WEBVTT 1 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:25.600 Hello, and Welcome to Western Sieve episode three hundred and 2 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:31.280 twenty one, Trouble in Germany. Somerset's trial and conviction, along 3 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:34.479 with that of his wife, marked a transition in James's reign, 4 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:38.479 and not a positive one. It was widely believed that 5 00:00:38.520 --> 00:00:42.560 the king had behaved cowardly throughout the episode. After attempting 6 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:45.520 to pardon his favorite, he had pulled back completely and 7 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:49.159 ignored him as justice took its course. That wasn't seen 8 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:53.159 as admirable to an extent. There were two factors that 9 00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:57.200 made his behavior seem worse. The first was George Villiers. 10 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:01.159 The king doted upon his new faith it more than 11 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:05.319 he had Somerset. The people liked Villiers, but the court 12 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:09.959 did not. Their suspicions would prove correct. The second factor 13 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:14.480 was the King's health, which was now clearly on the decline. 14 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:20.159 James drank frequently and immoderately. He perspired, heavily, caught frequent colds. 15 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:23.400 In fact, he was always sneezing. His face had become red, 16 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:26.879 and he had grown fat, hair white. At the age 17 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:30.640 of fifty, he was rapidly aging. He was still adverse 18 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:33.280 to business and preferred to hunt, but now he rode 19 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:36.319 more slowly and allowed his horse to be guided by grooms, 20 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:40.799 So the eyes of people who are rising at court 21 00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:45.280 turned more and more often to the air. Presumptive Charles, 22 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:47.920 at the age of fifteen, had acquired many of the 23 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:51.480 virtues of a prince. He was excellent at tennis, great 24 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:55.200 at jousting, He delighted in horses and masks, and he 25 00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:59.239 was already in connoisseur of art music. Yet he was 26 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:03.760 also high and reserved. He was silent and quite frankly secretive. 27 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:08.159 He blushed at an indelicate word. He was only five 28 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:11.439 feet and four inches in height and had a pronounced stutter. 29 00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:17.520 The Venetian ambassador reported that Charles's chief endeavor quote is 30 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:20.000 to have no other aim than to second his father, 31 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:23.199 to follow him and do his pleasure, and not to 32 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:27.599 move except as his father does before. His father always 33 00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:31.759 aims at suppressing his own feelings end quote. As a 34 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:35.759 result of all this, Charles grew to be uncertain and hesitant, 35 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:39.479 apt to cling to the few maxims that he already had. 36 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:44.680 In fact, he was simply too modest for his own good. 37 00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:48.960 As to the king, James now tended to vacillate between 38 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:54.240 indecision and rash action. He seemed frankly unable to contemplate 39 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:57.879 the consequences of his actions, be they positive or negative. 40 00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:01.879 He had an absolutely sense of his divine right and 41 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:07.080 his divine mission as king. Those two perceived realities often 42 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:10.719 clouded his vision, though to be fair, not as badly 43 00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:15.319 as they would those of his son. Now, as to 44 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:19.280 the old Sir Edward Coke, the jurist, he was not 45 00:03:19.479 --> 00:03:22.560 destined to remain in the King's service for much longer. 46 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.639 He not agreeing at all with the principle of the 47 00:03:25.639 --> 00:03:29.199 divine right of kings. He was removed from the Privy 48 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:32.800 Council in order to stop his summer circuit of the Kingdom. 