Death and funeral of James VI and I

James VI and I (1566–1625), King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, died on 27 March 1625 at Theobalds, and was buried at Westminster Abbey on 7 May 1625.Westminster Abbey: James I and Anne of DenmarkJennifer Woodward, The Theatre of Death: The Ritual Management of Royal Funerals in Renaissance England (Boydell, 1997), p. 175.

Poor health

In his later years King James was sometimes immobilised by illnesses. In April 1619 he had to travel in a litter, and then was carried in a chair.Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590–1676 (Manchester, 2018), p. 81. Although King James became increasingly infirm, he continued to ride and hunt. It was said that he found bathing his feet in the belly of the deer helpful. John Chamberlain thought the inclusion of sweet wines and fruit was less beneficial.Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, 2 (London: Colburn, 1849), p. 176. In December 1624, Oliver Browne, an upholsterer and furniture maker, provided six portable chairs to use at the hunt, and six special chairs to lift him to and from his bed.John Philip Hore, The History of Newmarket: And the Annals of the Turf, vol. 1 (London, 1885), pp. 260–261.

In January 1625, John Chamberlain wrote that James had "been of late so troubled with pain and weakness in his feet that he looked little abroad", but was travelling against medical advice to see his new hawks fly at Newmarket. He spoke in Parliament in February.Norman Egbert Mcclure, Letters of John Chamberlain, 2 (Philadelphia, 1939), pp. 539, 546.

At Theobalds The King's final illness included a fever, described as a "tertian ague".William Renwick Riddell, 'The Death of King James I: A Medico-Legal Study', Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, 19:1 (May, 1928), p. 30: John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), pp. 1028 He seems to have had a combination of kidney disease and arthritis.Nadine Akkerman, Elizabeth Stuart: Queen of Hearts (Oxford, 2021), p. 219. The events of the king's final days proved controversial with allegations of inappropriate or ill-advised medical interventions. When King James was on his deathbed at Theobalds, it was said that Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham had arranged for his treatment with a plaster or poultice applied to his chest, stomach, and wrist.Thomas Birch & Robert Folkestone Williams, Court and times of Charles I, vol. 1 (London. 1848), p. 5John Sherren Brewer, Church History of Britain by Thomas Fuller, vol. 5 (Oxford, 1845), p. 568: George Gomme, Gentleman's Magazine Library: Popular Superstitions (London, 1884), pp. 128–129, wrist plaster. This angered his Scottish-born physician John Craig who rebuked her. For his speeches to the Countess, Craig was ordered to leave court.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), pp. 1033–1034: Daphne Wedgbury, "An edition of the letters (1621-1625) of the Reverend Joseph Mead to Sir Martin Stuteville of Suffolk in BL MS Harleian 389", University of Leicester PhD thesis (1991), p. 523. The Earl of Kellie, a Scottish courtier, described the rumour and the Duke of Buckingham's anger at it:There has something fallen out here much disliked, and I for myself think much mistaken, and that is this. My Lord of Bukkinghame wishing mutche the Kings healthe caused splaister to be applyed to the Kings breast, after which his Majesty was extremely sick, and with all did give him a drink or syrup to drink; and this was which has spread such a business here and discontent as you would wonder, and Doctor Craig is now absented from court and Harry Gibb of the bedchamber is quarrelled for it (blamed), and my Lord Buckingham so incensed".Henry Paton, HMC Mar & Kellie, Supplement (London, 1930), p. 226 modernised here: Alastair Bellany & Thomas Cogswell, The Murder of King James I (Yale, 2015), p. xxv.

Buckingham's doctor, John Remington, is known to have attended James at Theobalds in March 1625. He gave the Duke's servant and barber John Baker a recipe for a drink called a julep or posset.Alastair Bellany & Thomas Cogswell, The Murder of King James I (Yale, 2015), pp. 215, 429, 528. John Baker applied a plaster to help the king's ague, and Prince Charles made him eat a piece of it to show it was safe.George F. Warner, The Nicholas Papers (London: Camden Society, 1886), p. xviii.

Henry Gibb removed the controversial plaster at the king's request during the night of 21 March.Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Birlinn, 2023), p. 373. One of the physicians William Paddy, later wrote in one of the king's prayer books that he had told James that the end was near, "Being sent for to Theobalds but two days before the death of my sovereign lord and master king James, I felt it my Christian duty to prepare him, telling that there was nothing left for me to do (in the afternoon before his death the next day at noon) but to pray for his soul".William Clarke, Repertorium Bibliographicum (London, 1819), pp. 167–168, modernised here.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), pp. 1031–1032.

