King James I, the first of the Stuart dynasty of English monarchs, had a hearty dislike of the Reformed or Presbyterian Church, which had originally taken hold in Scotland in the days of his mother and John Knox. He particularly distrusted their system of church organization because it put more of the control of the local churches into the hands of the pastors and had a form of representative government rather than bishops.
Thus when in 1603, the first year of his English reign, the Puritans prepared a petition asking for further reforms in the Church of England, James sidestepped the request. Instead, he arranged a debate between bishops Bancroft and Bilson, who were strong Episcopalians, and the Puritans L. Chalderton and Dr John Reynolds (or Rainolds) of Oxford. Since the king was living at the time at Hampton Court Palace, the four-day conference was held there in his audience chambers in the presence of a larger body of leading clergymen.
The king acted as chairman and occasionally entered into the discussion. Reports of the proceedings are confusing, but apparently the king allowed a few concessions to the Puritans. Most significant of these was the production of a new Bible translation, the renowned King James Version. However, the climax came when Dr Reynolds proposed that certain disputed points be referred to the bishop and his ‘presbyters’. James, who apparently had the mistaken belief that the Presbyterians advocated doing away with the monarchy, accused him of trying to set up a ‘Scotch presbytery’ in England, and with other angry words stamped out of the room. The conference thus seemed at the time to be a victory for the Anglican conservatives.