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The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, The First Monarch of a United Great Britain
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.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published May 27, 2003
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About the author
Alan Stewart
71 books3 followersAlan Stewart is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of the biographies Philip Sidney: A Double Life and Hostage to Fortune: The Troubled Life of Francis Bacon (with Lisa Jardine)>. He was previously Reader in Renaissance Studies at Birbeck, University of London, and Associate Director of the AHRB Centre for Editing Lives and Letters.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 16, 2014
James (VI or I, depending on your perspective) was very much a King of two reigns - his first as King of Scotland and his second as King of a somewhat less-than-united England and Scotland. In the same vein this book is very much one of two halves. The first half of the book is almost entirely about events in Scotland; when Elizabeth dies and James becomes King of both England and Scotland the focus almost entirely shifts south and Scotland is scarcely mentioned again. Considering how disruptive and turbulent James' early years in Scotland were, I doubt things suddenly calmed down so dramatically once the King crossed the border, but you wouldn't get any other sense reading this book.
It must be said, when discussing the religious and political changes of the era, both in Scotland, England and Europe as a whole, this book is excellent. But again it falls down when looking at the more personal aspects of James' reign - important events such as the deaths of Prince Henry, Queen Anne and James himself are hardly dealt with, discussed in just a few sentences. I cannot be the only reader who is often more interested in the personal than the political - I realise the two can rarely be separated so easily when talking of monarchs, but this is after all a biography of James, not a history of the Jacobean era.
So an interesting read but overall, a disappointing one. I felt Stewart relied too heavily in places on quoting from original sources; again, I recognise the value of these from an historical perspective, but a little less regurgitation of arcane quotations and a little more analysis or discussion might have been welcome.
It must be said, when discussing the religious and political changes of the era, both in Scotland, England and Europe as a whole, this book is excellent. But again it falls down when looking at the more personal aspects of James' reign - important events such as the deaths of Prince Henry, Queen Anne and James himself are hardly dealt with, discussed in just a few sentences. I cannot be the only reader who is often more interested in the personal than the political - I realise the two can rarely be separated so easily when talking of monarchs, but this is after all a biography of James, not a history of the Jacobean era.
So an interesting read but overall, a disappointing one. I felt Stewart relied too heavily in places on quoting from original sources; again, I recognise the value of these from an historical perspective, but a little less regurgitation of arcane quotations and a little more analysis or discussion might have been welcome.
November 22, 2024
Solid biography on the first Stuart king of England. James VI & I came to the Scottish throne as a baby. He went through a difficult childhood due to the various infighting that occurred in the Scottish kingdom he’d in due time come to rule.
As King of Scotland, I got the sense this is where James started to come into his own. He got a nice marriage with Princess Anne of Denmark. Had children with her. And ruled his kingdom perhaps bring Scotland I’d say some sense of stability. Yet he was due to succeed to the throne of England in the south upon the passing of Queen Elizabeth who had no heir.
So James now took over rule of a 2nd kingdom and from 1603 to his death, would only ever return to Scotland once. James’ rule was well nothing special imo. He didn’t seem to get on well with Parliament especially the commons. He came off ineffectual as a ruler and rather weak. In him you see elements of Edward II & Richard II for those familiar with prior monarchs. Plus with how James went about his rule, I just got the impression he was simply not cut out for this. There’s likely good reason why his son Prince Henry was seemingly more popular & for a spell, Prince Charles.
Yet reading through this biography, you get an ominous sense of what’s to come in the next reign & I felt the seeds of Charle’s reign & Civil War were planted. Which as I got to the end the author excellently explained.
So for biographies on James VI and I this would likely be a good pick. I’m mostly a Yale Monarch series kind of guy, yet they don’t have a book on him or I think the one they have the rights to is old & considered outdated. So this one is more modern and likely the best you’re going to get. And hey, I’d say it’s a good one at that.
As King of Scotland, I got the sense this is where James started to come into his own. He got a nice marriage with Princess Anne of Denmark. Had children with her. And ruled his kingdom perhaps bring Scotland I’d say some sense of stability. Yet he was due to succeed to the throne of England in the south upon the passing of Queen Elizabeth who had no heir.
