King James I and King Charles I

History Essay
Peter Castoldi, Section 02

As the Elizabethan Era ended and the great queen passed on from this world onto the next, there
became two rulers in the Post-Elizabethan Era known as King James I and King Charles I and
they were not as glorious, or as clever and wise as the glorious Queen Elizabeth, as you will soon
find out. As the saying goes, these two were “not the sharpest tools in the shed” – not by any
means….
The direct successor to Queen Elizabeth was King James, and James was the son of Mary the
Queen of Scots (whom is now out of the picture, due to her execution) and was the son of Lord
Donley. As a child, James was raised as a Protestant and started the rule of Scotland at 1 years of
age – although this may seem extremely young to start the rule of Scotland, or, for any land for
that matter, he was the successor to (former) Queen Mary of Scots and this made him the next-
in-line for the throne – and he became King of England in 1603 and he would be the first in the
Stewart Family to become a King or Queen of England. Now, when one thinks of a King, the
first thing that may come to some people’s mind is their appearance; and their rules and whether
they are fair or not, and etc… King James was the exact opposite of what one would depict as a
nearly ideal King, for the following reasons:

• He was Scottish
• He had a “problem” with his nose
• He had a medical problem in relation to his skin and it made his skin oily and greasy
• He was just plain ugly!

Since King James was Scottish, this was a problem from the start because he wasn’t English! He
wasn’t one of the commoners that lived in England! As for the second problem with James, this
“problem” with his nose was that he picked his nose in public and he also had this skin condition
that made his skin really oily and greasy: not because it was the condition itself that did it to him,
but because of the fact that he did not bathe because he was afraid that it would agitate his skin
and to add to it, he was just plain ugly and he dressed, to be frank, like a slob – you would not
even know that he was the King! And finally, a King must look manly but James was the exact
opposite – when he went outside in public, he wore extra padding and armor; almost as if he was
afraid of his own people! James was flawed, and this did not bother him, either. Aside from King
James’s appearance, he took a step forward and created a theory called Divine Right, in which
he compares himself to:
1) God
2) The Head of the Family
3) Head (of the Human Body)
When these rules were created, the first cracks in the Age of Kings ultimately started to form
here, in the year 1610. James went on to marry Queen Anne from Denmark, and this was a
problem – Anne was Catholic! This was turning out to get worse and worse the longer that King
James continued to rule England…and things continued to go wrong. When the English people
realized that King James had married a Catholic, their response was: “What is wrong with you?!
You married a Catholic?!” In response to these reactions, King James prepared a speech and gave
it to the public, which showed him as now a hypocrite by saying: “I may have married a
Catholic, but Catholics are bad!”
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King James I and King Charles I
History Essay
Peter Castoldi, Section 02

Now, in the midst of all of this Chaos, there lived a guy named Guy Fawkes, and for those who
knew him (which was not many people), he was a fairly simple man who was not anybody
special in England, just an average, every day person. After witnessing what King James had
done and the mistakes that he had made in the course of his kingship, Guy Fawkes decided to act
and take it upon himself to do something: This would finally be the time in History when a
Catholic would ultimately end the reign of Protestantism! To properly carry out his plan,
however, the first thing that he had to do was to make an alias for himself and the name that he
chose for himself was John Johnson. The next thing that Guy Fawkes did was he rented an
apartment in London where he could convey his plans and where he also posed as a Protestant.
Then, he rented this basement-like room on the ground floor of the House of Lords which was a
parliamentary building and his main goal in his plan was to blow up the House of Lords. Now,
the question then comes into mind of “How does he do it?” Well, there is a way that Guy Fawkes
will blow up the House of Lords and he starts it in the summer of 1606 and he gathers barrels of
gunpowder and he stockpiles these barrels for months on end – he obtains the gunpowder by
bringing small packets of gunpowder at a time and dumping them into the barrels and by the
time he was done in November of 1606, Fawkes gets 36 barrels of gunpowder. With these barrels
of gunpowder, the plan was that he was supposed to light the barrels using the fuses that would
be leading out of them, and when they exploded and demolished the House of Lords, he would
be escaping to Europe and when he arrived there, he would be talking to the Catholic leaders to
help change England. On November 5th, 1606 – his plan commences, Guy Fawkes (or “John
Johnson”) goes into the cellar, lights his match, and as soon as the match is lit and it’s on the
fuse, several guards rush in (the guards were tipped off beforehand that something was going to
happen that day), cut the fuse, and arrest Guy Fawkes. His coconspirators were caught, tired, and
found guilty of treason. Because of this, King James wants to set an example and all of the men
were sentenced to a hanging. However, a hanging is too boring if it is just a hanging! So, what
happened was that the men were taken up to their posts and the rope
was tied around their neck, and they were hung for only a moment. As
they were gasping for air, the ropes were cut and they dropped to the
ground and while they were still alive, they were castrated (ouch…)
and “it” was thrown into the fire and then their hearts were ripped from
their bodies (much like the scene from: “Indiana Jones and the Temple
of Doom” (as seen right)) and then their hearts were then thrown into
the fire. They then proceeded to decapitate the bodies, and the heads
were places on pikes and the pikes would be displayed all around
London and then throughout the remaining weeks, birds would then
continue to pick out their eyeballs and what was left of their flesh. Seeing this, Guy Fawkes did
not want to suffer the same fate so as soon as he was placed on the podium to be hung, he
jumped – snapping his neck and killing him instantly.
Veering the focus back to King James, this one leads us to Sir Walter Raleigh – the (what most
called) the “political pirate” and people liked him because he was a hero. Unfortunately, King
James did not feel the same way and had Walter Raleigh executed! Why do this?! Well, because
of the fact that Walter Raleigh led a successful invasion on the Spanish Armada and defended
England successfully. Also, there was a deeper reason behind it – a personal connection: King
James I was “flirting” with the Spanish and James wanted his son to marry the Spanish Princess!
Also, adding to the problems that King James I created, there were a particular group of people
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King James I and King Charles I
History Essay
Peter Castoldi, Section 02

