British History - Tudors & Stuarts 1485 - 1714

THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

James I enforced an old law against Roman Catholics which stated that they had to go to Protestant churches, or be fined. A group of Catholics decided to start a revolution by blowing up the Houses of Parliament at a time when James was to be there. But one of the conspirators warned a relative, who was likely to be endangered by the plot: ''Retire yourself  into the country . . . they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts them.'' The relative passed the information on to the authorities who searched the cellars of Parliament.

GUY FAWKES

Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators, was caught red-handed guarding several barrels of gunpowder. The leader of the conspiracy was not, in fact, Fawkes but Robert Catesby. Fawkes endured hours of torture on the rack, but refused to incriminate anyone else. Fawkes and the other conspirators confessed under torture and were tried for treason and executed.

AUTHORISED BIBLE

When James I came to the throne there were five English translations of the Bible in use. He ordered a new translation. Fifty churchmen and scholars completed the task in seven years. The result was the Authorised Version, or King James Bible - which is still the most popular English version after more than 350 years. The beauty of its language has been a lasting influence on all English-speaking peoples. It also provided a major inspiration for the Puritan movement which later overthrew Charles I.

THE PURITANS

The Reformation of England had brought very few changes to the Church and many Catholic practices continued. The Church of England retained bishops, ceremony and vestments. But many people wanted a simpler, purer form of worship, with no bishops or elaborate religious ritual. They became known as Puritans. Some Puritans left England for America, where they could worship as they chose. But most remained determined to fight oppression rather than evade it. They were the dominant influence in Parliament in its later clash with Charles I.

LADY ARABELLA STUART

Lady Arabella Stuart was Jame's first cousin, and had a claim to the throne on Elizabeth's death. For this reason Elizabeth I and then James, were determined that she should marry only someone they could trust. Arabella fell in love with William Seymour, later Duke of Somerset. He was a great-great-grandson of Henry VII and, in Henry VIII's will, had been made the next heir to the British throne after Elizabeth. James forbade this match, but the couple married secretly in 1610. A conspiracy against James I was hatched, but the couple were found out and imprisoned. Arabella and Seymour planned an escape, Seymour got away, but Arabella was recaptured and confined in the Tower, where she died, insane. Seymour later became a leading Royalist general in the Civil War.

THE FIRST COLONIES

THE BEGINNINGS OF the British empire took place in Elizabethan times with Sir Walter Raleigh's unsuccessful attempt to set up a colony at Roanoke in North America. But James I distrusted Raleigh and finally had him executed. In 1607 three ships sailed into present-day Chesapeke Bay in Maryland where they built a fort at Jamestown (named after James I). Of the 104 colonists, almost half died that summer from malaria, typhoid and shortage of food. It was here that the Algonquin princess Pocahontas befriended Captain John Smith and saved him from being clubbed to death. She later came to London and attended the royal court. She died in 1617 on her way back to Jamestown. The colony itself eventually prospered and plantations of tobacco were established with the help of the local native American tribes. Later the colonists brought in black slaves from West Africa to work the fields.