James vi and i biography of abraham

According to the Bible, Abraham (or Abram) was the father of the Hebrews. The Biblical account of the life of Abram is found in Gen. xi. 26 to xxv. 10. According to this narrative, he was the son of Terah and was born at Ur of the Chaldees. Terah, with Abram, Sarai (Abram's wife), and Lot (Abram's nephew), left Ur to go to the land of Canaan; but they tarried at Haran, where Terah died (Gen. xi. 26-32). There the Lord appeared to Abram in the first of a series of visions, and bade him leave the country with his family, promising to make of him a great nation (ib. xii. 1-3), a promise that was renewed on several occasions. Accordingly, Abram with Sarai and Lot started for Canaan; and at the site of Sichem (or Shechem) the Lord promised the land as an inheritance to the patriarch's seed. After so-journing for a while between Beth-el and Hai (or Ai), Abram, on account of a famine, went to Egypt. Here, to guard against Pharaoh's jealousy, he passed Sarai off as his sister. Pharaoh took her into the royal household, but, discovering the deception, released her and sent Abram and his family away (ib. xii. 9-20). Abram returned northward to his former place of sojourn between Beth-el and Hai. There his shepherds quarreled with those of Lot, and the uncle and nephew separated, Lot going east to Sodom, while Abram remained in Canaan (ib. xiii. 1-12). Again the Lord appeared to the patriarch, and promised him an abundant progeny which should inherit the land of Canaan (ib. xiii. 14-17).

Abram now removed to Mamre (ib. xiii. 18) inHebron, whence he made a successful expedition against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and his confederate kings, from whom he rescued Lot, whom Chedorlaomer had captured in the course of an attack upon Sodom and Gomorrah. On his return from this expedition, Abram was blessed by Melchizedek, king of Salem, and refused to retain the recaptured booty offered him by the king of Sodo

James, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry Darnley, was born in Edinburgh Castle on 19th June, 1566. James's birth occurred three months after the conspiracy which led to the savage murder in Mary's presence of her Italian favourite David Rizzio, which she chose to believe was aimed at her own life, and that of her unborn son. (1)

After the birth of their son the couple lived apart. Lord Darnley was taken ill (officially with smallpox, possibly in fact with syphilis) and was convalescing in a house called Kirk o' Field. Mary visited him daily, so that it appeared a reconciliation was in progress. In the early hours of the morning on 10th February, 1567, an explosion devastated the house, and Darnley was found dead in the garden. There were no visible marks of strangulation or violence on the body and so it was suggested that he had been smothered. Rumours began to circulate that James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell and his friends had arranged his death.

Elizabeth wrote to Mary: "I should ill fulfil the office of a faithful cousin or an affectionate friend if I did not... tell you what all the world is thinking. Men say that, instead of seizing the murderers, you are looking through your fingers while they escape; that you will not seek revenge on those who have done you so much pleasure, as though the deed would never have taken place had not the doers of it been assured of impunity. For myself, I beg you to believe that I would not harbour such a thought." (2)

One of Mary's biographer's, Julian Goodare, claims that the murder was an "abiding historical whodunnit, generating a mass of contradictory evidence, and with a large cast of suspects since almost everyone had a motive to kill him." He points out that historians are divided about Mary's involvement in the killing. "The extreme anti-Mary case is that from late 1566 onwards she was conducting an illicit love affair with Bothwell

1625 death of the King of England, Scotland and Ireland

James VI and I (1566–1625), King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, died on 27 March 1625 at Theobalds, and was buried at Westminster Abbey on 7 May 1625.

At Theobalds

In his later years King James was sometimes immobilised by illnesses. In April 1619 he had to travel in a litter, and then was carried in a chair. Although King James became increasingly infirm, he continued to ride and hunt. It was said that he found bathing his feet in the belly of the deer helpful. John Chamberlain thought the inclusion of sweet wines and fruit was less beneficial. In December 1624, Oliver Browne, an upholsterer and furniture maker, provided six portable chairs to use at the hunt, and six special chairs to lift him to and from his bed.

The King's final illness included a fever, described as a "tertian ague". He seems to have had a combination of kidney disease and arthritis. The events of the king's final days proved controversial with allegations of inappropriate or ill-advised medical interventions. When King James was on his deathbed at Theobalds, it was said that Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham had arranged for his treatment with a plaster or poultice applied to his chest, stomach, and wrist. This angered his Scottish-born physician John Craig who rebuked her. For his speeches to the Countess, Craig was ordered to leave court. The Earl of Kellie, a Scottish courtier, described the rumour and the Duke of Buckingham's anger at it:

There has something fallen out here much disliked, and I for myself think much mistaken, and that is this. My Lord of Bukkinghame wishing mutche the Kings healthe caused splaister to be applyed to the Kings breast, after which his Majesty was extremely sick, and with all did give him a drink or syrup to drin