James died on Sunday 27 March at noon.Henry Paton, HMC Mar & Kellie, Supplement (London, 1930), p. 226: Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1623–1625 (London: Longman, 1859), p. 512. After the king's death, Remington and other physicians including Matthew Lister disputed the provenance and composition of a medical plaster found on the body.Anna Maria Roos, Web of Nature: Martin Lister (Brill, 2011), p. 27. Subsequently, George Eglisham amplified rumours by publishing the Forerunner of Revenge,Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2023), p. 378.Logan Pearsall Smith, Life and Letters of Henry Wotton, 2 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1907), pp. 295–296. a pamphlet blaming Buckingham and his doctors for hastening the king's death.Alastair Bellany, 'Writing the King's Death: The Case of James I', Paulina Kewes & Andrew McRae, Stuart Succession Literature: Moments and Transformations (Oxford, 2019), p. 42.Text of the Forerunner of Revenge, EEBO The circumstances of the king's treatment and the plasters applied were investigated by a House of Commons select committee.HMC 13th Report, Part 7: Manuscripts of the Earl of Lonsdale (London, 1893), pp. i, 2–8.

A new king proclaimed at Theobalds King Charles was proclaimed at the gate of Theobalds by the Knight Marshal, Edward Zouch.Henry Duke, Multum in Parvo, Aut Vox Veritatis (London, 1681), p. 9: John Rushworth, Historical Collections of Private Passages of State, vol. 1 (London, 1721), p. 165. According to James Howell, Zouche mistakenly proclaimed Charles the "dubitable heir" at Theobalds. He was corrected by Secretary Conway. Howell included this story in a letter to his father, printed in his Epistolae Ho-Elianae.The Familiar Letters of James Howell, 1 (London: David Nutt, 1892), p. 217.

The Earl of Kellie advised that proclamations should speak of the "King of Great Britain", rather than putting one nation of the Union first, as in "England and Scotland" or "Scotland and England".Anna Whitelock, The Sun Rising: James I and the Dawn of a Global Britain (Bloomsbury, 2025), p. 329: Henry Paton, HMC Mar & Kellie, Supplement (London, 1930), p. 226. The proclamation sent for reading at the Mercat cross of Edinburgh accordingly referred to the "late King of Grite Britane, France and Ireland".David Masson, Register of the Privy Council, 1625–1627, 2nd series vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 2–3. A messenger was sent to Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, at The Hague with money and black cloth to place her household in mourning.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), pp. 1037-8: HMC 11th Report, Skrine: Salvetti Correspondence (London, 1877), p. 6.

A commission of Earls met in the council chamber at Whitehall Palace to determine the detail of the funeral and processions. The sculptor Maximilian Colt went to Theobalds to make the king's death mask. After an autopsy, the king's body was embalmed, and soldered into a lead coffin by Abraham Greene.Anthony Harvey & Richard Mortimer, The Funeral Effigies of Westminster Abbey (Boydell, 1994), pp. 11, 67. The coffin was placed on a carriage at Theobalds and brought to Denmark House on the Strand in the early hours of the morning.Thomas Birch & Robert Folkestone Williams, Court and times of Charles I, vol. 1 (London. 1848), p. 3 A torchlight procession through the streets of London was spoiled by foul weather.Alastair Bellany, 'Writing the King's Death: The Case of James I', Paulina Kewes & Andrew McRae, Stuart Succession Literature: Moments and Transformations (Oxford, 2019), p. 45: Several older histories give the date as 23 April, more likely 29 March.

Charles I made a gift of the silver plate used by his late father in his bedchamber to the Earl of Kellie on 5 April 1625.James Arthur Bennett, "Papers relating to the Royal Jewel House", Archaeologia, 48 (1885), p. 211: HMC 7th Report: Mildmay (London, 1879), p. 594.

Denmark House

The aristocrats at court were expected to follow the cortège from Theobalds or await the arrival of the body at Somerset House, then known as Denmark House. Instead, the Earls of Roxburghe and Morton went out of London to make merry with Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford at Moor Park. This "absurdity" caused comment and remark.Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows: The Life of Lucy, Countess, Countess of Bedford (London: Hambledon, 2007), pp. 159–160: Henry Paton, HMC Mar & Kellie, Supplement (London, 1930), p. 227.

The body of King James lay in state at Denmark House.Alastair Bellany, 'Writing the King's Death, the Case of James I', Paulina Kewes & Andrew McRae, Stuart Succession Literature: Moments and Transformations (Oxford, 2019), pp. 42–46: Edward Francis Rimbault, The Old Cheque-book, Or, Book of Remembrance, of the Chapel Royal (London, 1872), p. 154.Thomas Birch & Robert Folkestone Williams, Court and times of Charles I, vol. 1 (London. 1848), p. 3 The rooms were draped with black cloth and the coffin covered with black velvet. A lifelike wooden effigy of the king was placed on top, dressed in royal robes.HMC 11th Report, Skrine: Salvetti Correspondence (London, 1877), pp. 4, 15: Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), p. 1039. The room was lit with six silver candlesticks that Prince Charles had bought in Spain in 1623.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), p. 1039.