in England called the Puritans, who were Pilgrims, and they were essentially radical Protestants
or “Extreme Protestants” and they said that the Protestants had practices that were too similar to
the Catholics, and the Puritans wanted to simplify religion. So, what does this have to do with
James, exactly? Well, the Puritans were becoming popular in England and James had issues with
them and he executed some of them. Quite frankly, the best thing the best thing that happened to
King James I was his death in 1625.
Now with King James out of the picture, we can now focus our attention to his heir, King
Charles I, and he was James’s son. The English people were hoping that Charles would be better
than James, and Parliament decided to step in as well and they were going to “force the king” to
be a good King, so they created and passed the 1628 Petition of Right and it did two things:
1) It stated: “Charles, if you want to raise taxes, you will have to go through us, first”
2) Trial by Peers (Essentially the Jury): Meaning that the commoners would be able to stand
and aid in the prosecution of someone
This was EXTREMELY IMPORTANT because this was the second time that the rights of the
King, and the first being the Magna Carta. Unlike James, Charles actually did care about his
appearance and he did look king-like (which was a good start) but on the other hand, like his dad,
he did not pick a good wife: he married a Catholic name Henrietta Merida. After this, he then
proceeded to abuse the Puritans (like his father…) and he would imprison them, torture them,
and etc… and the reason why Charles hated the Puritans is because they hated the Anglican
Church, for the fact that they thought it was too much like the Catholic Church. However, the
real tip to the iceberg came in 1629 when Charles decided that he did not need parliament, and
dismissed it! And for 11 years it stayed like this: there was no Parliament and tensions were
rising in England and eventually, the result of this is going to be the English Civil War and in the
English Civil war, there were two main sides: The Cavaliers and the Roundheads. The Cavaliers
are the supporters of the King and they were known for their long, flowing hair – on the other
side, the Roundheads, were exactly as they sounded like – they had a bowl-cut haircut and to
make a long story short, the Roundheads won, and on January 30th, 1649, King Charles I was
executed. On King Charles’s execution, it was a cold rainy day and he went out in style  with a
bang. How would you appear on your execution? Well, you probably would want to appear
strong and brave and Charles decided he was going to wear 2 shirts. Why? Because so he
wouldn’t shiver! He gets up to the stand and he is asked if he has any final words and he says to
everyone: “I am going from a corruptible crown, to an incorruptible crown” – meaning that he is
leaving the “tainted world” and going on to the perfect world , almost as if he was taunting the
crowd! Charles’s succeeder to the throne was Oliver Cromwell and he was titled: “Lord, the
protector of England!”
Oliver Cromwell was born in 1599 and he did not become King, but he became Lord Protector
and the English hoped that after all of these problems that they had, they hoped that he would be
better. Oliver was smart and was a good military leader, and he was a relatively simple man: he
was a farmer and was of the upper-middle class (meaning he was not rich, but he was not poor,
either). He was sort of unknown around England and another thing that people liked about him
was that he was a Puritan – which meant that he wasn’t about to go imprison the Puritans
anytime soon and that he is a protestant through-and-through. However, even though he has
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King James I and King Charles I
History Essay
Peter Castoldi, Section 02

those good qualities – what usually happens when a person of no power gets a lot of power?
Why, it goes to their head! And Cromwell gets arrogant and cocky and wants to create a “Heaven
on Earth” type of situation, or a “perfect world” and he then passes laws that just suck the joy out
of English living and daily life:
1) He outlawed swearing (The Swearing and Cursing Act)
2) No Gambling!
3) No Drinking!
4) No horse-racing!
5) No cock-fighting!
The punishments were also bad: If you swore you could be whipped, beaten, or even imprisoned.
Without gambling, there would be nothing to do – this was practically an English game in daily
life. For the “No Drinking” rule, he went down and closed down all of the bars and the taverns
and any other place(s) that he would think of that sold alcohol and they were gone for good. And
for the last two rules, “No Horse-Racing and No cock-fighting”, these were what the English did
also for daily entertainment! So, essentially, England was boring and dull after these laws were
passed.
On Cromwell’s death in 1658 the foundations of constitutional government had been laid and
England was wealthy. He did not, however, produce a constitution for the country and his system
of government did not last. He is widely remembered for the bloody and brutal methods he used
to achieve and maintain his rule, rather than his godly intentions. Below is a speech made by
Oliver Cromwell in 1658 before his death:
“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by
your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are factious crew, and
enemies to all good environment; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell
your country for a mess of potage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money; is
there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have
no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your
conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the
Commonwealth? Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the
Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked parasites? Ye are
gown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get
grievances redress’d, are yourselves become the greatest grievance. Your country therefore calls
upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings
in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do;
I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place; go,
get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! Go! Take away that shining bauble there, and
lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!
Overall, in comparison to Oliver Cromwell, Charles I, and James I, I believe that Cromwell was
a little bit better because even though he did suck the joy out of the English life, he did manage
not to start a Civil War and he was a great military commander and he was a simple guy – people
could relate to him in some senses and he could relate to people in some senses. Also, Oliver

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King James I and King Charles I
History Essay
Peter Castoldi, Section 02

Cromwell was a Puritan so he was a Protestant through-and-through and that is what England
needed: someone devoted like Queen Elizabeth was to her faith.

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