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Henry James, 1905.
SMITH COLLEGE ARCHIVES/PHOTOGRAPH BY KATHERINE E. ACCLELLAN
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
James I ► James River I 977
His first major work, The Principles of Psychology (1890), treated think¬ ing and knowledge as instruments in the struggle to live. His most famous work is The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). In Pragmatism (1907), he generalized the theories of Charles Sanders Peirce to assert that the meaning of any idea must be ana¬ lyzed in terms of the succession of experiential consequences to which it leads and that truth and error depend solely on these consequences (see pragmatism). He applied this doctrine to the analysis of change and chance, freedom, variety, pluralism, and nov¬ elty. His pragmatism was also the basis for his polemic against monism, the idealistic doctrine of internal rela¬ tions, and all views that presented reality as a static whole. He was also a leader of the psychological move¬ ment known as functionalism.
James I Spanish Jaime known as James the Conqueror (b. Feb. 2, 1208, Montpellier, County of Toulouse—d. July 27, 1276) King of Aragon and Catalonia (1214-76). The most renowned of the medieval kings of Aragon, he was educated by the Knights Templar, and his great- uncle ruled as regent until 1218. James helped to subdue rebellious nobles and took over the government of his kingdoms in 1227. He reconquered the Balearic Islands (1229-35) and Valencia (1233-38) but renounced his claims to lands in southern France. He also helped Alfonso X to suppress a Moorish rebellion in Murcia (1266), and he undertook an unsuccessful Crusade to the Holy Land (1269).
James I (b. June 19, 1566, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scot.—d. March 27, 1625, Theobalds, Hertfordshire, Eng.) King of Scotland, as James VI (1567-1625), and first Stuart king of England (1603-25). He was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Lord Darnley, and at age one James succeeded his mother to the Scottish throne. Controlled by a succession of regents, he became the puppet of contending intriguers—Roman Catho¬ lics, who sought to bring his mother back to the throne, and Protestants. In 1583 he began to pursue his own policies as king, allying himself with England. On the death of Elizabeth I, he succeeded to the English throne as great-great-grandson of Henry VII. He quickly achieved peace and prosper¬ ity by ending England’s war with Spain (1604). He presided over the Hampton Court Conference (1604), rejecting most of the Puritans’ demands for reform of the Church of England but permitting preparation of a new translation of the Bible, the King James Version. His policies toward Catholics led to the Gunpowder Plot, and his growing belief in royal abso¬ lutism and his conflicts with an increasingly self-assertive Parliament led to his dissolution of Parliament from 1611 to 1621. With the death of Robert Cecil, he came under the influence of incompetent favourites.
James I (b. 1394—d. Feb. 20/21, 1437, Perth, Perth, Scot.) King of the Scots (1406-37). The son and heir of Robert III, he was captured by the English in 1406 and held prisoner in London until 1424. During the 13 years in which he truly ruled Scotland (1424-37), he established the first strong monarchy the Scots had known in nearly a century. He weakened the nobility but did not entirely subdue the Highland lords, and he greatly improved the administration of justice for the common people. His mur¬ der in a Dominican friary by a group of rival nobles led to a popular uprising in favour of his widow and six-year-old son, who succeeded him as James II.
James II Spanish Jaime known as James the Just (b. c. 1264—d. Nov. 3, 1327, Barcelona, Aragon) King of Aragon (1295-1327) and king of Sicily (as James I, 1285-95). He inherited the Sicilian crown on the death of his father (1285); when his brother died (1291) he inherited Ara¬ gon. He resigned Sicily (1295) and married the daughter of the king of Naples in order to make peace with the Angevins. Sardinia and Corsica were given to him in compensation for Sicily, but he was able to occupy only Sardinia (1324).
James II (b. Oct. 14, 1633, London, Eng.—d. Sept. 16/17, 1701, Saint- Germain, France) King of Great Britain (1685-88). He was brother and
successor to Charles II. In the English Civil Wars he escaped to the Neth¬ erlands (1648). After the Restoration (1660) he returned to England and became lord high admiral in the Anglo-Dutch Wars. He converted to Catholicism c. 1668, and he resigned in 1673 rather than take the Test Act oath. By 1678 his Catholicism had created a climate of hysteria about a Popish Plot to assassinate Charles and put James on the throne, and suc¬ cessive Parliaments sought to exclude him from succession. By the time Charles died (1685), James came to the throne with little opposition and strong support from the Anglicans. Rebellions caused him to fill the army and high offices with Roman Catholics and suspend a hostile Parliament. The birth of his son, a possible Catholic heir, brought about the Glorious Revolution in 1688, and he fled to France. In 1689 he landed in Ireland to regain his throne, but his army was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne, and he returned to exile in France.
James II (b. Oct. 16, 1430, Edinburgh, Scot.—d. Aug. 3, 1460, Rox¬ burgh Castle, Roxburgh) King of Scotland (1437-60). He succeeded to the throne on the assassination of his father, James I of Scotland. Because he was so young, the strong central authority his father had established quickly collapsed, and his first adult task was the restoration of monar¬ chical authority. He strove to dominate the powerful Douglas family, and in 1452 he stabbed to death William, earl of Douglas, at Stirling Castle. He established a strong central government and improved the adminis¬ tration of justice. Turning his attention to the English, who had renewed their claims to rule Scotland, he attacked English outposts in Scotland and was killed during a siege of Roxburgh Castle.
James III (b. May 1452—d. June 11, 1488, near Stirling, Stirling, Scot.) King of Scotland (1460-88). He succeeded his father, James II. Unlike the latter, he was unable to restore strong central government after his long minority. A weak monarch, he was confronted with two major rebellions. He evidently offended his nobles by his interest in the arts and by taking artists for his favourites. In 1488 two powerful border families raised a rebellion and won to their cause his son, the future James IV; James III was captured and killed at age 36.
James IV (b. March 17, 1473—d. Sept. 9, 1513, near Branxton, Northumberland, Eng.) King of Scotland (1488-1513). He unified his country, gaining control over all northern and western Scotland by 1493. He fought border skirmishes with England (1495-97) in support of a pre¬ tender to the English throne. His marriage (1503) to Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, helped stabilize relations between the two coun¬ tries, but in 1512 he allied with France against England. He invaded England in support of the French in 1513; his army was defeated at the Battle of Flodden, and James was killed.
James Bay Extension of Hudson Bay, located between northern Ontario and Quebec, Can. Generally less than 200 ft (60 m) deep, it is 275 mi (443 km) long and 135 mi (217 km) wide. It contains numerous islands, of which the largest is Akimiski Island. The many rivers that empty into the bay, including the Moose, are the cause of its low salinity. Visited by Henry Hud¬ son in 1610, it is named for Capt. Thomas James, who explored it in 1631.
James Edward, the Old Pretender orig. James Francis Edward Stuart (b. June 10, 1688, London, Eng.—d. Jan. 1, 1766, Rome, Papal States) Claimant to the English and Scottish thrones. Son of the exiled James II of England, he was raised in France as a Catholic. On the death of his father (1701), he was proclaimed king of England by the French king Louis XIV, but the English Parliament passed a bill of attain¬ der against him. He served with the French army in the War of the Span¬ ish Succession. In the Jacobite uprising (1715), James landed in Scotland, but within two months the uprising collapsed and he returned to France. He lived thereafter in Rome under the pope’s patronage. He became known as the “Old Pretender” to distinguish him from his son, Charles Edward, the Young Pretender.