Facts

James I
 
(James VI of Scotland) 
Born in 1566 
Ascended in 1603 
Died in 1625, aged 59 
Reigned for 22 years
Married to Anne of Denmark bearing 
3 sons and 4 daughters.

James VI of Scotland, who was born in Edinburgh castle in 1566 and the son of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, reigned after Elizabeth, who never married and had no one to succeed her. He was also the great grandson of Henry VIII's sister, Margaret Tudor, and the wife of James IV. In 1603 he was crowned James I of England and retained his title of James IV of Scotland, thus uniting the two countries and starting the House of Stuarts. 

He was married to Anne of Denmark and was a vein, suspicious and cruel man - well educated but somehow lacking in wisdom. Erasmus remarked of him: the wisest fool in Christendom and Macaulay said: He was made up of two men - a witty, well-read scholar who wrote, disputed and harangued, and a nervous, drivelling idiot who acted. Despite this, there were no great wars in his reign, but there was the famous attempt by the Catholics to assassinate him. 

The Gunpowder plot of 1605 involved blowing up both Houses of Parliament. Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellars of the palace of Westminster with a large amount of gunpowder and was arrested, tortured for many months and finally hung, drawn and quartered.

In 1620, during the reign of James I, the famous Pilgrim Fathers set sail from Plymouth to America in their ship, the Mayflower. There was one thing to come from America that the King hated - smoking. He even wrote a short tract on the evils of the habit.