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Home King James I and Domestic Affairs The King's Ministers |
The King's MinistersWe must now say a word as to James's advisers during his reign. The king, on his accession, retained in office, as chief minister, Robert Cecil, the son of Elizabeth's great minister, Lord Burleigh, and created him Earl of Salisbury (James used to call him familiarly his "pigmy" or his "little beagle", owing to his shortness of stature). "He was fit to prevent things going worse, not fit to make them better", was the judgement upon him of Bacon, his cousin. The remark was uncousinly and somewhat unjust. A man of vast industry and sound sense, a capable financier, a clever manager of the king's business in Parliament, Salisbury, up till his death in 1612, did good work at home and had a large share in directing England's foreign policy.After 1612 James employed favourites to carry on his Government. This was not only because he enjoyed the society of a lively companion during his leisure, but because he desired to have a person who was wholly dependent upon himself, and who could be imbued with his ideas and could then carry them out; in fact, he thought that, through favourites, he might be an absolute ruler with little trouble to himself. His first choice was singularly unfortunate—a Scotsman named Carr, whom he created Lord Rochester, and afterwards Earl of Somerset. Lady Essex divorced her first husband in order to marry Carr, and she and her new husband were subsequently found responsible for the murder of a distinguished man, who happened to be her personal enemy (His name was Overbury. He was something of a poet, and a great friend of Carr's. He had tried to prevent Carr marrying Lady Essex, and Lady Essex, in revenge, contrived to season with white arsenic the confectionery Overbury ate). James consequently dismissed Carr from all his offices (1616), and kept him a prisoner in the Tower for the next six years. The king's next choice was better. George Villiers, who eventually became Duke of Buckingham, had an attractive personality, with agreeable manners and a merry laugh (James used to call him "Steenie", from a fancied resemblance to a picture of St Stephen). He was the friend of some good people, such as Abbot and Laud, both Archbishops of Canterbury; of Bacon, who hoped through Villiers to carry out his political ideals; and even of the man who was eventually to impeach him, Sir John Eliot. Moreover, he proved himself a very fair soldier and an energetic Lord High Admiral. But his character was spoilt by his rapid rise. He was too impulsive and volatile to be a statesman; and "if it is only just”, as has been said, "to class him among ministers rather than among favourites, he must rank amongst the most incapable ministers of this or any other century". At first, however, Villiers was only concerned with matters of patronage; not till towards the end of James's reign did he have much influence upon the king's policy. |
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