Bonfire Night: Coventry and Warwickshire s huge part in the Gunpowder Plot coventrytelegraph.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from coventrytelegraph.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
James I, Charles I and Charles II of the Stuart dynasty were known for their excesses.
For centuries, people have questioned the taxpayer’s role in funding the British royal family. During the reign of the Stuarts in the 17
th century, that role was challenged to an extreme as a series of spendthrift monarchs treated their subjects like a bank that was always open to fund their lavish lifestyles.
James I of Scotland and England was the definition of the poor little rich prince. Son of Mary, Queen of Scots, James had essentially been orphaned as a baby, when his father Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was murdered and his mother imprisoned. He ruled over the warring, cash-poor nation of Scotland from the age of one and inherited the throne of England in March 1603 when the childless Elizabeth I died.