Amazon.co.uk Review
Published to mark the 400th anniversary of King James I's accession to the throne of England in 1603, Alan Stewart's biography
The Cradle King: A Life of James VI and I offers a fascinating reassessment of one of England's most curiously neglected monarchs. As Stewart suggests, this unfair neglect masks a complex and highly intelligent monarch who achieved the feat of ruling England in peace from 1603 until his death of natural causes in 1625.
The strength of Stewart's biography lies in his exploration of James' other title: King James VI of Scotland. James was crowned king at the age of one "during one of the most bitter and bloody periods in Scottish history", which witnessed the expulsion and subsequent murder of his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, and repeated attempts upon the young king's life. Stewart has trawled a mass of neglected archival material to provide a compelling portrait of the "cradle king", who spent over 50 years as a king, and whose public life was defined by the febrile and violent world of Scottish politics.
In 1603, following the death of Queen Elizabeth I, James took the crown of England, and Stewart spends the second half of his biography unravelling James' labyrinthine financial, domestic and foreign policy, as well as his complex sexuality, and extraordinary relationship with the charismatic Duke of Buckingham.
This is an excellent biography that resituates James as one of England's most astute monarchs, while also comically underlining his faults and foibles. Stewart points out that James "mocked colonial exploration, fell asleep during England's most celebrated plays, and showed little interest in momentous scientific advances", all signs of how his public career was shaped in his infancy as a "cradle king". --Jerry Brotton
Product Description
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.
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