Of James I Deserve A Better Press Than It Has Usually Receive Essay, Research Paper
??????????????????????? James? foreign policy was criticised by
many but it was best for the country at the time especially with the limited
financial resources he had. Some aspects of the policy were not for the best
and were created under the pressures of other people in his court e.g.
Buckingham. He had two main aims, to keep England at peace and to prevent the
emergence of a widespread religious conflict in Europe. He managed to stick to
these aims but he did lay the foundations for war and after his death war did
break out in Europe. Historians called the foreign policy unpopular and
unrealistic as well as inept and ineffectual. ????????? Foreign
policy is closely linked with religion, crown and parliamentary privileges and
finance so to say the Foreign policy was an absolute failure or success is very
difficult because of all the other issues involved. It did receive bad press
that was not deserved and therefore gained a bad name that has stuck over the
years. ????????? His
main aim was to secure peace in England because finances would not allow war
and because he preferred not to declare war as he was peace loving. He managed
to maintain this aim throughout his reign. He did this by maintaining contact
with both the Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe, making himself a friend
of both sides. His methods for doing this were doubted by many though. He
arranged a make alliance with the Spanish who were disliked because of the
threats made to Elizabeth during her reign. The major alliance was set up
through a Spanish marriage; James planned to marry his son Charles to the
Spanish princess. This created a major alliance with the Protestant powers
also, this was popular, but there was a question of how much the Spaniards
could be influenced if at all. ????????? In
1604 peace was made with Spain to try and reduce the amount of financial
pressure on the country. It was unpopular with Parliament and the English
people but it was realistic due to the financial and military exhaustion in
England. This is another example of James keeping the peace in Europe during
his reign and preventing religious conflict spreading in Europe. ????????? This
drift towards Spain was reasonable under the circumstancesbut it was under much doubt at the time and still
is now by many historians. James attempted to marry his son to a Spanish
princess to use her dowry to help relieve the financial crisis in England and
to try and help prevent the outbreak of war in Europe therefore to keep the
peace. This received a mixed reaction from parliament; some thought that he was
trying to make an alliance with Spain in preparation for war and others thought
that the Spanish were a threat still after the death threats they made towards
Elizabeth during her reign. The next thing that James did to drift towards
Spain was embrace Gondomar the English ambassador for Spain.? He was negotiating the Spanish marriage,
which became highly unpopular and eventually unrealistic because it meant
relaxing the recrusancy laws in England to do with the Catholics because the
Spanish princess would be Catholic and she had to be allowed to live in
England. ????????? James
reached a turning point at the beginning of the thirty years war when he didn?t
intervene in the Bohemian crisis. This was unpopular but practical at the time
due to the fina
James and kept him neutral in the disagreement. The Bohemians didn?t want their
new King Ferdinand on the throne and so they offered it to the Elector
Palatinate ? James? son-in-law. One of the main aims of James? policy was to
prevent religious conflict from breaking out in Europe but this became a
problem when he was expected to come to help his family when they needed it. James
distanced himself from Frederick and his decision to take the Bohemian throne
because he believed it to be an ill judged decision. Frederick was ultimately
exiled from Bohemia and lost the Palatinate. ????????? People
were supporting Frederick so this meant that James needed emergency funding. He
needed to be able to support Frederick if necessary and so asked for money to
finance intervention in Europe. He said that England needed to prepare for war
to secure peace. At first this plan seemed successful and parliament agreed to
grant two subsidies. Parliament petitioned the King to enter a war against the
Habsburgs because many of the MPs had strong Protestant views. James considered
this debate about war in Parliament an infringement of his prerogative rights as
it strayed into the formulation of policy. He reminded parliament of the limits
of their privilege of free speech and that this was only at the discretion of
the crown. This led to the protestation stating that the rights of the
parliament are due to their birthright and not decided by the King. James
subsequently tore this out of the commons journal and dissolved parliament as
he had done in 1604 over the problem of parliamentary privileges. The MPs were
claiming that they should be allowed to debate policies on religion and foreign
affairs but James refused. After dissolving parliament he pursued diplomatic
negotiations with Spain and a marriage for his son. ????????? The
complete failure and disaster of the Madrid trip in 1623 destroyed James? hopes
for a Spanish marriage for his son and increased the want for war. After
Charles and Buckingham unexpectedly arrived in Spain in an attempt to secure
the Spanish marriage James? plans for a diplomatic alliance. Charles and Buckingham
were humiliated because the Spanish had no intentions of marrying the princess
to Charles so when they returned they pushed James to declare war. Under this
pressure James summoned parliament and asked for subsidies to finance war with
Spain. War with Spain was never actually declared during James? reign though as
he died in the March of 1625. ????????? James
policy was realistic at the time but unusual in 17th century
standards. A lot of the events that happened in Europe during James? reign were
beyond his control making a foreign policy difficult. The situation in Europe at
this time made the aims of James? foreign policy particularly difficult to stick
to. The Bohemian crisis was a particularly difficult situation for James to
deal with as his family was involved and he had to think about the safety of
his daughter and the well being of his country. The issues involved in foreign policy
are closely linked with religion and crown prerogatives making foreign policy devising
even more difficult still. James did well under the circumstances at this time
and the bad press received from other historians about his policy was not
completely deserved and certainly not valid as most of the problems were beyond
his control.