History of the Constitution of the United Kingdom and applied it to their form of government. When Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603 without issue, she was succeeded by her cousin James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and he became King James I of England. This was a major step towards creating a single British state, although the Kingdom of Great Britain did not come about until a hundred years later. James VI faced a fractious religious England since it contained Anglicans (of the Church of England), Puritans, Separatists (who wanted to break from the Church of England), and also many Roman Catholics,
History of the Puritans under King James I Some of them sought to work within the establishment, like William Perkins, Master of Emmanuel College; while others left the Church of England and ventured elsewhere, like William Ames who spent much of his career in Holland. The English Puritan movement that began in the reign of Elizabeth, and grew in strength and influence in England during the reign of King James sought to further the work of reforming the church of England, eradicate the influence of Roman Catholicism in the land, as well as promote the national interest of the English crown and the English people under a united