So James now took over rule of a 2nd kingdom and from 1603 to his death, would only ever return to Scotland once. James’ rule was well nothing special imo. He didn’t seem to get on well with Parliament especially the commons. He came off ineffectual as a ruler and rather weak. In him you see elements of Edward II & Richard II for those familiar with prior monarchs. Plus with how James went about his rule, I just got the impression he was simply not cut out for this. There’s likely good reason why his son Prince Henry was seemingly more popular & for a spell, Prince Charles.
Yet reading through this biography, you get an ominous sense of what’s to come in the next reign & I felt the seeds of Charle’s reign & Civil War were planted. Which as I got to the end the author excellently explained.
So for biographies on James VI and I this would likely be a good pick. I’m mostly a Yale Monarch series kind of guy, yet they don’t have a book on him or I think the one they have the rights to is old & considered outdated. So this one is more modern and likely the best you’re going to get. And hey, I’d say it’s a good one at that.
February 21, 2018
I was too hard on the author when I first read this book. It is very good with facts and is well researched. I've really become a fan of James I.
January 15, 2026
After watching the sensational television series "Mary and George" which portrayed King James I's love affair with George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, I read this biography of the King specifically to discover a modern historian's view of James' sexuality. In this I was completely disappointed. Whilst Alan Stewart describes in detail James' succession of male favourites, his perspective is wholly from the viewpoint of James' contemporaries. The author appears deliberately to avoid any discussion of what the actual nature of these relationships was, or whether James was a gay monarch.
The book draws heavily on quotations from primary sources by James himself and his contemporaries, with almost no comment or interpretation by the author. It falls naturally into two halves. The first deals with the life of James VI of Scotland before the crowns of Scotland and England were united in his person. This part of the book reads like a chronicle, relating James' activities almost month by month, so detailed is the documentation extant from that period in his life. Whilst this is highly informative, I became increasingly bewildered by the proliferation of names, titles and locations. The second half deals with James' life as James I of England. Here the author changes his approach, which becomes much more thematic, if still in chronological order, and drawing exclusively on extracts from contemporaneous sources. I found this approach to be much more readable.
Yet certain important aspects of James' reign are completely ignored by the author. Such stellar playwrights as William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson are only mentioned in passing and there is no discussion of the triumphs of Jacobean theatre. Ireland does not feature at all, despite the Plantation of Ulster being one of James' pet projects and one whose consequences are still with us today. Stewart does write that James was more of a sixteenth century monarch in his preoccupation with religion, dynastic succession and his own safety, than representative of the Jacobean Age that was named after him. Yet I find Stewart's focus on specific issues frustrating.
I did find myself warming to James' character in the course of the book: his learning and literary output, his fluency in Classical languages, his down-to-earth sense of humour and no-nonsense, sensible approach to religious controversy, his pacificism. Reading between the lines of the evasive accounts of his contemporaries, I did become convinced he was indeed a gay man, forced by the needs of the succession to marry and father children, yet happiest in the company of (and in bed with) a series of handsome young gay male lovers. His extreme anxiety about what secrets his Scottish favourite, Robert Carr, the Earl of Somerset, was threatening to reveal about their relationship when brought to court on trial for murder, is to me highly significant. James appears to me to be a classic example of the powerful (in this case gay) man using his position to promote subordinates in return for sexual favours. Yet he seems genuinely to have loved the handsome older men he favoured as a teenager (such as Esmé Stewart, the Earl of Lennox) and the much younger men (such as Robert Carr and George Villiers) as an older man himself. The suggestive language and terms of endearment in the correspondence between James and George cannot be read as anything other than that between lovers.
For some reason Alan Stewart is averse to any discussion of or speculation about James' sexuality, or that of his lovers. So that must be the subject of another biography, not this one. Still, Stewart's biography is highly detailed and informative about specific aspects of James' life, and, for that at least, I found his book informative.
The book draws heavily on quotations from primary sources by James himself and his contemporaries, with almost no comment or interpretation by the author. It falls naturally into two halves. The first deals with the life of James VI of Scotland before the crowns of Scotland and England were united in his person. This part of the book reads like a chronicle, relating James' activities almost month by month, so detailed is the documentation extant from that period in his life. Whilst this is highly informative, I became increasingly bewildered by the proliferation of names, titles and locations. The second half deals with James' life as James I of England. Here the author changes his approach, which becomes much more thematic, if still in chronological order, and drawing exclusively on extracts from contemporaneous sources. I found this approach to be much more readable.
