=6. The King's Death.=--On the twenty-seventh of March, 1625, the King died. He had governed Scotland during his twenty-two years of absence with a much firmer hand than in the troubled time of his personal rule. He had then been quite at the mercy of his ministers and of the nobles. The wealth and power of his larger kingdom made him now able to deal with the smaller one pretty much as he liked, and the nobles were too eagerly seeking favour and place at the richer court to be willing to risk the loss of them by opposing his will. James was quite unlike all his forefathers. He had good abilities and an unusual amount of learning, besides a good deal of common sense and shrewdness, which he sometimes made use of, but his repulsive appearance and manners, and his want of self-reliance, exposed him to ridicule and contempt. He had none of the courage, high spirit, graceful tastes and ready wit that spread a veil over the faults and vices of his ancestors. Yet he alone escaped the tragic fate that seemed the doom of all the _Stewart_ line, and was singled out from among them for an almost fairy-like change and advance of fortune. =7. Charles I., 1625-1649. Resumption of Benefices.=--_Charles_, who succeeded James as King of the two kingdoms, had even more exalted ideas than his father of the power of the prerogative. It fell to the lot of the Scots to take the lead and set an example to the English in resisting his arbitrary measures. Before he had been a year on the throne, it was clear that he meant to carry out his father's plan of making the _Scotch Church_ as like the _English Church_ as possible. He issued a proclamation recalling all the church lands which were in the hands of laymen, whether they had been granted by the crown or not. The holders protested against this injustice, and at last a compromise was made by which they agreed to give up part of the lands they held on condition of having their claim to the rest made good.