AN INQUIRY

INTO THE

LITERARY AND POLITICAL CHARACTER OF
JAMES THE FIRST;

INCLUDING A SKETCH OF HIS AGE.

"The whole reign of James I. has been represented by a late celebrated pen
(Burnet) to have been a continued course of mean practices; and others,
who have professedly given an account of it, have filled their works with
_libel_ and _invective_, instead of _history_. Both King James and his
ministers have met with a treatment from posterity highly unworthy of
them, and those who have so liberally bestowed their censures were
entirely ignorant of the true springs and causes of the actions they have
undertaken to represent."--SAWYER'S Preface to "Winwood's Memorials."

"Il y auroit un excellent livre a faire sur les INJUSTICES, les OUBLIS, et
les CALOMNIES HISTORIQUES."--MADAME DE GENLIS.

ADVERTISEMENT.

* * * * *

The present inquiry originates in an affair of literary conscience. Many
years ago I set off in the world with the popular notions of the character
of James the First; but in the course of study, and with a more enlarged
comprehension of the age, I was frequently struck by the contrast of his
real with his apparent character; and I thought I had developed those
hidden and involved causes which have so long influenced modern writers in
ridiculing and vilifying this monarch.

This historical trifle is, therefore, neither a hasty decision, nor a
designed inquiry; the results gradually arose through successive periods
of time, and, were it worth the while, the history of my thoughts, in my
own publications, might be arranged in a sort of chronological
conviction.[A]

[Footnote A: I have described the progress of my opinions in "Curiosities
of Literature," vol. i. p. 467, last edition.]

It would be a cowardly silence to shrink from encountering all that
popular prejudice and party feeling may oppose; this were incompatible
with that constant search after truth which we may at least expect from
the retired student.

I had originally limited this inquiry to the _literary_ character of the
monarch; but there was a secret connexion between that and his political
conduct; and that again led me to examine the manners and temper of the
times, with the effects which a peace of more than twenty years operated
on the nation. I hope that the fres