Expert: Mark Smith - 11/26/2009

Question
Hello,

My question is; 'What was James's relations with parliament 1618 - 1624?'

Thank you very much

Mitch

Answer
Hello Mitchel.
Relations were very strained. King James wanted to follow a pro-Spanish policy, but Parliament was opposed to this and refused to grant him the taxation he needed to further his ends. As a result James fell back on dubious means of raising money including the sale of titles, Royal lands and monopolies. All this led to James tearing from the House of Commons journal the Protestation of December 1621 in which Parliament claimed its sovereign rights in the Kingdom. The military expedition in support of the Danes failed disastrously thanks to the lack of funding and only the failure of James' efforts to secure a marriage for his son with the King of Spain's daughter convinced him to change his foreign policy and begin a measure of co-operation with Parliament.
A good book on the subject is "English Constitutional Conflicts of the Seventeenth Century 1603-1689" by J R Tanner.
Mark