Queen Elizabeth I of England paid a subsidy to King James VI of Scotland from 1586 to 1602.Julian Goodare, State and Society in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1999), pp. 118-9. This enabled her to influence James by delaying or deferring payments to his diplomats in London. Records survive of the yearly amounts, and details of the expenditure in some years.Julian Goodare, 'James VI's English Subsidy', in Julian Goodare & Michael Lynch, The Reign of James VI (Tuckwell, East Linton, 2000), p. 115. A large proportion of the money in 1589 was spent on the royal wedding and in subsequent years on the royal wardrobe of James and Anne of Denmark.Lucinda H. S. Dean, '"richesse in fassone and in fairness": Marriage, Manhood and Sartorial Splendour for Sixteenth-century Scottish Kings', Scottish Historical Review, 100:3 (December 2021), p. 384. : Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), p. 137. Some royal expenses were met by Anne of Denmark's dowry, which was known as the "tocher".Julian Goodare, 'The Debts of James VI of Scotland', Economic History Review, 62:4 (November 2009), p. 937. The regular incomes of the Scottish crown were feudal rents, customs, and "compositions" charged on grants of land.Thomas Thomson, Discours Particulier D'Escosse (Edinburgh, Bannatyne Club, 1824), pp. 3–6. Accounts for royal incomes and payments survive as the exchequer rolls and lord treasurer's accounts and have been published as historical sources.Athol L. Murray, 'The pre-Union Records of the Scottish Exchequer', Journal of the Society of Archivists, 2:3 (April 1961), pp. 92, 96–97

A gift with consequences

The 17th-century writer James Howell described the subsidy as a "royal pension" to maintain James VI's court.James Howell, Epistolae Ho-Elianae: Familiar Letters (London, 1705), p. 339. The money was an annual gift Elizabeth I to James VI of Scotland which remained contingent on him pursuing pro-English policies in Scotland, such as the suppression of the pro-Catholic northern Earls of Huntly and Erroll.Keith M. Brown, "The Price of Friendship", Roger Mason, Scotland and England (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1987), pp. 154–155. The situation gave Elizabeth extra leverage in border matters, including the Kinmont Willie affair in 1596, and in Scottish policy towards Ireland.M. S. Giuseppi, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), p. 253 no. 212: John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1597–1603, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 197 no. 147. In 1601, Elizabeth wished James to take action to prevent Scottish arms and men fighting in Tyrone.Alexander Courtney, James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566–1603 (Routledge, 2024), pp. 223–24.

Origins The diplomat Robert Pitcairn and the Master of Wardrobe James Murray presented an idea for an annual payment of £3,000 for a royal guard and the fees of Border wardens in 1579.Julian Goodare, "James VI's English Subsidy", Julian Goodare & Michael Lynch, The Reign of James VI (Tuckwell, East Linton, 2000), p. 112. In May 1580, the English ambassador Robert Bowes had reported discussions amongst Scottish supporters of English policy, that Elizabeth's money in Scotland would be "best bestowed on the King only", so binding his nobility to the queen, and that "little matter of importance might be done without her highness' privity". This was thought better than giving pensions to individual Scottish nobles or a particular courtier. A yearly pension or "gratuity" of 10,000 crowns was mentioned in July 1583, and discussions revolved around the idea that a small amount might not be received with honour. The later subsidy scheme was the realisation of these suggestions.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI, A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 212: Bowes Correspondence (London, 1842) pp. 47, 484.

Wotton's negotiation in 1585 Edward Wotton brought James an offer of a regular payment of 20,000 crowns in June 1585.Ruth Grant, "The Anglo-Scottish Alliance of 1586", Julian Goodare & Alasdair MacDonald, Sixteenth-Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch (Leiden, 2008), p. 218. Francis Walsingham thought that amount would "carry with it a reasonable good sound" and "so season his mind, as he shall take a good taste of the pension", but the full amount was not yet available, and Walsingham instructed Wotton to revise the figure down to £3,000 sterling. Walsingham hoped the Master of Gray would help persuade James to accept a lesser sum.Caroline Bingham, James VI of Scotland (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979), p. 80: Sophie Crawford Lomas, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 19 (London, 1916), p. 618: George Akrigg, Letters of King James VI & I (University of California, 1984), p. 69.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI, A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 265: Joseph Bain, Hamilton Papers, 2 (Edinburgh, 1892), pp. xxxii, 644 no. 473, 646–647 no. 476, 649 no. 478, 651 no. 480: Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1584–1585, 7 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 668 no. 635, 673 no. 646. Wotton privately discussed a treaty with England and the offer of a pension with James in the gallery at Falkland Palace.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1914), pp. 6–7 no. 7.

However, a formal amount or lasting agreement was never concluded, though £4,000 sterling, suggested by Elizabeth in March 1586,William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1585-1586, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1914), p. 254 no. 302. has sometimes been regarded as the usual figure. The payment was part of the arrangements which led to the Union of the Crowns along with the secret correspondence of James VI. The historian Julian Goodare proposes the word "Subsidy" can better represent the relationship implied by the payments than the loaded historical terms used, "pension", "gratuity", or "annuity". As a gift, the money implied a relationship for which James VI should be grateful. James' English courtier Thomas Fowler wrote that England sent him "a poor pension to make your majesty [James VI] their pensioner to your more disgrace and shame to all princes that knows it".Julian Goodare, "James VI's English Subsidy", in Julian Goodare & Michael Lynch, The Reign of James VI (Tuckwell, East Linton, 2000), pp. 112–113, 122–123.

