In the 'Stag Parlour' of Lyme Hall is a framed piece of needlework done by Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, when she stayed at Lyme. When she was deposed by her Scottish subjects she threw herself on the mercy of Queen Elizabeth, who permitted her to live in England. But plots were made against the life of Elizabeth, and Mary was suspected of having a hand in them, and in the end Mary had to pay the penalty of death.

Mary was a Catholic, but her son James, who succeeded to the English throne on the death of Elizabeth, had been brought up among the Scottish reformers. The extreme English reformers, or Puritans as they were now called, hoped therefore that the king would be friendly to their wishes. The Puritans were disappointed, but James agreed to one of their demands, and said that he would have a new translation of the Bible made. The Authorized Version of the Bible which is read in all Cheshire churches and chapels to-day is the one noble work due to the first Stuart king.

The Puritans were so named because they wished to 'purify' the Church of certain forms and ceremonies, such as the use of the surplice, and the sign of the cross at baptism, and even the ring in the marriage service. They also objected to the rule of bishops, and wished the Church to be governed by councils of elders or 'presbyters' after the manner of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

During the reign of Elizabeth many Puritan clergymen had refused to perform the services of the Church in the way ordered by the Prayer Book. They were driven out of the Church, and formed separate congregations of their own. Hence they received the name of Independents, and they were the earliest of the Nonconformist dissenters.

Many Independents suffered so severely at the hands of King James and his archbishop, that they determined to leave the country and settle in new homes across the sea. They gave the name of New England to their colony in America, and thus became the founders of our American possessions. Among the exiles was Samuel Eaton, a Wirral clergyman. He returned in the reign of Charles the First, and became a minister in the chapel attached to Dukinfield Hall, which thus became one of the earliest places of worship for the Independents in Cheshire. The ancient chapel now forms a portion of the modern Nonconformist church of Dukinfield.

The Catholics were not more pleased with James than the Puritans were. They were compelled to attend the new services of the Protestant Church. Those who refused to do so were called 'recusants'. The Bishop of Chester was ordered by James to hunt out all the Popish recusants in Cheshire and bring them to trial. The secret hiding-places built in the walls of many Cheshire halls must often have sheltered these fugitive priests, for many great families in Cheshire, such as the Stanleys of Hooton and the Masseys of Puddington, were strongly Catholic.

Chester was Protestant, and a Puritan Mayor of Chester stopped the Midsummer show, and broke up the pasteboard giants, and abolished the bull-ring; for the Puritans disliked shows and processions and sports of all kinds, and even such harmless pastimes as the May-day dances.

The Midsummer revels were, however, revived, and held with great pomp when King James paid a visit to Chester in 1617. His arms are carved in a panel under one of the front windows of Bishop Lloyd's house. One of the Fitton family was mayor on this occasion, and the king's sword was borne by a Stanley. James rode to the minster, where he heard one of the scholars of the King's School read a Latin address of welcome. 'After the said oration he went into the choir, and there, in a seat made for the king at the higher end of the choir, he heard an anthem sung. And after certain prayers the king went from thence to the Pentice, where a sumptuous banquet was prepared at the city's cost: which being ended, the king departed to the Vale Royal: and at his departure the order of knighthood was offered to the mayor, but he refused the same.' The sale of knighthoods and baronetcies was one of King James's ways of raising money, and the Mayor of Chester was not the only one who declined the honour.

A zealous Puritan named William Prynne wrote against the performance of stage plays, dancing, and other amusements. Some things that he said were thought to refer to the Queen of Charles the First, and he was tried by the Star Chamber and ordered to pay a fine of £5,000 and to have his ears slit. There was a branch of the Court of Star Chamber at Chester, but it was abolished in Charles the First's reign. In one of the rooms of Leasowe Castle are some oak panels brought from the Star Chamber at Westminster.

William Prynne passed through Chester on his way to his prison in Carnarvon Castle. The Puritans turned out to welcome and cheer him in the streets, but their leaders were punished by fines and imprisonment for so doing.

Neither James nor Charles got on well with their Parliaments. The Tudor monarchs had for the most part understood the people, and the people in their turn allowed them to have their own way. But the Stuarts began to claim powers which the people would not permit. When Parliament refused to grant money they asked for, the Stuart kings tried to raise money by means which the people thought illegal. Charles borrowed large sums of money without the consent of Parliament. Sir Randolph Crewe, of Crewe Hall, was one of the judges who thought that this was wrong, and he was dismissed from his office by the king.

Charles also tried to impose a tax called Ship Money, a tax which had in former times been levied on the counties on the seaboard for the support of the navy. Now the king proposed that inland counties also should contribute for this purpose. Sir William Brereton, a Cheshire knight, objected strongly to the hateful tax, and was very angry with the people of Chester for rating some land of his near Chester, called the Nunnery Fields, for the payment of the money.

It is not surprising that trouble should arise between Parliament and a king who refused to obey the wishes of the people over whom he ruled. The Stuarts believed in the theory known as the Divine right of kings, that is, that kings are made by God alone, and that from Him alone they receive their power. But from the time of the great awakening the people had begun to think for themselves, and the result of this was that they were now determined that the king should carry out the will of the nation through the mouth of its Parliament.

Moreover, Charles was suspected of being a Catholic; at any rate he had married a Catholic wife, and Parliament was not in a mood to permit a return to the unhappy state of affairs of Queen Mary's reign.