Scottish Coin Pack - James VI and I

Product History

James VI and I - (1567 - 1625). Scottish twelve shilling piece minted at Edinburgh between 1609 and 1625. Struck after he had become James I of England, it is similar to the English shilling but bears the arms of Scotland.

James was born on 19th June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle. His father was Henry Stewart, Lord Darney, and his mother was Mary Queen of Scots. Mary became Queen of Scotland in 1542 and in 1567 she was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle. It was here that she was forced by the confederate lords to abdicate in favour of her son, who was crowned as James VI five days afterwards in the parish church at Sterling. Mary escaped from Lochleven in 1568 and fled to England and James never saw his mother again. Until 1578 Scotland was ruled by his regents, Moray, Lennox, Mar and Morton, while James lived at Sterling Castle with his tutor George Buchanan who taught him to speak Latin, Greek and Hebrew by the time he was eight. James had been baptised at Sterling Castle in 1566 and spent many years of his early life within the security of its walls.

When his cousin Elizabeth I died in 1603, James with his wife Anne, daughter of the king of Denmark, went to London where he became King James I of England. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey and ruled both England and Scotland until his death in 1625. His son, Charles I, succeeded him.

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