He perspired, heavily, caught frequent colds.
Speaker 1: In fact, he was always sneezing. His face had become red,
Speaker 1: and he had grown fat, hair white. At the age
Speaker 1: of fifty, he was rapidly aging. He was still adverse
Speaker 1: to business and preferred to hunt, but now he rode
Speaker 1: more slowly and allowed his horse to be guided by grooms,
Speaker 1: So the eyes of people who are rising at court
Speaker 1: turned more and more often to the air. Presumptive Charles,
Speaker 1: at the age of fifteen, had acquired many of the
Speaker 1: virtues of a prince. He was excellent at tennis, great
Speaker 1: at jousting, He delighted in horses and masks, and he
Speaker 1: was already in connoisseur of art music. Yet he was
Speaker 1: also high and reserved. He was silent and quite frankly secretive.
Speaker 1: He blushed at an indelicate word. He was only five
Speaker 1: feet and four inches in height and had a pronounced stutter.
Speaker 1: The Venetian ambassador reported that Charles's chief endeavor quote is
Speaker 1: to have no other aim than to second his father,
Speaker 1: to follow him and do his pleasure, and not to
Speaker 1: move except as his father does before. His father always
Speaker 1: aims at suppressing his own feelings end quote. As a
Speaker 1: result of all this, Charles grew to be uncertain and hesitant,
Speaker 1: apt to cling to the few maxims that he already had.
Speaker 1: In fact, he was simply too modest for his own good.
Speaker 1: As to the king, James now tended to vacillate between
Speaker 1: indecision and rash action. He seemed frankly unable to contemplate
Speaker 1: the consequences of his actions, be they positive or negative.
Speaker 1: He had an absolutely sense of his divine right and
Speaker 1: his divine mission as king. Those two perceived realities often
Speaker 1: clouded his vision, though to be fair, not as badly
Speaker 1: as they would those of his son. Now, as to
Speaker 1: the old Sir Edward Coke, the jurist, he was not
Speaker 1: destined to remain in the King's service for much longer.
Speaker 1: He not agreeing at all with the principle of the
Speaker 1: divine right of kings. He was removed from the Privy
Speaker 1: Council in order to stop his summer circuit of the Kingdom.
Speaker 1: He was told to revise his law reports quote, wherein
Speaker 1: as his Majesty was informed, there were many exorbitent and
Speaker 1: extravagant opinions and quote. Five months later, in November sixteen sixteen,
Speaker 1: Coke was dismissed from his office. Once again, James had
Speaker 1: failed to consider the impact of his actions. He had
Speaker 1: effectively turned Coke into a martyr for the rule of
Speaker 1: law and the liberes of the English people. This happened
Speaker 1: at a time when economic conditions in England were beginning
Speaker 1: to worsen. Now, before I get into this, let me
Speaker 1: say that many of these issues were not unique to England,
Speaker 1: not at all. In a few episodes here, I'm going
Speaker 1: to step back and cover the serious economic and demographic
Speaker 1: changes that faced Europe in the early modern period. But
Speaker 1: in terms of England, things hadn't been good over the
Speaker 1: course of the sixteenth century. The population had exploded in
Speaker 1: the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, yet at this
Speaker 1: point in history the land did not produce more. Worse
Speaker 1: still was the policy of enclosure, and had it continued
Speaker 1: relatively unobated. Enclosure was the policy whereby large landowners and
Speaker 1: closed would have been previously communal lands, mostly for sheep grazing.
Speaker 1: Good economic policy for the landowners, but disastrous for the
Speaker 1: common people who lost these lands as a source of
Speaker 1: forage and grazing land for their communal animals. As you
Speaker 1: can imagine, it bred a lot of resentment. In sixteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight, it was reported that half of the population
Speaker 1: of England lived below the subsistence level. Things were not
Speaker 1: that bad yet, but they were certainly on the way.
