legislated for a national Presbyterian church—namely the Church of Scotland or the "Kirk"—and Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic, was forced to abdicate in favour of her son James VI of Scotland. James grew up under a regency disputed between Catholic and Protestant factions; when he took power he aspired to be a "universal King" favouring the English Episcopalian system of bishops appointed by the king. In 1584, he introduced bishops into the Church of Scotland, but met with vigorous opposition, and he had to concede that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland would continue to run the church. The personal union of the three kingdoms under one monarch came about when King James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I to the English throne in 1603, when he also became King James I of England and of Ireland. In 1625, Charles I succeeded his father, and marked three main concerns regarding England and Wales; how to fund his government, how to reform the church, and how to limit (the English) Parliament's interference in his rule. At that time he showed little interest in his other two kingdoms, Scotland and Ireland. Scotland James VI remained Protestant, taking care to maintain his hopes of succession to the English throne. He duly became James I of England in 1603 and moved to London. James concentrated on dealing with the English Court and Parliament, running Scotland through written instructions to the Privy Council of Scotland and controlling the Parliament of Scotland through the Lords of the Articles. He constrained the authority of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and stopped it from meeting, then increased the number of bishops in the Church of Scotland. In 1618 he held a General Assembly and pushed through Five Articles of Episcopalian practices, which were widely boycotted. After his death in 1625, James was succeeded by his son Charles I, who was crowned in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, in 1633, with full Anglican rites. Charles was less skillful and restrained than his father; his attempts to enforce Anglican practices in the Church of Scotland created opposition which reached a flashpoint when he introduced the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. His confrontation with the Scots came to a head in 1639, when he tried and failed to coerce Scotland by military means during the Bishops' Wars. England Charles shared his father's belief in the Divine