ABSTRACT
This chapter explores James’s attempts to manipulate, pervert or ride roughshod over the normal operation of English law and justice, his fraught relationship with his English parliaments. It discusses the series of major conflicts between him and the House of Commons fought out not just over specific domestic and foreign policies but over major political and constitutional issues. James was a stranger to common law, for in Scotland the civil law – derived from that of imperial Rome – had gained acceptance during the sixteenth century. James has often been criticized for his inept handling of Parliament, yet in fact he went out of his way to try to establish a harmonious relationship with the Commons. The Addled Parliament had done nothing to solve James’s financial problems, and the only way in which to deal with these seemed to be a renewed programme of reform and retrenchment.
