Already a subscriber? Log in
Thus James grew up without mother or father, surrounded by factious noblemen who indulged themselves in battles, executions and murders. Although supposedly in the safety of the fortress of Stirling, and surrounded by men who believed that those who had the keeping of James held the future of Scotland in their hands, he saw many of them killed. When the Hamiltons invaded Stirling he watched his dying grandfather whom they had shot. Later he suffered intense panic as another invasion saw the seizure of his guardian whose son was killed in the confusion. It was appropriate that his tutor, Lord Buchanan, was not only ready to beat him and to give him a box on the ear, he also taught him that a king might be all-powerful but he could be opposed and even overthrown.
Stewart follows other biographers in seeing a new epoch begin in James’s life with the arrival in Scotland of his French cousin, EsmZ Stuart, Sieur d’Aubigny, whom he met in the great hall of Stirling castle on 15 September 1579. Shortly afterwards came James’s first introduction to public life with his ceremonial entry into Edinburgh. It is claimed that at this time James displayed his homosexuality. One observer noted that he was so obsessed with EsmZ Stuart that ‘in the open sight of people oftentimes he would clasp him about the neck and kiss him’, and many have described the French cousin as the first in a series of relationships with men who were favoured with privilege and power.
D’Aubigny became Earl of Lennox and later the only duke in Scotland. He gathered allies to him, he disposed of rivals, made himself the second person of the kingdom. But although he had publicly converted to Protestantism, there was a widespread fear that he was an agent of the Catholics. Queen Elizabeth believed that he was part of a plan to bring both kingdoms back to popery and she sent her representatives to Scotland to oppose him.
Scottish methods prevailed. In 1582 James was made a prisoner so that he could not protect his favourite. The nobles opposed to the Duke of Lennox, calling themselves the ‘Lords Enterprisers’, held him in Perth and Stirling and tried to force him to order the Duke back to France. After delays, arguments, threats and pressure from England Lennox left Scotland at the end of 1582, hoping that he could soon return, but he died within a few months.
During Lennox’s time at court James had created an association of poets with whom he wrote his own verse. In 1584 he published a poem telling the tale of the persecution and death of the phoenix. This mythological bird was used to represent Lennox and it is believed that this reveals the emotional ties that linked James to Lennox. Then, after he had been imprisoned for some ten months, another faction of the nobility helped James to escape and join with them. Once again a new regime had started, but the royal character had been formed. James knew that he was the embodiment of strength and fragility. He longed to have a court like the French (which Lennox had described to him). Therefore he was devoted to hunting, obliged to be bountiful and tempted to express his opinions on all subjects.
The history continues. Stewart explains how James never adjusted to England, with its expectations of change, its assertive churchmen and parliaments and its complicated diplomatic involvements in Europe. He differs from certain historians when he suggests that James bears some responsibility for the undermining of the Stuart monarchy. But he quotes extensively from James’s writings, speeches and conversations and there is much that is remarkable there.
James was the most interesting of monarchs. He saw himself as both a physician and a nursing father. Who can resist the king as physician who wrote A Counter-Blast to Tobacco (as Stewart tells us, it appeared anonymously in 1604)?
A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.
Also in Book Reviews
Latest
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in