King James (1566 - 1625) [Historical Person, Chapter 2, pg. 101] was the ruler of Scotland from 1567-1625 and the king of England from 1603-1625. As king of Scotland, he is referred to as James VI, whereas in England he is known as James I. He assumed the Scottish throne at the age of one year. His father died in a house explosion, and his mother (Mary, Queen of Scotts) abdicated the throne and abandoned the child. James I’s rule was modeled after royal absolutism. This approach to governance resulted in his reign of England being riddled with conflicts with Parliament. By the time James I was crowned king of England in 1603, he had been accustom to the duties and demands of royal government. That being said, “James hardly understood the rights or the temper of the English Parliament . . . had little content with the English middle class, and he suffered from the narrowness of his horizons” (Matthew). It should be noted that not all of his policies were failures or disruptors of the peace. In fact, it was James I who ended Englands war with Spain in 1604. However, in 1608 “ when Parliament refused to grant him pay for extravagances, James placed new customs duties on merchants without Parliament’s consent” (Matthew). This circumvention of Parliament’s power and influence increased tensions and eventually led to James dissolving Parliament in 1611.

In Orlando, King James I enters the narrative along with the Great Frost where he is attributed to the promotion of the Frost Fair. Perhaps his “extravagant” style is exemplified in this celebratory event on the Thames whilst England suffered from economic hardship. Woolf captures England’s first Stuart ruler “with snow and winter, with log fires burning, with Russian women, gold swords, and the bark of stags; with old King James’s slobbering and fireworks and sacks of treasure in the holds of Elizabethan sailing ships (Woolf 101). In the novel, the reign of King James I embodies a life lost but remembered fondly, the life Orlando spent with the Russian princess, a life swept away like all the debris that drowned in the river in 1607.

Word Count: 355 

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. Mariner Books, an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2022.

Matthew, David. “James I.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-I-king-of-England-and-Scotland.