How far were James I's financial problems in England up to 1618 Of his own making?

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How far were James I’s financial problems in England up to 1618

Of his own making?

      On his journey south from Scotland to his newly ascended throne of England James described himself as being ‘like a poor man wandering about forty years in wilderness and barren soil, and now arrived in the land of promise.’ Having made a success of governing Scotland, James couldn’t believe his luck in now being enthroned to this rich prosperous land, which should be much easier than the poor Scotland to govern. All through his journey south he was entertained in lavish style by the leaders of English society, trying to impress him with their generosity and wealth, surpassing anything he experienced in Scotland, leading James therefore to assume that this land would have vast amounts of wealth for his monarchy to tap into.

     James’s extravagance was one of his greatest political and financial problems. What made his position worse was that he was succeeding Elizabeth who was seen to be the exception to the general rule of extravagant monarchs. She had learnt from experience how the mechanisms for tapping the English wealth effectively did not exist, and kept tight control over expenditure to avoid falling into debt. However Elizabeth’s tight fisted-ness with money meant that she was not very generous to her subjects and with the coming of the new king they were eager to welcome James’s open handedness with pensions given as rewards to courtiers rising from £50,000 to  £80,000 a year. However when the King had to raise taxes to keep payments up they began to complain against his extravagance

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    During the beginning years of James’s reign the expenditure of the crown rose dramatically. Compared to Elizabeth, James had the hindrance of having to fund for a wife, Queen Anne, and his eldest son, Prince Henry. Expenditure on the household doubled by 1610, with the queen and Prince Henry having their own lavish households. The rise in expenditure was also much down to his extravagance. Between 1603 and 1612 he spent £185,000 on jewels, and expenditure on clothes for James and his royal servants went from £10,000 to £36,000. James also found it difficult to say ‘no’ and ...

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