Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #465865 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 438 pages

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

From the Publisher
Fred D’Aguiar is a poet and novelist. Born in 1960, he was raised in Guyana and London. He now lives in Florida, where he teaches at the University of Miami. His first novel, The Longest Memory, won the 1994 Whitbread First Novel Award.

About the Author
Alan Stewart is the author of the acclaimed biographies Philip Sidney: A Double Life and Hostage to Fortune: The Troubled Life of Francis Bacon (with Lisa Jardine). He is Reader in Renaissance Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, and Associate Director of the AHRB Centre for Editing Lives and Letters. He lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Interesting, but not unputdownable
The factors that render a book like this unputdownable are either relevations of how the principal figure influenced contemporary political developments or - preferably AND - what a colourful personality he or she was. In the last case an author's mischievous eye in bringing that personality to life is an essential requirement.

Having bought the book on the strenght of the above synopsis I had hopes that at least the second element would guarantee a few day's entertaining reading. As it turns out, Mr. Stewart has taken great pains never to appear even remotely tabloidsy or unduly humorous in his approach of James the private person and his treatment of the King's private foibles could be read out under the Christmas tree without causing any great scandal or merriment.

What remains then to make this book interesting to the non-British reader is the impact James made on political or other major developments in the European theater. Here however the reader will find that James'occasional efforts in this field were usually without much consequence. His efforts concentrated on Scottish issues such as bringing the Kirk to heel, his unsuccesful efforts to formally create a Great Britain in his lifetime and on his other efforts in the fields of politics, theology and poetry within England and Scotland.

The resulting book is certainly "popular history" that however style-wise fully earns the Irish Times'description as being "thoughtful and erudite" which as we know is not always equal to "gripping and unputdownable". It will no doubt be of considerable interest to serious students of Britain's history and the Stuart dynasty. Foreign - and/or more shallow - readers should however approach the book's synopsis with some caution as it suggests more entertainment than this book actually delivers.

Slightly boring
If a review quoted on a book says, 'a very timely biography', beware! It means that there are not many new biographies on this subject and, if being, well, 'timely' is the best complement the book can get, that is not good enough.
If you are into a vivid, fast paced writing with a lot of personal detail (that of Alison Weir or Maureen Waller) you will be disappointed.
The book seems to be a bit inconsistent - the author tries to be very scholarly in some chapters, informal and personal in other and it just does not work.
If you're writing a paper on James I, you may find it useful. If you are into the King as a person and want to start with this book as an introduction into Stuart's England, don't bother.

Too much source material spoils the flow
I had looked forward to reading this biography of James Ist. Whilst an admitted devotee of Alison Weir and the scholarship and detail she brings to her biographies, I found this book hard going. This was mainly due to too much primary source quotation which would appear almost after every 6 lines or so.