Speaker 1: The purchasing power for wagejourners had fallen since the mid
Speaker 1: sixteenth century. In Sheffield in sixteen sixteen it was reported
Speaker 1: that of two thousand people in the parish, seven hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five could not survive unless they received some
Speaker 1: form of charity. In this same period, as I alluded
Speaker 1: to before, the economic situation of the upper and middle
Speaker 1: classes increased dramatically, leading to massive income inequality. But really
Speaker 1: all these pre industrial chains benefited the new members of parliament.
Speaker 1: These were the so called country gentlemen. These were the
Speaker 1: new men who made their money based on business acumen
Speaker 1: and the prevailing market conditions of the day. It was
Speaker 1: said in James's reign that they could buy out the
Speaker 1: lords three times over. These men had fewer connections to
Speaker 1: the monarchy and tended to be puritan in their beliefs. Certainly,
Speaker 1: changing market conditions had a lot to do with the
Speaker 1: rise of this new class and decline of the lords. However,
Speaker 1: there was also a major factor at play here that
Speaker 1: the decline in military power and prestige for the lord
Speaker 1: class diminished the status of the nobility. Not to mention,
Speaker 1: of course, that James sold lordships left and right. The
Speaker 1: gentry was also changing a lot. This is around the
Speaker 1: time that we can finally begin to speak of what
Speaker 1: we might call a profetational class. In England, the number
Speaker 1: of lawyers rose by forty percent between fifteen ninety and
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty, in a period when doctors and surgeons also multiplied.
Speaker 1: The merchant class, too was thriving, and it was no
Speaker 1: longer considered to be a demeaning profession. The sons of
Speaker 1: squires were more than happy to become apprentices, with the
Speaker 1: hope of eventually rising to partners. The division between rich
Speaker 1: and poor had been sharpened, while at the same time
Speaker 1: the wealthier elements of society were drawing closer together. The
Speaker 1: gentry now also controlled the machinery of local government. The lords,
Speaker 1: lieutenant and deputies, the sheriffs and justices of the peace
Speaker 1: were indispensable for the order and safety of the country.
Speaker 1: The king and his counsel totally relied upon them for
Speaker 1: matters like the collection of taxes, the regulation of trade,
Speaker 1: and the raising of truth in the event of a
Speaker 1: foreign war. In turn, a form of local government grew
Speaker 1: up at quarter sessions, where the most important men of
Speaker 1: the county or sometimes the borough, met to discuss the
Speaker 1: business of the community. These were now collectively known as
Speaker 1: the Commission of the Peace, and their clerk was called
Speaker 1: the Clerk of the Peace. Their authority filtered down to
Speaker 1: high constables and all kinds of hundreds and petty constables,
Speaker 1: even churchwardens and overseers of the poor in the parish.
Speaker 1: So it's a total transformation and increase in the amount
Speaker 1: of local government. The country. Gentry had also in large
Speaker 1: part taken against the courts. In a local election of
Speaker 1: sixteen fourteen, both candidates claimed to be representing the country
Speaker 1: and denied charges of ever becoming a courtier. Soon enough,
Speaker 1: court factions and county factions would manifest themselves throughout England. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: in the Court continued to pivot in the direction of
Speaker 1: the new favorite, George Villiers. In sixteen seventeen he was
Speaker 1: created the Earl of Buckingham an appointed Master of the Horse.
Speaker 1: For the record, I will from this point forward, with
Speaker 1: a few reminders, refer to Villiers as Buckingham. That's because
Speaker 1: generally that is exclusively what he has called in the
Speaker 1: sources Buckingham. That is, Villiers now became the major source
Speaker 1: of court patronage, and in fact he insisted that his
Speaker 1: clients acknowledge him and not the King as their sole
Speaker 1: source of patronage. Unfortunately, this only added to the corruption
Speaker 1: that was already so endemic to James's reign. Everything could
Speaker 1: be sold, everything came at a price. If you wanted
Speaker 1: a title or a monopoly, which were still kicking around
Speaker 1: despite Parliament's best efforts, then you had to pay for it.