Yet certain important aspects of James' reign are completely ignored by the author. Such stellar playwrights as William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson are only mentioned in passing and there is no discussion of the triumphs of Jacobean theatre. Ireland does not feature at all, despite the Plantation of Ulster being one of James' pet projects and one whose consequences are still with us today. Stewart does write that James was more of a sixteenth century monarch in his preoccupation with religion, dynastic succession and his own safety, than representative of the Jacobean Age that was named after him. Yet I find Stewart's focus on specific issues frustrating.
I did find myself warming to James' character in the course of the book: his learning and literary output, his fluency in Classical languages, his down-to-earth sense of humour and no-nonsense, sensible approach to religious controversy, his pacificism. Reading between the lines of the evasive accounts of his contemporaries, I did become convinced he was indeed a gay man, forced by the needs of the succession to marry and father children, yet happiest in the company of (and in bed with) a series of handsome young gay male lovers. His extreme anxiety about what secrets his Scottish favourite, Robert Carr, the Earl of Somerset, was threatening to reveal about their relationship when brought to court on trial for murder, is to me highly significant. James appears to me to be a classic example of the powerful (in this case gay) man using his position to promote subordinates in return for sexual favours. Yet he seems genuinely to have loved the handsome older men he favoured as a teenager (such as Esmé Stewart, the Earl of Lennox) and the much younger men (such as Robert Carr and George Villiers) as an older man himself. The suggestive language and terms of endearment in the correspondence between James and George cannot be read as anything other than that between lovers.
For some reason Alan Stewart is averse to any discussion of or speculation about James' sexuality, or that of his lovers. So that must be the subject of another biography, not this one. Still, Stewart's biography is highly detailed and informative about specific aspects of James' life, and, for that at least, I found his book informative.
October 4, 2020
I gave up on my first reading but tried again and persevered. And very glad that I did. It is a scholarly work, Both the Scottish and then then English politics are complicated and so many people come into the book that east to get lost. But great to get the balance of James VI of Scotland and 1 of England. With James so associated with the Gunpowder Plot, interesting to see that the author does not devote a huge amount of time to this . It is the lesser known aspects of the reign that appear in the book that are so well highlighted such as the mysteries surrounding the Gowrie House Plot of 1600, allegedly to assassinate James. And the influence of James' association with Denmark in shaping the 1590's witch hunts in Scotland. Certainly recommend this book.
February 4, 2024
Some of this is very dense and detailed reading, but I really enjoyed the bits about James’s interest in religious affairs, as well as his push to create a united Britain under one crown. While the latter was unsuccessful in his lifetime, it was very interesting to read about the various issues that arose with Parliament - and the differences between the Scots and the English.
September 7, 2024
The first of the Stuart kings of both England and Scotland. A man who wanted to be remembered as an English Solomon, but who, in the words of the author, “remains an infant, an innocent for whom the harsh realities of kingship are still unimaginable.”
May 28, 2024
What a loser.
This book is amazingly written and very emotive but oh my goodness was James the First a little bitch.
This book is amazingly written and very emotive but oh my goodness was James the First a little bitch.
January 28, 2024
he was a man she hexed his ship can history make it any more obvious
August 28, 2014
The Cradle King is an academic study of James Vi and I of England - the first monarch of a United Great Britain. In many spots, the book is incredibly informative and entertaining but I found that some of the chapters were a bit ponderous. The sections involving religion were important to the historical narrative but I felt that they were written with less flair than the political intrigues covered. Overall, I would recommend this book to someone with an intense interest in British history but it might be a little too slow for the casual reader. Enjoy!
August 23, 2015
An extremely detailed biography of King James (Scotland/England). A man whose father died in an explosion and whose mother was locked up by Queen Elizabeth I for many years and eventually executed for treason against that same monarch. This was a king raised by men and during a time of turbulence and violence in Scotland. Warring factions battled for control of both the country and himself. Nearly everything you would ever need to know about him is in this book but I had to force myself to finish it because it was so long and dry.
December 2, 2009
A gift from my cooperating teacher and my students.
August 25, 2009
A thorough biography of a compelling, often puzzling character.
December 19, 2013
Interesting insight into James I. For background a good complementary read is "After Elizabeth..." by Leanda de lisle.
September 27, 2015
A fine recitation of facts, but doesn't do a great job describing the times James live in.
October 6, 2014
Wonderful detailed book, enjoyable read with interesting facts.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews