How successfully did James I deal with the problems he inherited
James had to deal with major inherited problems such a lack of substantial income, religious divide the three main religious factions; Armenians, Catholics and Protestants, James also inherited a weak foreign policy plagued by war.
James inherited from Elizabeth I both a substantial debt of around four hundred and twenty thousand pounds, a crown suffering from the effects of serous long-term under-funding, and a lack of a substantial lack of income due to selling of crown estates. It would not be right to describe James’s financial worries as a small factor in his list of his problems, however, it cannot be seen as the unsolvable problem that many people describe it to be. If one takes into account the fact that the three hundred thousand pounds that Parliament had recently voted Elizabeth had not yet been received at the time of her death, and that another hundred thousand pounds. of the money owed had been collected in the late 1590s as forced loans which nobody realistically expected the crown to repay, it could be argued that Elizabeth died leaving England in not a too bad financial situation as people normally describe. In addition, the effect of the lack of crown estates problem would not be felt in the first reign after Elizabeth’s because James also continued in the practice of selling off royal lands for quick injections of capital thus the problem of a lack of income was negated by this. However, despite the not-so-great financial situation James exacerbated it into a great problem, he liked to please his suitors and favourites with cash endowments and gifts of land and titles. It is clear that James did not adapt to the financial situation in England and that his preconceptions of his new kingdom as a ‘land of bounty’ clearly influenced his actions. Although the economy was not in great shape at the start of his reign the problem lay in James’s inability to control his extravagant spending and outrageous generosity. For example in 1607 James, rather than paying off the Crown debts, paid off those of his previous favourites such as Viscount Haddington and the Earl of Montgomery which came to over forty thousand pounds. In addition, as early as 1607 Sir Thomas Lake commented on James’ spending as “without limitation.” Another example of James’ spending on favourites saw him grant over thirty thousand pounds to people like Buckingham in one go. These reasons led to James spending five hundred thousand pounds each year compared to Elizabeth spending four thousand pounds a year even though Elizabeth spent that much during war. Eventually at the end of his reign James had a debt of around nine hundred thousand pounds, thus showing how James was the complete opposite of successful in dealing with his financial problems. His foolish attitude to money landed England with new and more grievous financial problems.

James inherited weak foreign policy from Elizabeth because of her ongoing war with Spain and James generally strengthened foreign policy. One example of this is The Treaty of London 1604. This negotiated end to war with Spain from Elizabeth’s reign and negotiated peace between Spain and England. James saw himself as an Arbitrator of peace or Rex Pacificus. Furthermore James settled war between Sweden and Denmark and negotiated in other settlement such as the Julich-Cleves dispute between the Austrian Hapsburgs and the Evangelical Union. James did not only concentrate on being a negotiator for other countries, he had strong interests in aiding England by protecting English trade e.g. wool with the Netherlands with 12 year truce. On the other hand, James failed in some of his foreign policy ventures such as the Spanish match in 1604 tried to repair bad relations that he inherited with Spain, this failed catastrophically and Spain rejected the proposal three times and Charles ended up being taken virtually as prisoner in Spain. Overall, James succeeded at strengthening his foreign policy by ending the war with Spain and negotiating truces within conflicts. This is the opposite of Elizabeth as she only tried to protect Protestantism but James also succeeded at protecting England with his foreign policy proposals just like Elizabeth. However, James failed to improve relations further with the Spanish and could have been more involved in the thirty year war. Despite this, overall James had succeeded in dealing with his inherited foreign policy issues.

After centuries of persecution of the Catholics during the reign of Elizabeth I, Catholics prospered at chances of equal rights brought to them by the new monarch and James inherited a hopeful population of Catholics. James was prepared to be tolerant to Catholicism and had indifferent views on Protestantism and Catholicism but mainly favoured the moderate Armenians. As a cause of this, tried to balance Catholicism, Protestantism and Armeninism. He did this by introducing reforms of the church at the Hampton court conference. For example, James reformed the court of high commission and also explained thirty nine articles (how the church was run) and introduced a new accurate translation of the bible- these reasons showed how I compared to Elizabeth Moreover, James was prepared to leave Catholics as long as they did not get in the way, to quote James “As for the Catholics I will neither persecute any that will be quiet and give an outward obedience to the law.” Furthermore, In 1610 Archbishop Bancroft died and was replaced by George Abbot a Calvinist. Lastly, James had two Armenian bishops in his privy council who were one of his closest advisors. These reasons show how James was modernising church and satisfied all the three groups; Armenians, Catholics and Protestants. This was the opposite of what Elizabeth did. She did not modernise the church and only favoured traditional Protestants, thus showing how James successfully dealt with the inherited religious problems. On the other hand, James had inherited a fear of popery mainly due to the Spanish and stories about the inquisition. James did not do anything to combat increased fear of popery due to the constant balancing of all three major religious factions. Examples such having a Catholic wife and appointing Armenians in his privy council increased the suspicion of popery. In addition, the Catholic population increased to fifty thousand and around 1% of England population were now Catholics- Catholicism became more prevalent in society- thus increasing fear of popery. These reasons could be a factor towards the Gunpowder plot in 1605, however, it could be argued that the plot was a spill over from Elizabeth’s reign due to her oppression of Catholicism. Despite this, it is clear that James did not deal with the increased fear of popery but managed to satisfy the three main religious groups to an extent in which there was no major conflict.
To conclude, James dealt very badly with his inherited financial problems by turning what was a medium- level problem into large scale financial debt and turmoil. However, James generally dealt very well with inherited problems within religion and foreign policy as he managed to satisfy all three major religious groups to a large extent and in his foreign policy he dealt with the inherited problems by allowing England to become the peacemaker in foreign conflicts whilst keeping England’s best interests.