The Cradle King: A Life of James VI & I

by Dr Alan Stewart (Author)

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  Paperback
  2004

  $3.27

  As the son of Mary Queen of Scots, born into her 'bloody nest', James had the most precarious of childhoods. Even before his birth, his life was threatened: it was rumoured that his father, Henry, had tried to make the pregnant Mary miscarry by forcing her to witness the assassination of her supposed lover, David Riccio. By the time James was one year old, Henry was murdered, possibly with the connivance of Mary; Mary was in exile in England; and James was King of Scotland. By the age of five, he had experienced three different regents as the ancient dynasties of Scotland battled for power and made him a virtual prisoner in Stirling Castle. In fact, James did not set foot outside the confines of Stirling until he was eleven, when he took control of his country. But even with power in his hands, he would never feel safe. For the rest of his life, he would be caught up in bitter struggles between the warring political and religious factions who sought control over his mind and body. Yet James believed passionately in the divine right of kings, as many of his writings testify. He became a seasoned political operator, carefully avoiding controversy, even when his mother Mary was sent to the executioner by Elizabeth I. His caution and politicking won him the English throne on Elizabeth's death in 1603 and he rapidly set about trying to achieve his most ardent ambition: the Union of the two kingdoms. Alan Stewart's impeccably researched new biography makes brilliant use of original sources to bring to life the conversations and the controversies of the Jacobean age. From James's 'inadvised' relationships with a series of favourites and Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to his conflicts with a Parliament which refused to fit its legislation to the Monarch's will, Stewart lucidly untangles the intricacies of James's life. In doing so, he uncovers the extent to which Charles I's downfall was caused by the cracks that appeared in the monarchy during his father's reign.

• Used

  hardcover
  

  $3.27

  James's reign was one of the most important for Britain's history - constitutionally, intellectually, politically and artistically. But most accounts of his life fail to convey the extraordinary and scandalous nature of his court and family life - or the true impact of his early life on his later style of leadership. His was the ultimate dysfunctional family: his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was believed to be the murderer of his father Lord Darnley. When she fled to England in 1567, James VI became King of Scotland at the age of one. His childhood was overshadowed by political struggles for control over his mind and his body by clerics, kingmakers and courtiers, culminating in virtual imprisonment by the age of 16. But he had learned well from his upbringing. By now a seasoned political operator, he gained the throne of England in 1603, as James I, finally uniting the two kingdoms. From adolescence onwards, his personal relationships were the talk of the court. After an early passionate attachment to his older cousin, the glamorous, gallicised Esme Stuart, he moved from one male favourite to the next, showering them with gifts and favours. This lively portrait of a crucial reign in Britain's history focuses on key moments and relationships - his early loves, his relations with his mother, with Elizabeth I and Anne of Denmark, the rise of a trade in pretty young men at court, the impact of a Scottish king on the English throne, his complex relationship with his son and heir, the rise and fall of the powerful later favourites - allowing a new understanding of the man and his colourful times.