49 00:03:33.159 --> 00:03:36.800 He was told to revise his law reports quote, wherein 50 00:03:37.159 --> 00:03:40.520 as his Majesty was informed, there were many exorbitent and 51 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:46.280 extravagant opinions and quote. Five months later, in November sixteen sixteen, 52 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:51.800 Coke was dismissed from his office. Once again, James had 53 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:55.240 failed to consider the impact of his actions. He had 54 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:58.680 effectively turned Coke into a martyr for the rule of 55 00:03:58.759 --> 00:04:03.120 law and the liberes of the English people. This happened 56 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:06.479 at a time when economic conditions in England were beginning 57 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:10.599 to worsen. Now, before I get into this, let me 58 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:13.879 say that many of these issues were not unique to England, 59 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:18.040 not at all. In a few episodes here, I'm going 60 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:21.920 to step back and cover the serious economic and demographic 61 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:26.319 changes that faced Europe in the early modern period. But 62 00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:30.079 in terms of England, things hadn't been good over the 63 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:34.639 course of the sixteenth century. The population had exploded in 64 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:38.680 the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, yet at this 65 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:43.279 point in history the land did not produce more. Worse 66 00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:47.360 still was the policy of enclosure, and had it continued 67 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:54.240 relatively unobated. Enclosure was the policy whereby large landowners and 68 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:58.680 closed would have been previously communal lands, mostly for sheep grazing. 69 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.600 Good economic policy for the landowners, but disastrous for the 70 00:05:03.639 --> 00:05:06.959 common people who lost these lands as a source of 71 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:10.920 forage and grazing land for their communal animals. As you 72 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:15.040 can imagine, it bred a lot of resentment. In sixteen 73 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:18.000 eighty eight, it was reported that half of the population 74 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:22.600 of England lived below the subsistence level. Things were not 75 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:25.639 that bad yet, but they were certainly on the way. 76 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:30.560 The purchasing power for wagejourners had fallen since the mid 77 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:35.759 sixteenth century. In Sheffield in sixteen sixteen it was reported 78 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:39.639 that of two thousand people in the parish, seven hundred 79 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:43.120 and twenty five could not survive unless they received some 80 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:47.680 form of charity. In this same period, as I alluded 81 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:51.000 to before, the economic situation of the upper and middle 82 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:57.199 classes increased dramatically, leading to massive income inequality. But really 83 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:02.800 all these pre industrial chains benefited the new members of parliament. 84 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:07.879 These were the so called country gentlemen. These were the 85 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:10.920 new men who made their money based on business acumen 86 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:14.759 and the prevailing market conditions of the day. It was 87 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:17.680 said in James's reign that they could buy out the 88 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:22.879 lords three times over. These men had fewer connections to 89 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:27.920 the monarchy and tended to be puritan in their beliefs. Certainly, 90 00:06:28.519 --> 00:06:31.279 changing market conditions had a lot to do with the 91 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:35.759 rise of this new class and decline of the lords. However, 92 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.839 there was also a major factor at play here that 93 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:42.560 the decline in military power and prestige for the lord 94 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:46.439 class diminished the status of the nobility. Not to mention, 95 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:52.759 of course, that James sold lordships left and right. The 96 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:56.319 gentry was also changing a lot. This is around the 97 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:58.920 time that we can finally begin to speak of what 98 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:03.160 we might call a profetational class. In England, the number 99 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:07.480 of lawyers rose by forty percent between fifteen ninety and 100 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:13.199 sixteen thirty, in a period when doctors and surgeons also multiplied. 