The most interesting of monarchs

When an honest citizen was shown into King James I’s room in Whitehall, the scene of confusion amid which he found the King was no bad picture of the state and quality of James’s own mind. Walter Scott, in The Fortunes of Nigel, tells the story and he explains how valuable ornaments were arranged in a slovenly manner, covered with dust; the table was loaded with huge folios, amongst which lay light books of jest and ribaldry; the King was dressed in a doublet of green velvet, over which he wore a sad-coloured nightgown, out of the pocket of which peeped his hunting horn. But such inconsistencies in dress and appointments, Scott explains, were mere outward types of those which existed in the royal character. He says that James was deeply learned, without possessing any useful knowledge; sagacious without having real wisdom; fond of his power, yet willing to resign the direction of that, and of himself, to the most unworthy favourites. Thus the character of James was a subject of doubt amongst his contemporaries and would be a problem to future historians.

Scott was right. James had become James VI of Scotland at the age of 13 months and he was about to be 37 when he succeeded Queen Elizabeth and became James I of England in 1603. All his life he was king. He unified in his person the kingdoms of Scotland and England and his death in 1625 preceded by a relatively short time the Civil War and the execution of his son. Thus the reigns of James are vital periods in the histories of the two countries and have to be studied as such. But there have been many historians who have placed the personal character of James at the centre of their preoccupations. The latest biography, by Alan Stewart, does not neglect general history, but in his attractive and scholarly book it is the life, thoughts and actions of James that dominate.