James VI and I: Spinning the English Succession
Eager to be first in line, the astute James VI of Scotland responded to the question of the English succession with a war of words.
In December 1593 Robert Persons, a leader of the English Jesuits on the Continent, was putting the finishing touches to a book he had been working on. Written in the English seminary that he had recently founded with the support of the Spanish king Philip II at Valladolid, A Conference About the Next Succession to the Crowne of Ingland describes a fictional meeting of concerned Englishmen who are determined to resolve the long-running question of who should succeed Elizabeth I. Persons’ meeting takes place in Amsterdam and features a gathering of gentlemen of various professions from across the confessional divide. Two unnamed lawyers, one an expert in civil law and the other common law, make the case for the viability of various potential claimants, who include James VI of Scotland, his cousin Arbella Stuart, Edward and Thomas Seymour (the sons of Katherine Grey), Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, and the Infanta of Spain, Isabella Clara Eugenia. While the conference was imaginary, the issues Persons’ characters debate were not.
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