Speaker 1: Increasingly that meant paying the Duke of Buckingham. None of this, absolutely,
Speaker 1: none of this benefited the people. Let me give you
Speaker 1: one point example. When a group of monopolis was granted
Speaker 1: the maintenance of a lighthouse at Dungeons for a yearly commission,
Speaker 1: being rewarded with the tolls on all shipping that passed by.
Speaker 1: They provided for the lighthouse itself only one single candle.
Speaker 1: That's right, one candle, And that, my friends, is why
Speaker 1: monopolies are bad. In March of sixteen seventeen, the King
Speaker 1: traveled north. He told his Privy Council back in Scotland
Speaker 1: that quote, we have had, these many years a great
Speaker 1: and natural longing to see our native soil and place
Speaker 1: of birth and breeding. He called it a charmingly solemn
Speaker 1: like instinct. On his slow journey, he was attended by
Speaker 1: hundreds of courtiers who ate their way through the land
Speaker 1: like locusts. By the middle of May, the party had
Speaker 1: finally reached Edinburgh. No one was sure how the visit
Speaker 1: was to be paid for, and those who were on
Speaker 1: the route feared the worst. No English king, after all,
Speaker 1: had come this way for hundreds of years. When James
Speaker 1: reached the border, he dismounted from his horse and lay
Speaker 1: on the ground between the two countries, proclaiming that in
Speaker 1: his very person he symbolized the union between Scotland and England.
Speaker 1: Many of his counselors and nobles had not wanted to
Speaker 1: go along with James. They took no interest in and
Speaker 1: had no positive expectations of Scotland. For them, it was
Speaker 1: a savage, distant land. The Queen herself declined to go,
Speaker 1: claiming she was ill. And in that same summer of
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen, Sir Walter Raleigh, newly released from the tower,
Speaker 1: sailed to Guiana in search of gold. The King had
Speaker 1: expressly ordered him not to attack the Spanish in any way.
Speaker 1: He was still, after all, trying to marry his son
Speaker 1: to the Spanish princess. When Raleigh eventually reached the mouth
Speaker 1: of the Orinoco, river. He sent a lieutenant, Lawrence Camus
Speaker 1: up the river to determine the location of a fabled
Speaker 1: lost mine of gold. On his way, however, Camus attacked
Speaker 1: the Spanish who held Saint Toomai, and after an inconsequential
Speaker 1: combat in which Raleigh's own son was killed, he eventually
Speaker 1: returned to the main fleet. There was now no possibility
Speaker 1: of reaching the Mind, and Raleigh made a rather ignominious
Speaker 1: return to England. Kamus himself was killed on board ship.
Speaker 1: The wrath of the king was intense, and sometimes the
Speaker 1: wrath of King's meant death. James believed that he had
Speaker 1: been deliberately deceived by Raleigh on the pretext of finding gold,
Speaker 1: and that Raleigh had always intended to attack the Spanish.
Speaker 1: He felt that the explorer had unjustifiably and unnecessarily earned
Speaker 1: for him the anger of Spain, and of course, the
Speaker 1: Spanish king complained angrily in response to this behavior through
Speaker 1: his going to be notorious English ambassador, the Count of Gondomar,
Speaker 1: which yes, definitely sounds like a title of Lord of
Speaker 1: the Rings. As a result of the weak willed English
Speaker 1: king sent Raleigh to the scaffold, it was commonly complained
Speaker 1: for years afterwards that James sacrificed one of England's greatest
Speaker 1: heroes for the honor of Spain. Now, while in the
Speaker 1: Tower in sixteen oh seven, Raleigh had begun a quite
Speaker 1: ambitious work, not unlike this one, titled History of the World.