Leverage The regular payment of the subsidy can be seen as James VI's rejection of his mother's proposals for joint rule in "association" in Scotland.Tracy Borman, Elizabeth's Women (Vintage, 2010), p. 316. Elizabeth positioned herself as the relation and substitute mother of the Scottish king, writing of her "speciall and motherlye cair over our said darrest brother and cousing ever since his byrthe, respecting him as our owne sone".David M. Bergeron, Royal Family, Royal Lovers (University of Missouri, 1991), p. 48.

After annuity payments began in 1586, Elizabeth was able to signal her disapproval of Scottish policies by keeping James' diplomats and agents waiting in London in the hope of payment and by sending sums amounting to less than James's expectations. One year, James wrote to Elizabeth of the "endless detaining" of his agent Robert Jousie on an errand "turned from one honorable annuity to a voluntary uncertainty with long begging".Clare Jackson, The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI and I (Allen Lane, 2025), p. 105: Helen G. Stafford, James VI of Scotland and the throne of England (American Historical Association, 1940), p. 72.

James more than once reminded Elizabeth and William Cecil of a Latin proverb in favour of prompt payment, bis dat qui cito dat – he that gives quickly gives twice.Alexander Courtney, James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566–1603 (Routledge, 2024), p. 139: John Bruce, Letters of Queen Elizabeth and King James VI, of Scotland (London, 1849), pp. 68-69: Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), no. 64. Francis Walsingham was sometimes in favour of the payments, and tried to influence and encourage Elizabeth to pay the pension by asking a diplomat in Scotland to amplify requests for the money.Hannah Coates, 'The Moor's Counsel: Sir Francis Walsingham's Advice', Helen Matheson-Pollock, Joanne Paul, Catherine Fletcher, Queenship and Counsel in Early Modern Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), p. 196.

Thomas Fowler wrote that James VI gave "to every one that asks what they desire, even to vain youths and proud fools the very lands of his crown ... Yea, what he gets from England, if it were a million, they would get it from him, so careless is he of any wealth if he may enjoy his pleasure in hunting".Felicity Heal, 'Royal Gifts and Gift Exchange in Anglo-Scottish Politics', in Steve Boardman, Julian Goodare, Kings, Lords and Men in Scotland and Britain 1300–1625, Essays in Honour of Jenny Wormald (Edinburgh, 2014), p. 299: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 9, p. 650 (modernised here). James VI gave money away with apparent freedom, but Julian Goodare notes such patronage and largesse was a necessary feature of early modern courts.Julian Goodare, "James VI's English Subsidy", p. 117.

Fowler was an executor of the English estates of James VI's grandmother, Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox.North Country Wills, vol. 121 (Surtees Society, 1912), p. 90, Margaret Douglas' will. Later Archbishop John Spottiswoode would write the subsidy money was compensation for these estates in England.John Spottiswoode, History, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1851), p. 349 However Julian Goodare finds no evidence for this, and Elizabeth never made a legal declaration or "instrument" regarding continual payment of the subsidy.Julian Goodare (2000), p. 114: Helen G. Stafford, James VI of Scotland and the throne of England (American Historical Association, 1940), p. 39.

Getting it in writing James VI sent Elizabeth a draft agreement for regular payments in April 1586 which she never completed.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1585-1586, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1914), pp. 301-2 no. 326-7. He wrote that she seemed "to marvel and mislike so far of the sending of yon instrument".George Akrigg, Letters of King James VI & I (University of California, 1984), pp. 68-70.Michèle Vignaux, "The succession and related issues", in Jean-Christophe Mayer, The struggle for the succession in late Elizabethan England: Politics, polemics and cultural representations (Montpellier: IRCL, 2004), p. 72. A draft warrant for a yearly subsidy was made, but Elizabeth never signed it. Instead, in one of her letters, she described an "instrument" brought to her, and drafted, she guessed, by his poorly advised councillors. Elizabeth renewed her offer of conditional support and the "portion of relief";Touching an "instrument" as your secretary term it, ... First, I will, as long as you alter not your course, take care for your safety, help your need, and shun all acts that may damnify you in any sort, either in present or future time, and for the portion of relief, I mind never to lessen, though as I see cause, I will rather augment. And this I hope may stand you in as much assurance as my name in parchment, and no less for both our honours.John Bruce, Letters of Queen Elizabeth and James VI of Scotland (London: Camden Society, 1849), pp. 29–31, (modernised here): HMC Salisbury Hatfield: Addenda, vol. 13 (London, 1915), p. 294.James kept her letter from Greenwich on 2 June 1586 which mentions the "portion meet for your own private use" which Elizabeth hoped to have "opportunity always to continue",William K. Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1585-1586, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1914), pp. 414-5 no. 443: BL Cotton Caligula B/IV f.289. and in November 1596 this letter "concerning the annuity" was copied into the register of the Privy Council of Scotland.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1882), pp. 324-5.