After ruling England for 44-and-a-bit years, Queen Elizabeth I died childless in the early hours of the morning on this day in 1603. Within eight hours, her successor was named. James VI of Scotland, her first cousin twice removed, would become James I of England.
Not only did this mark the end of the Tudor era and the start of the Stuart dynasty, it meant that the crowns of the kingdoms of Scotland and England were now united. James was a pragmatic choice, and, despite having the disadvantage of being Scottish, he had the rather bigger benefit of not being a Roman Catholic.
Technically, James had been King of Scotland since he was one year old. He had enjoyed a relatively stable reign in a fairly turbulent country, subduing troublesome highlanders and quelling restless elements of the Church of Scotland. In fact, he thought he was so good at being king that in 1598 he wrote a book about it: The True Law of Free Monarchies, or The Reciprocal and Mutual Duty Betwixt a Free King and His Natural Subjects.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
He didn't have completely free ride when he got to London, however. He and Parliament disagreed on a few fundamental things. He was quite keen on the divine right of kings, for example, which Parliament took a dim view of. He was also keen on a “perfect union” of the two kingdoms, to include parliaments, legal systems and economies. Parliament didn't fancy that, either. And he wanted to style himself “King of Great Britain”. Parliament wouldn't allow it, but he did it anyway.
In the end, he turned out to be quite a popular king. True, there was the little matter of Guy Fawkes trying to blow him up. But that just seemed to endear him to the protestant English.
And he not only created the Union Jack – or at least an early version of it – he may also have given it its name; some people, including the UK Parliament, claim its name is derived from Jacobus, the Latin for James. And he commissioned one of the world's greatest works of writing: the King James Version of the Bible, which has had and continues to have a huge influence on our language and literature
-
Inheritance tax reforms: government urged to rethink curbs on rural reliefsMPs want the government to delay changes to inheritance rax reliefs for farmers
-
‘I’m among the thousands of millionaires leaving the UK – the new tax rules don’t make sense ’MoneyWeek spoke to a serial entrepreneur who is leaving the UK following the abolition of the non-dom tax status
-
31 August 1957: the Federation of Malaya declares independence from the UKFeatures On this day in 1957, after ten years of preparation, the Federation of Malaya became an independent nation.
-
13 April 1960: the first satellite navigation system is launchedFeatures On this day in 1960, Nasa sent the Transit 1B satellite into orbit to provide positioning for the US Navy’s fleet of Polaris ballistic missile submarines.
-
9 April 1838: National Gallery opens in Trafalgar SquareFeatures On this day in 1838, William Wilkins’ new National Gallery building in Trafalgar Square opened to the public.
-
3 March 1962: British Antarctic Territory is createdFeatures On this day in 1962, Britain formed the British Antarctic Territory administered from the Falkland Islands.
-
10 March 2000: the dotcom bubble peaks
Features Tech mania fanned by the dawning of the internet age inflated the dotcom bubble to maximum extent, on this day in 2000.
-
9 March 1776: Adam Smith publishes 'The Wealth of Nations'
Features On this day in 1776, Adam Smith, the “father of modern economics”, published his hugely influential book The Wealth of Nations.
-
8 March 1817: the New York Stock Exchange is formedFeatures On this day in 1817, a group of brokers moved out of a New York coffee house to form what would become the biggest stock exchange in the world.
-
7 March 1969: Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the Victoria Line
Features On this day in 1969, Queen Elizabeth II took only her second trip on the tube to officially open the underground’s newest line – the Victoria Line.