101 00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:17.240 The merchant class, too was thriving, and it was no 102 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:21.519 longer considered to be a demeaning profession. The sons of 103 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:25.519 squires were more than happy to become apprentices, with the 104 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:30.079 hope of eventually rising to partners. The division between rich 105 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:33.160 and poor had been sharpened, while at the same time 106 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:38.279 the wealthier elements of society were drawing closer together. The 107 00:07:38.360 --> 00:07:42.839 gentry now also controlled the machinery of local government. The lords, 108 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:46.439 lieutenant and deputies, the sheriffs and justices of the peace 109 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:50.240 were indispensable for the order and safety of the country. 110 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:54.680 The king and his counsel totally relied upon them for 111 00:07:54.759 --> 00:07:58.600 matters like the collection of taxes, the regulation of trade, 112 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:00.720 and the raising of truth in the event of a 113 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:05.160 foreign war. In turn, a form of local government grew 114 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:08.240 up at quarter sessions, where the most important men of 115 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:11.279 the county or sometimes the borough, met to discuss the 116 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:15.399 business of the community. These were now collectively known as 117 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:18.040 the Commission of the Peace, and their clerk was called 118 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:21.600 the Clerk of the Peace. Their authority filtered down to 119 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:25.759 high constables and all kinds of hundreds and petty constables, 120 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:29.839 even churchwardens and overseers of the poor in the parish. 121 00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:33.679 So it's a total transformation and increase in the amount 122 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:38.519 of local government. The country. Gentry had also in large 123 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:42.000 part taken against the courts. In a local election of 124 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:47.399 sixteen fourteen, both candidates claimed to be representing the country 125 00:08:47.480 --> 00:08:51.600 and denied charges of ever becoming a courtier. Soon enough, 126 00:08:52.039 --> 00:08:59.360 court factions and county factions would manifest themselves throughout England. Meanwhile, 127 00:08:59.720 --> 00:09:03.080 in the Court continued to pivot in the direction of 128 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:08.480 the new favorite, George Villiers. In sixteen seventeen he was 129 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:12.960 created the Earl of Buckingham an appointed Master of the Horse. 130 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:17.200 For the record, I will from this point forward, with 131 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:22.559 a few reminders, refer to Villiers as Buckingham. That's because 132 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:25.960 generally that is exclusively what he has called in the 133 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:31.320 sources Buckingham. That is, Villiers now became the major source 134 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:35.440 of court patronage, and in fact he insisted that his 135 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:38.759 clients acknowledge him and not the King as their sole 136 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:44.440 source of patronage. Unfortunately, this only added to the corruption 137 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:49.039 that was already so endemic to James's reign. Everything could 138 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:52.480 be sold, everything came at a price. If you wanted 139 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:56.120 a title or a monopoly, which were still kicking around 140 00:09:56.120 --> 00:09:59.360 despite Parliament's best efforts, then you had to pay for it. 141 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:06.600 Increasingly that meant paying the Duke of Buckingham. None of this, absolutely, 142 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:10.120 none of this benefited the people. Let me give you 143 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:15.399 one point example. When a group of monopolis was granted 144 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:19.039 the maintenance of a lighthouse at Dungeons for a yearly commission, 145 00:10:19.639 --> 00:10:22.759 being rewarded with the tolls on all shipping that passed by. 146 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:29.840 They provided for the lighthouse itself only one single candle. 147 00:10:31.399 --> 00:10:38.279 That's right, one candle, And that, my friends, is why 148 00:10:38.320 --> 00:11:06.159 monopolies are bad. In March of sixteen seventeen, the King 149 00:11:06.279 --> 00:11:11.039 traveled north. He told his Privy Council back in Scotland 150 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:13.879 that quote, we have had, these many years a great 151 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:17.360 and natural longing to see our native soil and place 152 00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:22.120 of birth and breeding. He called it a charmingly solemn 153 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:25.960 like instinct. On his slow journey, he was attended by 154 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:29.000 hundreds of courtiers who ate their way through the land 155 00:11:29.320 --> 00:11:32.360 like locusts. By the middle of May, the party had 156 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:36.200 finally reached Edinburgh. No one was sure how the visit 157 00:11:36.279 --> 00:11:38.759 was to be paid for, and those who were on 158 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:42.440 the route feared the worst. No English king, after all, 159 00:11:42.679 --> 00:11:46.679 had come this way for hundreds of years. When James 160 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:50.200 reached the border, he dismounted from his horse and lay 161 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:53.879 on the ground between the two countries, proclaiming that in 162 00:11:53.960 --> 00:11:58.360 his very person he symbolized the union between Scotland and England. 