#james vi

[quasi-normalcy]

[anghraine]

I was talking to my students and then some family members about how the death of Elizabeth I and succession of James was necessarily an occasion of upheaval, even when it wasn't necessarily violent or flirting with treason or whatever. For one, the death of a monarch that will lead to a new dynasty (even a related one!) is not quite the same as a familiar figure inheriting the country's rule from their parent or grandparent. It's usually a bigger change, with dynamics of loyalties and affiliations shifting around—that's part of the reason Elizabeth delayed acknowledging James as her heir.

Typically, you'd see courtiers etc deserting a dying monarch in order to signal their loyalty to the new monarch, even if the old one wasn't actually dead yet. Elizabeth's reluctance to share royal power was fundamental to her reign and her public image, so it's not at all surprising that she would be loath to encourage that kind of desertion in any particular direction.

Of course, another thing that complicates the Elizabeth -> James succession is that she had reigned for a long time (44 years iirc). By the time she was dying, a good number of English people had few personal memories of life under any other monarch, and those who did would remember the abrupt and unstable reigns of her predecessors, Edward and Mary. So James's accession came with uncertainty about what exactly it would entail, and a lot of late Elizabethan/early Jacobean drama in English is very concerned with questions of what obligations the governed owe to their monarchs (obedience? loyalty? are those always the same thing?), but also what obligations monarchs themselves have to their people.

This seemed especially pertinent to Lear, in which multiple characters defy capricious orders from a monarch or other authority out of loyalty: Kent challenges Lear and is banished, so skulks around in disguise to continue serving him, Edgar also skulks around in disguise after Gloucester renounces him and ends up offering what comfort he can to his father, and Cordelia returns to Britain with the French army in her ultimately futile attempt to help Lear. Meanwhile, Lear loses everything, is driven to take shelter in a peasant hovel, and starts to contemplate how his own failures as a king resulted in, well, peasant hovels.

Anyway, now I'm thinking about what a wild figure Elros must have been as, specifically, a monarch to the Númenóreans. He lived for five hundred years. Even his own children (also half-Elves! sort of!) and other descendants who benefited from his lifespan didn't live as long, and most Númenóreans during his earlier reign wouldn't have come near to it. Undoubtedly there were Elves who had known Elros in the First Age who were baffled at him choosing mortality and DEATH, and meanwhile on Númenor, there are all these people living out their extended lifespans under the reign of a half-Elf king who was ruling their people at their birth and would still be ruling after they died of old age. We know Elros retained his half-Elvish characteristics as well, so they've got this visibly Elvish, barely-aging, eternal king who looks like Lúthien as part of the fabric of life for centuries.

Yes, he's literally the first king—but for a lot of earlier Númenóreans, he's also the only king they will ever know. It takes him an incredibly long time to weary of the world as other mortals do. By the time Elros finally gets weary of Arda, and willingly lays down his life and passes to the unknown fate of mortals, Tar-Amandil is stepping into some very big shoes.

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

Dragon chairs, ghost chairs, chair gods, trick chairs, giant chairs: all sorts of vintage chairs.

[thebeautifulbook]

THE GRAY MAN by S.R. Crockett. (New York: Harper, Row, 1896). Illustrated by Seymour Lucas.

source

[elizabethan-memes]

If we said "Lord Darnley's son got to be king of England and Scotland so really Darnley won" people would rightly say that's insane because Darnley was murdered.

And yet.

[ltwilliammowett]

Church-ship model decorated with greek mythological sea folk, late 16th or early 17th century, traditionally associated with James VI and his safe return to Scotland with Anne of Denmark in 1590

Whether the model was donated for this reason is not entirely clear, but the probability is quite high when you consider that he almost died in a storm which he attributed to witchcraft. However, the model itself was given as a votive to a church to thank God for a safe journey.

[diana9241livejournalcom]

About Mary&George, there's something really important to understand about king James's attitude.

James VI and I was deepley traumatized because he had a shitty and traumatic childhood, something who affected him for all his life.

The first trauma happened when he wasn't even born!!!

9th march 1566, queen Mary's secretary, the Italian Davide Rizzio ( or Riccio ) was stabbed 57 times by plotters, he tried to save himself hiding behind the queen but it doesn't work.

Mary was deeply traumatized for this not only per sè but for an other motive. She was six moth pregnant and lord Ruthven pointed his sword against his belly and threated to cut her "in pieces". Yes, James was not even born, it was said that he was afraid of swords 'cause this.

when he was 8 months his father was killed, by the man who became his stepfather, his mother was innocent

The 24 april 1567 he saw for the last time his mother, queen Mary Stuart was abducted, imprisoned and raped by james Hepbun lord bothwell. Yes, I know for someone Mary/Bothwell are a very romantic love story but let's be clear. it was a toxic relationship

Two moths later his mother is forced to amrry Bothwell 'cause she's pregnant, with twins, and after a short civil war she's imprisoned by the queen Elizabeth

James is crowned king at 13 months and the regency is on his half uncle, lord James Moray

James Moray was killed in 1570

The the regenty become yhe king's granfather: Matthew Lennox

Matthew Lennox was killed when James was 5, and it's very gory: the consipirator stab him in front of the child, Lennox tried to save himself behind his king, and grandchild but he was taken away by force, then his body, baraly alive, was take near a window and throw away.... ALL OF THIS in front a 5 year child

James was physically abused by his tutor George Buchanan, a puritan fanatic who hates monarchy and beat his pupil nearly every day. James will be one of the most cultured king but he the trauma never left him, one day when he was already king of England he met an old man who looks like Buchanan and he started to tremble.

He said about his tutor "I learned Latin before English", Buchanan also lied about queen Mary's involment in the Darley's death

when he was 13 he met hsi father's cousin, Esmé Stuart and he fall in love with him. Esmé is 39, he's catholic and French so after one year he is forced toi exil but he helps James to start to debunk some things about his mother

when he was 14 he was abucted for an year and nearly killed

It could be end very bad, with James become a psycho but luckly he become a very traumatized man who seek affection from everyone, he came out at 13 so... Esmé, John, Philip, Richard, Robert and then George, he always tried to recreate the relationship between him and Esmé.

and that's all folks

[tiny-librarian]

On March 24th, in 1603, Elizabeth I died at Richmond Palace between two and three in the morning after having been Queen for a total of 44 years, 127 days. She was the last ruler of the Tudor Dynasty and is still considered to be one of England’s most popular monarchs.

Throughout her life, she had infamously never married or had any children, leading to her nickname of “The Virgin Queen”. Elizabeth was succeeded on the throne by her 1st cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, who was the great-grandson of her father’ sister Margaret. He would rule in England as James I, becoming the first monarch of the House of Stuart.