2a.
The National Archives
Education
Civil War
Civil War > What kind of king was Charles I? > Monarchs before Charles I > Source 2
The first Great Seal of James I
(Catalogue ref: SC 13/N4)
This is the Great Seal of James I. The main job of a seal was to seal up a document. The king rolled or folded the document, poured hot wax on the join and then pushed this seal into the hot wax.
This stopped anyone from looking at the document except the person it was sent to. The seal also showed that the document really did come from the king.
James ruled from 1603-25 and he was the father of Charles I. James had a poor reputation as a monarch in some ways.
This was because his court was rather disorganised and he often drank too much. However, historians now point out that James was good at reaching compromises with his opponents on difficult issues. One reason for this is that his court was not too stuffy or formal. MPs and nobles found it easy to approach James and tell him about their concerns.
The other job of the seal was to send very strong messages to people about the ruler. It was packed full of symbols.
You can see:
James had some very strong ideas about what it meant to be a monarch. See if you can find the symbols on the seal that show his views.
