Main Aims Of James Policy example essay topic

To What Extent Does The Foreign Policy Of James I Deserve A Better Press Than It Has Usually Receive James foreign policy was criticised by many but it was best for the country at the time especially with the limited financial resources he had. Some aspects of the policy were not for the best and were created under the pressures of other people in his court e.g. Buckingham. He had two main aims, to keep England at peace and to prevent the emergence of a widespread religious conflict in Europe. He managed to stick to these aims but he did lay the foundations for war and after his death war did break out in Europe. Historians called the foreign policy unpopular and unrealistic as well as inept and ineffectual. Foreign policy is closely linked with religion, crown and parliamentary privileges and finance so to say the Foreign policy was an absolute failure or success is very difficult because of all the other issues involved.

It did receive bad press that was not deserved and therefore gained a bad name that has stuck over the years. His main aim was to secure peace in England because finances would not allow war and because he preferred not to declare war as he was peace loving. He managed to maintain this aim throughout his reign. He did this by maintaining contact with both the Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe, making himself a friend of both sides. His methods for doing this were doubted by many though.

He arranged a make alliance with the Spanish who were disliked because of the threats made to Elizabeth during her reign. The major alliance was set up through a Spanish marriage; James planned to marry his son Charles to the Spanish princess. This created a major alliance with the Protestant powers also, this was popular, but there was a question of how much the Spaniard could be influenced if at all. In 1604 peace was made with Spain to try and reduce the amount of financial pressure on the country. It was unpopular with Parliament and the English people but it was realistic due to the financial and military exhaustion in England. This is another example of James keeping the peace in Europe during his reign and preventing religious conflict spreading in Europe.

This drift towards Spain was reasonable under the circumstances but it was under much doubt at the time and still is now by many historians. James attempted to marry his son to a Spanish princess to use her dowry to help relieve the financial crisis in England and to try and help prevent the outbreak of war in Europe therefore to keep the peace. This received a mixed reaction from parliament; some thought that he was trying to make an alliance with Spain in preparation for war and others thought that the Spanish were a threat still after the death threats they made towards Elizabeth during her reign. The next thing that James did to drift towards Spain was embrace Gond omar the English ambassador for Spain. He was negotiating the Spanish marriage, which became highly unpopular and eventually unrealistic because it meant relaxing the recusancy laws in England to do with the Catholics because the Spanish princess would be Catholic and she had to be allowed to live in England. James reached a turning point at the beginning of the thirty years war when he didnt intervene in the Bohemian crisis.

This was unpopular but practical at the time due to the financial situation and was also diplomatic because it distanced James and kept him neutral in the disagreement. The Bohemians didnt want their new King Ferdinand on the throne and so they offered it to the Elector Palatinate James son-in-law. One of the main aims of James policy was to prevent religious conflict from breaking out in Europe but this became a problem when he was expected to come to help his family when they needed it. James distanced himself from Frederick and his decision to take the Bohemian throne because he believed it to be an ill judged decision. Frederick was ultimately exiled from Bohemia and lost the Palatinate. People were supporting Frederick so this meant that James needed emergency funding.

He needed to be able to support Frederick if necessary and so asked for money to finance intervention in Europe. He said that England needed to prepare for war to secure peace. At first this plan seemed successful and parliament agreed to grant two subsidies. Parliament petitioned the King to enter a war against the Habsburgs because many of the MPs had strong Protestant views. James considered this debate about war in Parliament an infringement of his prerogative rights as it strayed into the formulation of policy. He reminded parliament of the limits of their privilege of free speech and that this was only at the discretion of the crown.

This led to the protestation stating that the rights of the parliament are due to their birthright and not decided by the King. James subsequently tore this out of the commons journal and dissolved parliament as he had done in 1604 over the problem of parliamentary privileges. The MPs were claiming that they should be allowed to debate policies on religion and foreign affairs but James refused. After dissolving parliament he pursued diplomatic negotiations with Spain and a marriage for his son. The complete failure and disaster of the Madrid trip in 1623 destroyed James hopes for a Spanish marriage for his son and increased the want for war. After Charles and Buckingham unexpectedly arrived in Spain in an attempt to secure the Spanish marriage James plans for a diplomatic alliance.

Charles and Buckingham were humiliated because the Spanish had no intentions of marrying the princess to Charles so when they returned they pushed James to declare war. Under this pressure James summoned parliament and asked for subsidies to finance war with Spain. War with Spain was never actually declared during James reign though as he died in the March of 1625. James policy was realistic at the time but unusual in 17th century standards. A lot of the events that happened in Europe during James reign were beyond his control making a foreign policy difficult. The situation in Europe at this time made the aims of James foreign policy particularly difficult to stick to.

The Bohemian crisis was a particularly difficult situation for James to deal with as his family was involved and he had to think about the safety of his daughter and the well being of his country. The issues involved in foreign policy are closely linked with religion and crown prerogatives making foreign policy devising even more difficult still. James did well under the circumstances at this time and the bad press received from other historians about his policy was not completely deserved and certainly not valid as most of the problems were beyond his control.