I

n 1603 upon the death of his first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England, King James VI of Scotland also became King James I of England.  King James I’s English subjects never knew quite what to make of him. The son of a Catholic, he had been brought up in a Presbyterian country, therefore both English dissenters and Catholics hoped he might be sympathetic to them. Both groups were to be disappointed.

Why highlight James I of England who was most definitely not a medieval king?   I thought you might like to know a wee bit about the king who joined Scotland and England under one crown.  Joined not by a decisive battle but merely by being the next in line by birth, it seems though that 'one royal crown' did not a united kingdom make.