Greatest English monarch of all time?

[afleitch]

James VII

[afleitch]

The treatment of Scotland (and indeed our involvement in the Wars) often goes unnoticed by both sides. Ultimately, Cromwell's regime was guilty of regicide. A country may do what it wishes with it's king, but Charles I was the king of Scotland too (and technically first and foremost). Furthermore despite the problems that the Covenanters had with Charles I, they recognised, through the Treaty of Breda his son as king resulting in the invasion and annexation of Scotland.

Simply unforgiveable.

[afleitch]

Only very recently, and it's still not a very well accepted term (certainly amongst the more established historians) At university (in Scotland) I always referred to it as the 'Wars' to encompass a wider area and also make the distinction that it was a series of civil wars punctuated by brief interbellae.

The period of 1603-1707 has often been ignored, even by Scottish historians despite being amongst the most productive and independent periods of our history with the king literally being distant and the Parliament showing a remarkable degree of legislative prowess (though not always successful) While the Covenanters has always been a favoured period of study, it was often looked at too independently from the main Civil Wars.

[afleitch]

My determination that the best rulers of that period were James I (VI) and Charles II as both of these rulers saw the consequences of religious absolutism, and tried to avoid the style of rule that brought down the others.

Spot on

James VII

No one picked up on my post but you've pretty much captured how I feel.

[afleitch]

As someone with strong Scottish ancestry, I respect the need for some to refer to James I and II as VI/VII since they were completely separate countries until the Act of Union.

There was a legitimate campaign back in 1952/3 for the new Queen not to be known as Elizabeth II in Scotland (even made itself into a song "She might be the Queen but ye cannae have the Second when the First one's ne'er been") Given that Elizabeth I did have a passive claim over the Scottish throne it was seen by some as a concession too far.

For the record, the relationship between Elizabeth and Mary Stewart was my own focus during my Honours History. I left with a far better impression of Elizabeth than I had of Mary