163 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:02.639 Many of his counselors and nobles had not wanted to 164 00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:06.080 go along with James. They took no interest in and 165 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:10.559 had no positive expectations of Scotland. For them, it was 166 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:14.840 a savage, distant land. The Queen herself declined to go, 167 00:12:15.159 --> 00:12:19.159 claiming she was ill. And in that same summer of 168 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:23.600 sixteen seventeen, Sir Walter Raleigh, newly released from the tower, 169 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:28.279 sailed to Guiana in search of gold. The King had 170 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:32.120 expressly ordered him not to attack the Spanish in any way. 171 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:35.200 He was still, after all, trying to marry his son 172 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:40.279 to the Spanish princess. When Raleigh eventually reached the mouth 173 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:44.440 of the Orinoco, river. He sent a lieutenant, Lawrence Camus 174 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:47.279 up the river to determine the location of a fabled 175 00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:51.679 lost mine of gold. On his way, however, Camus attacked 176 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:56.039 the Spanish who held Saint Toomai, and after an inconsequential 177 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:59.559 combat in which Raleigh's own son was killed, he eventually 178 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:04.360 returned to the main fleet. There was now no possibility 179 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:08.240 of reaching the Mind, and Raleigh made a rather ignominious 180 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:13.440 return to England. Kamus himself was killed on board ship. 181 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:18.159 The wrath of the king was intense, and sometimes the 182 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:22.320 wrath of King's meant death. James believed that he had 183 00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:27.279 been deliberately deceived by Raleigh on the pretext of finding gold, 184 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:31.799 and that Raleigh had always intended to attack the Spanish. 185 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:38.360 He felt that the explorer had unjustifiably and unnecessarily earned 186 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:43.840 for him the anger of Spain, and of course, the 187 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:48.720 Spanish king complained angrily in response to this behavior through 188 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:54.279 his going to be notorious English ambassador, the Count of Gondomar, 189 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:57.279 which yes, definitely sounds like a title of Lord of 190 00:13:57.320 --> 00:14:01.399 the Rings. As a result of the weak willed English 191 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:06.679 king sent Raleigh to the scaffold, it was commonly complained 192 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:11.440 for years afterwards that James sacrificed one of England's greatest 193 00:14:11.480 --> 00:14:16.159 heroes for the honor of Spain. Now, while in the 194 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:19.200 Tower in sixteen oh seven, Raleigh had begun a quite 195 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:22.559 ambitious work, not unlike this one, titled History of the World. 196 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:26.360 He never finished it. In fact, Raleigh had started with 197 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.879 the creation, so he started before us, and at the 198 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:32.039 time of his death he had only reached Rome's Second 199 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:36.759 Macedonian War in one eighty eight PCE. If you're interested 200 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:40.240 in hearing more about that, check out Western sev two 201 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:45.039 point zero free seven day trial link in the show notes. Anyway, 202 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:49.159 not everything James did was reviled. I don't want to 203 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:53.240 heap on him. In sixteen seventeen. That same year he 204 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:56.200 issued a royal decree that became known as the Dancing Book. 205 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:02.879 In it, he expressly declared that e on Sundays, dancing, archery, 206 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:07.840 and other leisure activities would be permitted. The Puritans, as 207 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:13.399 you could probably guess, despised the Dancing Book. Soon, those 208 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:16.960 of the Puritan persuasion would become the principal opponents of 209 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:23.559 royal policy. Now, in other positive news, since the King's ascension, 210 00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:28.200 England had enjoyed a full fifteen years of peace, but 211 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:32.679 in April of sixteen eighteen, the powder keg that was 212 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:38.840 the Holy Roman Empire finally burst. Now a lot of 213 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:42.200 these events I am going to cover in an upcoming 214 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:46.879 series on the Thirty Years War. So now I'm only 215 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:51.399 going to discuss these events as they relate to England directly. 