CHAPTER XXVII STRUGGLE IN ENGLAND BETWEEN KING AND PARLIAMENT Section 115. James I and the Divine Right OF Kings On the death of Elizabeth in 1603, James I, the first of the Accession of Scotch family of Stuart, ascended the throne. It will be remem- scodand as bered that he was the son of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and ^"^^^ l of through her a descendant of Henry VII (see table, p. 634). In 1603 Scotland he reigned as James VI; consequently the two king- doms were now brought together under the same ruler. This did not, however, make the relations between the two countries much more cordial than they had been in the past. The chief interest of the period of the Stuarts, which began Chief interest with the accession of James I in 1603 and ended with the flight of the Stuarts from England of his grandson, James II, eighty-five years later, is the long and bitter struggle between the kings and Parlia- ment. The vital question was, Should the Stuart kings, who claimed to be God's representatives on earth, do as they thought fit, or should Parliament control them and the government of the country .? We have seen how the English Parliament originated in the The attitude time of Edward I and how his successors were forced to pay E'oward attention to its wishes (see above, pp. 421 ff.). Under the ^^^^^^^^^^ Tudors — that is, from the time of Henry VII to Elizabeth — the monarchs had been able to manage Parliament so that it did, in general, just what they wished. Henry VIII was a heartless tyrant, and his daughter Elizabeth, like her father, had ruled the nation in a high-handed manner, but neither of them had been accustomed to say much of their rights. 659
