Ch. 1.1. James I (1603-25): “Great Britain” and Divine Right

Union of Crowns. In 1603 the succession passed to the Stuart house of Scotland, making James VI of Scotland also James I of England (1603-1625). In this “union of crowns” (1603-1707) the island of Britain was united for the first time as a single realm under one king, and the term “Great Britain” began to be used. Legally and administratively, however, the two countries remained separate until their Parliaments merged in 1707, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Although the Stuart kings claimed to rule Ireland too, it was not recognized as a third member of this union until 1801 (most of Ireland achieved independence in 1922).

During the union of crowns period the precise legal status of residents of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland remained a matter of debate, but chief justice Edward Coke’s opinion in Calvin’s Case (1608) helped to clarify the traditional presumption that all those born within a realm were subjects of that realm. This idea underlies the later principle of birthright citizenship, which in the Fourteenth Amendment of 1868 became a key feature of the U.S. Constitution.

Divine Right vs. the Ancient Constitution. In practice James was often willing to compromise with Parliament, but he began the Stuart tendency to insult Parliamentary sensibilities by insisting on his elevated status as a “divine right” monarch, one who was in principle above the law. Many Members of Parliament (MPs), judges, and lawyers, led by Edward Coke, began opposing these royal claims by arguing that the king was under the law and could not abrogate English liberties, which they claimed were part of an age-old and in many respects legendary “ancient constitution” that went back to Magna Carta and even long before that. This debate, at first largely theoretical and technical, set the terms for the constitutional struggles that lasted for most of the century.