216 00:15:52.759 --> 00:15:55.679 But here's the short version, just so you know what's 217 00:15:55.720 --> 00:16:00.360 going on. In April sixteen eighteen, in Bohemia, which is 218 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:05.480 roughly today's Czech Republic, Bohemian rebels seized the Holy Roman 219 00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:09.960 Emperor's deputies and chucked them out the window. This is 220 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:17.320 the so famously titled Defenestration of Prague. Bohemia had been 221 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:23.120 ruled by the fiercely Catholic Habsburg family. The rebels declared 222 00:16:23.159 --> 00:16:27.559 the territory to be Protestant, effectively throwing down the gauntlet 223 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:31.320 to the Habsburgs, which of course included Philip the Third 224 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:37.440 of Spain. This was all hugely problematic for James. His 225 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:41.600 son in law, Frederick of the Palatinate, was the leading 226 00:16:41.720 --> 00:16:47.879 Calvinist prince in the region and supported the rebels. James 227 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:51.600 still wanted to marry his son Charles to Philip's daughter 228 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:54.639 for the money, so he was caught between a rock 229 00:16:54.720 --> 00:17:02.080 and well another rock. Things got worse in March sixteen nineteen, 230 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:06.920 when the Holy Roman Emperor died and the Archduke Ferdinand 231 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:12.480 was elected to replace him. The Bohemians took this opportunity 232 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:18.400 to formally depose the new Holy Roman Emperor as their sovereign, 233 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:23.000 and instead they invited Frederick of the Palatinate to take 234 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:30.119 his place. Frederick hesitated for about nine seconds before accepting 235 00:17:30.119 --> 00:17:34.960 the offer, a fact that greatly irritated James, who clearly 236 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:39.640 expected his son in law to consult him on this first. 237 00:17:40.039 --> 00:17:45.039 Frederick traveled to Prague that October to formally accept the crown. 238 00:17:46.200 --> 00:17:54.680 Protestants in England were delighted. James was despondent. James, in 239 00:17:54.759 --> 00:17:58.319 his opinion, was now at loggerheads with those of his subjects. 240 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:01.960 James was really angry by what he considered to be 241 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:06.359 Frederick's rashness in accepting the crown of Bohemia. His son 242 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:09.799 in law was, in that sense an aggressor. He had 243 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:13.640 flouted the divine right of kings. After all, the Holy 244 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:19.000 Roman Emperor had been the crown sovereign of Bohemia for centuries. 245 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:24.599 He told Frederick's envoy, quote, you are to come in 246 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:28.480 good time to England to spread these principles among my people, 247 00:18:28.759 --> 00:18:32.240 that my subjects may drive me away and place another 248 00:18:32.359 --> 00:18:36.880 in my room end quote. He didn't want to drop 249 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:41.440 his purported Spanish connection, that he'd spent so much time. 250 00:18:42.599 --> 00:18:47.880 Yet his daughter was the Queen of Bohemia. Surely there 251 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:52.839 was some glory there. This was the greatest dilemma of 252 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:57.519 his reign, especially in terms of foreign policies. It combined 253 00:18:57.559 --> 00:19:01.720 in fashion his enmity was Spain and a relationship with 254 00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:04.920 his fellow Protestants in Europe. He had been trying for 255 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:07.400 a long time to play this sort of balancing act, 256 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:10.480 but now he was at a point where it just 257 00:19:10.519 --> 00:19:14.920 didn't seem practicable any longer. Relations with the Spanish weren't 258 00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:19.000 a difficult and delicate balance. His purported marriage of Prince 259 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:23.799 Charles to the Infanta was protracted, had been going on forever. 260 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:29.000 It was never popular in England either. Some in the 261 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:33.240 English countryside could still remember the days when Queen Mary 262 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:35.720 had been married to fill up the Second of Spain. 