James VI/I

[Hirta]

Why was James VI/I so keen to leave Scotland for London when he heard he'd inherited the English throne?

[Hirta]

Also concerning James,
was he responsible for sending protestant colonists to the North of Ireland?

[ANDY-J]

Hirta,
England was a wealthy and powerful state and was a major political player on the European stage.Scotland was a relatively poor backwater which had very little political influence.The raison d'etre of renaissance royalty or nobility was to enrich themselves and to secure the future of their dynasty.James went from being a lowly monarch to one of the most influential and powerful men in Europe.He had finally achieved an ambition which the Stewarts must always have dreamt of.He also attempted to persuade the English nobility of the benefits of complete political union with Scotland however ironically the English were unwilling to contemplate union with a country which they had so much contempt for however obviously attitudes later changed when they decided that union was a profitable option.James was responsible for encouraging English and Scots protestants to settle in Ireland in the hopes of subduing the native Irish and pacifying Ireland however he only served to create many of the problems which have lasted in Ireland up until the present day.

Originally posted by Hirta
Why was James VI/I so keen to leave Scotland for London when he heard he'd inherited the English throne?

I think James had some "issues" with Scotland over the way his mother was treated. He lived his entire childhood with his mother imprisoned, first in Scotland and then in England. His tutor frequently told him his mother was a "Catholic whore" and he probably had a miserable upbringing. Just look at the way he arranged his mother's funeral once he moved to England. Her tomb is the most ostentatious in Westminster Abbey and cost almost twice as much as the combined tomb for Bloody Mary and her sister Elizabeth I which he built after he had taken care of his mother's funeral arrangements.

Another thing to consider is that the Stewarts were all very much into the trappings and status of monarchy, as indicated by the elaborate royal palaces they all built or refurbished throughout their reigns. I think he found the richer lifestyle at the English court irresistable and had no wish to return to the relative austerity of Presbyterian Scotland.

I'll let somebody else take on the Ulster Plantation!

[ANDY-J]

Source-Open University.Princes and peoples 1620s-1660s.




At the beginning of the seventeenth-century in Ireland the native chiefs though no longer politically independent still retained large tracts of land,albeit under English law.The Old English-descendants of Anglo-Norman settlers,had a dominant position among the nobility and gentry of Leinster and Munster and in the towns.Both Irish and Old-English were predominately Catholic and they formed the land owning and trading classes.
However there was a growing chiefly protestant population.This group mainly comprised soldiers,government officials and investors,many of whom had recently become landowners. It was James VI policy to promote the interests of this group through the encouragement of "plantation" or land settlement,particularly in Ulster.The policy of plantation was given a boost by the "flight of the Earls"-the two Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel.Quitting Ireland with their followers in 1607,their estates and those of their followers were confiscated and large areas of the province of Ulster were settled by protestants,both English and Scots.There was no large scale removal of the native Irish and the progress of the plantation was slow,but it gradually built up momentum and by 1628 it is estimated that there were 2000 English and Scots families settled in the "planted" counties.The slow but relentless spread of the plantations had a profound effect on the religious and political life of Ulster,which proved to be a crucial theatre in the events prior to the civil war.
Whilst the Old English were not directly affected by the Ulster confiscations and plantations they were at odds with James VI's policies.Their grievance was a religious one and they viewed the frequent proclamations against catholics with alarm and hostility.The government feared a political alliance between the co-religionists ,the Irish and the Old-English,though their fear almost certainly had little foundation.Much of the subsequent unrest in Ireland centred around land and religion and had it's roots in the policies which James VI pursued.