Charles yates

Charles yates

To what extent was james financial problems of his own making?

James 1st became king of England and Scotland on the 24th of July 1567. When he came into power Elizabeth the english monarch prior to him had left him a debt of £200’000 a lot of money in this time ,this however became worse after 3 years of james reign when the debt climbed to £700’000, this is down to various factors including, James extravagance, inflation and James large family. I believe that even though James could have done more to help the situation it was not his fault, i believe it was down to elizabeth debt and legacy also the inflation at the time and the relationship with parliament,that led to the main issues.

One of the biggest factors that led to the amassing debt was James extravagance. When it was his coronation he spent almost £40’000 on Elizabeth’s funeral and his coronation further plunging him deeper into debt. James saw his coronation as a one of affair so he wanted it to be amazing, this cost him money.James income was mainly form subsides, wardships and tax from nobles. Elizabeth had no family so her life was relatively cheap whereas James had 7 so it cost him more to live, he refused to not give his children anything they wanted, for example James spent £90’000 on marrying his daughter Elizabeth to Frederick of the planitine, this included the price of the actual ceremony and her dowry,where you pay the new husband to marry her. His son and heir was Henry and as his heir he needed his own court and money so he could learn the skills needed for him to be a good king. So his extravagance with his family cost him a lot of money.The amount of money he spent made him popular with the nobles and led to people trying to become friends with him for the benefits.

His relationship with parliament was not the best, as they disagreed on many things including the amount of power the king should have as well as the amount of income the king should get.James got his power from the...

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