263 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:41.160 They didn't want more Spanish involvement in their kingdom, and 264 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:44.519 as we will see in our next episode this whole 265 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:48.240 Spanish marriage thing. It's about to take a major and 266 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:53.559 really bizarre twist. Now, of course, the biggest issue here 267 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:57.599 is that James had no money for war, even if 268 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:00.359 he wanted one, and it's far from clear that he did. 269 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:04.319 England had no standing army and was not at all 270 00:20:04.440 --> 00:20:10.079 ready for military action. Politics and diplomacy, though could not 271 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:14.680 be separated from the issues of religion, all were intimately 272 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:18.519 related on the continent, where the division between Catholic and 273 00:20:18.599 --> 00:20:22.519 Protestant remained at the single most important factor of the age. 274 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:25.559 Anyone who's lived through the religious wars in France could 275 00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:30.319 tell you that there were, of course divisions within the 276 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:35.119 ranks of the Protestants themselves. There were ongoing debates throughout 277 00:20:35.160 --> 00:20:39.519 the continent, some of which involved English theologians about the 278 00:20:39.640 --> 00:20:43.519 future fate of Calvinism. The role that Calvinism was going 279 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:47.200 to continue to play and its permutations are going to 280 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:50.480 be of critical notes for the history of England going forward. 281 00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:58.079 Making matters worse, James's health continued to deteriorate. He was 282 00:20:58.200 --> 00:21:03.200 by now suffering from both gout and arthritis. His wife, 283 00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:07.200 Queen Anne, died in the spring of sixteen nineteen, pitching 284 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:11.519 the king into a deep depression. In that same spring, 285 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:14.640 it looked certain that James would follow his wife to 286 00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:19.839 the grave. Charles and Buckingham both raced to his bedside 287 00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:24.680 for the proverbial deathbed speech. It proved premature, and the 288 00:21:24.759 --> 00:21:31.359 king recovered. James returned to London that June in high spirits. 289 00:21:31.640 --> 00:21:34.319 He had some cause for it. His famous and brand 290 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:38.279 new banqueting house had been completed. He had spent a 291 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:42.759 fortune on it, nearly fifteen thousand pounds. This was at 292 00:21:42.759 --> 00:21:46.400 a time when the treasury was bare and the financial 293 00:21:46.440 --> 00:21:51.359 situation of England on the decline. Again. New cheaper clothes 294 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:57.799 had replaced the more expensive English wolves, reducing English exports. Plus, 295 00:21:58.079 --> 00:22:01.839 with new alternatives, the Dutch could extract lower prices for 296 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:05.880 the English wool they did want, reducing English bargaining power further. 297 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:09.720 The balance of trade, in other words, was not in 298 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:14.279 England's favor. Far too many useless luxury items were being 299 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:18.599 imported into England at high prices, especially wine and tobacco. 300 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:24.440 Between sixteen eighteen and sixteen twenty two, the number of 301 00:22:24.519 --> 00:22:30.799 broadcloths exported out of London fell by forty percent England 302 00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:34.960 had enjoyed a series of bumper crops, at least under James, 303 00:22:35.480 --> 00:22:41.400 but in sixteen twenty three the harvest failed completely. Indeed, 304 00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:44.519 it seemed that the horsemen of the Apocalypse were on 305 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:50.480 England's very sure and it was during this period that 306 00:22:50.519 --> 00:22:55.039 many Englishmen decided to check out. I will cover all 307 00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:58.440 this in much greater detail later, but it's worth noting 308 00:22:58.440 --> 00:23:01.960 for the moment that inten teen oh seven. Jamestown, the 309 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:05.480 first real successful English colony in the New World, was 310 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:10.200 founded in Virginia. In sixteen twenty also during James's reign, 311 00:23:10.680 --> 00:23:14.480 the famous Pilgrims set sail for New England. In the 312 00:23:14.519 --> 00:23:19.200 decades of the early seventeenth century, some sixty thousand englishmen 313 00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:24.119 and women left for the New World. Next week, Charles 314 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:28.640 and Buckingham leave England, set for Spain on a romantic, 315 00:23:29.160 --> 00:23:33.559 end idiotic quest, and the reign of James the First 316 00:23:34.119 --> 00:23:35.559 will come to an end.