Speaker 1: He never finished it. In fact, Raleigh had started with
Speaker 1: the creation, so he started before us, and at the
Speaker 1: time of his death he had only reached Rome's Second
Speaker 1: Macedonian War in one eighty eight PCE. If you're interested
Speaker 1: in hearing more about that, check out Western sev two
Speaker 1: point zero free seven day trial link in the show notes. Anyway,
Speaker 1: not everything James did was reviled. I don't want to
Speaker 1: heap on him. In sixteen seventeen. That same year he
Speaker 1: issued a royal decree that became known as the Dancing Book.
Speaker 1: In it, he expressly declared that e on Sundays, dancing, archery,
Speaker 1: and other leisure activities would be permitted. The Puritans, as
Speaker 1: you could probably guess, despised the Dancing Book. Soon, those
Speaker 1: of the Puritan persuasion would become the principal opponents of
Speaker 1: royal policy. Now, in other positive news, since the King's ascension,
Speaker 1: England had enjoyed a full fifteen years of peace, but
Speaker 1: in April of sixteen eighteen, the powder keg that was
Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Empire finally burst. Now a lot of
Speaker 1: these events I am going to cover in an upcoming
Speaker 1: series on the Thirty Years War. So now I'm only
Speaker 1: going to discuss these events as they relate to England directly.
Speaker 1: But here's the short version, just so you know what's
Speaker 1: going on. In April sixteen eighteen, in Bohemia, which is
Speaker 1: roughly today's Czech Republic, Bohemian rebels seized the Holy Roman
Speaker 1: Emperor's deputies and chucked them out the window. This is
Speaker 1: the so famously titled Defenestration of Prague. Bohemia had been
Speaker 1: ruled by the fiercely Catholic Habsburg family. The rebels declared
Speaker 1: the territory to be Protestant, effectively throwing down the gauntlet
Speaker 1: to the Habsburgs, which of course included Philip the Third
Speaker 1: of Spain. This was all hugely problematic for James. His
Speaker 1: son in law, Frederick of the Palatinate, was the leading
Speaker 1: Calvinist prince in the region and supported the rebels. James
Speaker 1: still wanted to marry his son Charles to Philip's daughter
Speaker 1: for the money, so he was caught between a rock
Speaker 1: and well another rock. Things got worse in March sixteen nineteen,
Speaker 1: when the Holy Roman Emperor died and the Archduke Ferdinand
Speaker 1: was elected to replace him. The Bohemians took this opportunity
Speaker 1: to formally depose the new Holy Roman Emperor as their sovereign,
Speaker 1: and instead they invited Frederick of the Palatinate to take
Speaker 1: his place. Frederick hesitated for about nine seconds before accepting
Speaker 1: the offer, a fact that greatly irritated James, who clearly
Speaker 1: expected his son in law to consult him on this first.
Speaker 1: Frederick traveled to Prague that October to formally accept the crown.
Speaker 1: Protestants in England were delighted. James was despondent. James, in
Speaker 1: his opinion, was now at loggerheads with those of his subjects.
Speaker 1: James was really angry by what he considered to be
Speaker 1: Frederick's rashness in accepting the crown of Bohemia. His son
Speaker 1: in law was, in that sense an aggressor. He had
Speaker 1: flouted the divine right of kings. After all, the Holy
Speaker 1: Roman Emperor had been the crown sovereign of Bohemia for centuries.
Speaker 1: He told Frederick's envoy, quote, you are to come in
Speaker 1: good time to England to spread these principles among my people,
Speaker 1: that my subjects may drive me away and place another
Speaker 1: in my room end quote. He didn't want to drop
Speaker 1: his purported Spanish connection, that he'd spent so much time.
Speaker 1: Yet his daughter was the Queen of Bohemia. Surely there
Speaker 1: was some glory there. This was the greatest dilemma of
Speaker 1: his reign, especially in terms of foreign policies. It combined
Speaker 1: in fashion his enmity was Spain and a relationship with
Speaker 1: his fellow Protestants in Europe. He had been trying for
Speaker 1: a long time to play this sort of balancing act,
Speaker 1: but now he was at a point where it just
Speaker 1: didn't seem practicable any longer. Relations with the Spanish weren't
Speaker 1: a difficult and delicate balance. His purported marriage of Prince
Speaker 1: Charles to the Infanta was protracted, had been going on forever.
