30 MARCH 1956, Page 11

JACOBEAN INTELLIGENCE

James VI . . . made a profession of kingcraft, wrote books about it, lectured on it, and never managed to attain any degree of success In it.—A. P. Thornton, in History Today, March, 1956, p. 211.

The MOST important fact about James's rule in Scotland is that n was successful—he was the most successful Scottish monarch since James L—Maurice Lee, Jnr., in History Today, March, 1956, p. 156.

• • . the poverty-stricken ruler of an intractable country, whose Magnates and prelates combined to harass him.—Thornton, ibid., p. 211.

• . . his nobility was docile, and the preachers were cowed.—Lee, ibid., p, 163.

• • . no grasp of statesmanship. . . . His Church appointments Were badly judged, his state diplomacy wrongly based.—Thornton, ibid., p. 211.

His WAS a brilliantly successful policy; it was a major factor in the smoothness of the transition between the Tudor and the Stewart dynasties.—Lee, ibid., 161.

THE STORY of the downfall of the English monarchy begins with his arrival on the English scene.--Thornton, ibid., p. 211.

IT WAS the folly of Charles the Martyr, not that of the wisest fool In Christendom, that proved the ruin of the Stewart line.—Lee, ibid., p. 163.