Regarding England in the seventeenth century, some of the most known episodes are the Civil War, the establishment of the Commonwealth of England, or the Restoration period. However, the conditions of the first decades of the seventeenth century are crucial in order to understand the events that occurred later. In my paper, I aim to depict a picture of England concerning its social and cultural history during the reign of King James, from 1603 to 1625.
When Elizabeth I of England died in 1603, James IV of Scotland inherited the crown of England and reigned until his death in 1625. This period was one of social, political and scientific transition. King James had the “widely advertised desire to be known as a monarch of Britain” and he believed that the ‘unity’ of Great Britain would bring peace and harmony (Schama 13,19). In 1606, the first union flag was adopted. Nonetheless, the idea of a full political union has met with opposition from parliamentarians. “Fights regularly broke out between Scots and English nobles . . . the king’s project for a formal treaty of union ran into a storm of parliamentary protest that exchanging English for ‘British’ nationality would be the end of English law and the ancient constitution” (Schama 28). James even imposed a ban on “anti-English ballads, poems and ballads”, which proves that Scotland had strong aversions toward the union as well. (Schama 29). Nevertheless, a remarkable benefit brought to Scotland by the union was a border