Biographies & Memoirs

James I: Scotland's King of England

James I: Scotland's King of England

Few kings have been more savagely caricatured or grossly misunderstood than England’s first Stuart. Yet, as this new biography demonstrates, the modern tendency to downplay his defects and minimise the long-term consequences of his reign has gone too far. In spite of genuine idealism and flashes of considerable resourcefulness, James I remains a perplexing figure – a uniquely curious ruler, shot through with glaring inconsistencies. His vices and foibles not only undermined his high hopes for healing and renewal after Elizabeth I’s troubled last years, but also entrenched political and religious tensions that eventually consumed his successor. A flawed, if well-meaning, foreigner in a rapidly changing and divided kingdom, his passionate commitment to time-honoured principles of government would, ironically, prove his undoing, as England edged unconsciously towards a crossroads and the shadow of the Thirty Years War descended upon Europe.

Chapter 1. Heir to Scotland’s Woe

Chapter 2. King and Pawn

Chapter 3. Love and Liberation

Chapter 4. Lessons in Life and Kingcraft

Chapter 5. The Headsman and the King of Spain

Chapter 6. ‘Cupide Blinde’ and Wyches’ Waies

Chapter 7. The Wrath of Earls and Kirk

Chapter 8. ‘King and Sovereign Lord’ of Scotland

Chapter 9. Towards the ‘Land of Promise’

Chapter 10. Scotland’s King of England

Chapter 11. The King, His Beagles, His Countrymen and His Court

Chapter 12. Religion, Peace and Lucifer

Chapter 13. Parliament, Union, Gunpowder

Chapter 14. Finance, Favouritism and Foul Play

Chapter 15. Favourite of Favourites

Chapter 16. Faraway Realms

Chapter 17. ‘Baby Charles’ and ‘Steenie’

Chapter 18. Dotage, Docility and Demise

Chapter 19. Ruler of Three Kingdoms

Plates

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