[1] In July 1629 he lent to Oliver St John the manuscript tract on the bridling of parliaments, written in 1612 by Sir Robert Dudley, titular duke of Northumberland.
The tract was secretly circulated by St. John among the parliamentary leaders; Charles I and his ministers were roused, and James, with Cotton and others, was imprisoned by order of the privy council in the autumn of 1629.
[1] Whilst imprisoned in the Tower of London James wrote a letter pleading for his case to be reconsidered by Charles I of England.
James protests the innocence of both Sir Robert Bruce Cotton and himself, claiming that neither of them were responsible for the pamphlet coming into the possession of Oliver St John.
B. Grosart published The Poems of Richard James (only one hundred copies printed), with a preface, in which he adds a little to Corser's account.
This volume contains the Iter Lancastrense, The Muses Dirge, the edition of Hoccleve's 'Oldcastle,' the minor English and Latin poems collected from James's published works and MSS.
James left a number of manuscripts, which at his death passed into the possession of Thomas Greaves, with whose library they were acquired in 1676 for the Bodleian.