Speaker 1: It was never popular in England either. Some in the
Speaker 1: English countryside could still remember the days when Queen Mary
Speaker 1: had been married to fill up the Second of Spain.
Speaker 1: They didn't want more Spanish involvement in their kingdom, and
Speaker 1: as we will see in our next episode this whole
Speaker 1: Spanish marriage thing. It's about to take a major and
Speaker 1: really bizarre twist. Now, of course, the biggest issue here
Speaker 1: is that James had no money for war, even if
Speaker 1: he wanted one, and it's far from clear that he did.
Speaker 1: England had no standing army and was not at all
Speaker 1: ready for military action. Politics and diplomacy, though could not
Speaker 1: be separated from the issues of religion, all were intimately
Speaker 1: related on the continent, where the division between Catholic and
Speaker 1: Protestant remained at the single most important factor of the age.
Speaker 1: Anyone who's lived through the religious wars in France could
Speaker 1: tell you that there were, of course divisions within the
Speaker 1: ranks of the Protestants themselves. There were ongoing debates throughout
Speaker 1: the continent, some of which involved English theologians about the
Speaker 1: future fate of Calvinism. The role that Calvinism was going
Speaker 1: to continue to play and its permutations are going to
Speaker 1: be of critical notes for the history of England going forward.
Speaker 1: Making matters worse, James's health continued to deteriorate. He was
Speaker 1: by now suffering from both gout and arthritis. His wife,
Speaker 1: Queen Anne, died in the spring of sixteen nineteen, pitching
Speaker 1: the king into a deep depression. In that same spring,
Speaker 1: it looked certain that James would follow his wife to
Speaker 1: the grave. Charles and Buckingham both raced to his bedside
Speaker 1: for the proverbial deathbed speech. It proved premature, and the
Speaker 1: king recovered. James returned to London that June in high spirits.
Speaker 1: He had some cause for it. His famous and brand
Speaker 1: new banqueting house had been completed. He had spent a
Speaker 1: fortune on it, nearly fifteen thousand pounds. This was at
Speaker 1: a time when the treasury was bare and the financial
Speaker 1: situation of England on the decline. Again. New cheaper clothes
Speaker 1: had replaced the more expensive English wolves, reducing English exports. Plus,
Speaker 1: with new alternatives, the Dutch could extract lower prices for
Speaker 1: the English wool they did want, reducing English bargaining power further.
Speaker 1: The balance of trade, in other words, was not in
Speaker 1: England's favor. Far too many useless luxury items were being
Speaker 1: imported into England at high prices, especially wine and tobacco.
Speaker 1: Between sixteen eighteen and sixteen twenty two, the number of
Speaker 1: broadcloths exported out of London fell by forty percent England
Speaker 1: had enjoyed a series of bumper crops, at least under James,
Speaker 1: but in sixteen twenty three the harvest failed completely. Indeed,
Speaker 1: it seemed that the horsemen of the Apocalypse were on
Speaker 1: England's very sure and it was during this period that
Speaker 1: many Englishmen decided to check out. I will cover all
Speaker 1: this in much greater detail later, but it's worth noting
Speaker 1: for the moment that inten teen oh seven. Jamestown, the
Speaker 1: first real successful English colony in the New World, was
Speaker 1: founded in Virginia. In sixteen twenty also during James's reign,
Speaker 1: the famous Pilgrims set sail for New England. In the
Speaker 1: decades of the early seventeenth century, some sixty thousand englishmen
Speaker 1: and women left for the New World. Next week, Charles
Speaker 1: and Buckingham leave England, set for Spain on a romantic,
Speaker 1: end idiotic quest, and the reign of James the First
Speaker 1: will come to an end.