“The intensity of their relationships with James was unlike that of any which had gone before them” Dr Alexander Courtney on James VI & I
Historian and HistFest 2024 speaker Dr Alexander Courtney on James VI & I
Dr Alexander Courtney is an independent scholar whose research has explored several aspects of the kingship of James VI & I. He graduated with a double starred-first from Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he also completed his doctoral research. He teaches at The Perse School, Cambridge. Alex has appeared on the BBC in Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents (2017) and, among other things, is currently working on projects connected with the newly deciphered letters of Mary, Queen of Scots. His first book, James VI, Britannic Prince, will be published by Routledge on 3 June 2024. At HistFest 2024, Alexander will be a panellist on How to Survive a Tudor and Stuart Court.
What is the biggest misconception about James VI & I?
Where to start?! There are so many half-truths, misrepresentations and falsehoods that have obscured this king from view.
One significant misconception which has shaped many interpretations of James's life, however, is that his childhood was a lonely and psychologically damaging experience which left him emotionally and physically broken. His education was, in that view, a dreary tale of interminable lessons of Latin and Calvinist theology, punctuated only by regular and severe beatings at the hands of his tutor, George Buchanan. Even the pillows of his bed were fringed in black.
That is all nonsense. In James VI, Britannic Prince I present a different account of his childhood and education at Stirling Castle, one that does not rely on sub-Dickensian misreadings of the available sources. The James who revealed himself to be a wily, confident political operator, a man of courage, resilience and not inconsiderable charm, was not so much 'hobbled' by his upbringing as shaped and enabled by it.
What were his key achievements as King of Scots?
James survived and overcame the many challenges to his authority, liberty and life - from the official ending of his minority in 1578, when he was approaching twelve, to 1601 and the Gowrie Plot. Over more than two decades he not only faced multiple attempted palace coups and several rebellions, but also the destabilising forces of armed demonstrations and bloodfeuding, and sustained fiery criticism from pulpits and in pamphlets. And all that was all the more challenging when we consider the willingness of Elizabeth I and her government to intervene in James's kingdom and to profit from his difficulties. By 1603 James had tamed the radical Presbyterian ministers of the Scottish Kirk and the last attempts to gain power through violence against his person or his court had totally failed.
Additionally, James was successful in the great goal of his reign. He acceded peacefully to the throne which Elizabeth I vacated on 24 March 1603. While many accounts have suggested that James's accession to the English throne was really the achievement of Sir Robert Cecil, I argue a different case. Rather than seeing James as fearful, feckless and fussy about the English succession, we can see that he was active and inventive in promoting and defending his dynastic right. He skillfully played upon the religious and political divisions of the period, both in the British Isles and in Europe.
Was he a good king?
Were any of them 'good'? James certainly developed into a very, very politically skillful king in Scotland.
He was - as his fiercest critics acknowledged - infuriatingly accomplished at talking his way out of difficulties. He was a resourceful and (often) downright shameless self-publicist. He was a prolific and inventive writer and an accomplished orator, capable of moving an audience to raptures of tearful applause. Contrary to the later caricature of him as a feeble coward, he frequently led military expeditions in Scotland in the 1580s and 1590s, and was courageous when faced with threats to his person.
But his kingship had its victims. Most notoriously, those accused, tortured and executed as witches in the 1590s were the innocent victims of his 'justice'. And the abandonment of his mother to her fate in 1587 likewise points to an unattractive ruthlessness.
He was rather more impressive a figure than has often been acknowledged, but he was certainly not always admirable.
Recent shows, such as Mary and George, have placed a spotlight on royal favourites. Can you tell us about the impact of James VI & I’s favourites on his reign?
James had three great favourites: Esmé Stewart (Seigneur d'Aubigny and then duke of Lennox), Robert Carr (earl of Somerset) and George Villiers (duke of Buckingham). While there were others who enjoyed royal favour derived from their closeness to the king, none came close to these three in political power or in the intensity of James's personal relationships with them.
In this first volume of James's biography, I address the relationship with D'Aubigny, James's French cousin who was in the political ascendant between 1579 and 1582. Whereas there have been historians who have claimed that James was 'seduced' (or 'groomed') by D'Aubigny and that they became passionate 'lovers', in my view such interpretations are sensationalist and simplistic - and, in some cases, really distasteful. While there is evidence that James loved D'Aubigny, there is nothing to indicate that they were lovers. Contemporary criticisms of D'Aubigny focused on his Frenchness and his nefarious influence as an evil counsellor. He was leading the young king away from virtuous living and true piety (i.e. zealous Presbyterian Protestantism and an alliance with Elizabeth's England) and into vice and popery. The language of corruption deployed by such sources should not be taken too literally or narrowly and out of context.
The rest of his Scottish reign, however, is not marked by the presence of powerful male favourites like D'Aubigny whom James loved. After his marriage to Anna of Denmark, on at least one occasion in the early 1590s James was criticised as 'a buggerer'. But suggestions that James had lovers are fleeting - and female.
The situation changed profoundly with the rise first of Somerset and then of Buckingham, who will feature in my next volume. James's correspondence with Somerset and Buckingham reveals the strong emotional attachment that James felt towards them, and in Buckingham's case their letters suggest that James's relationship with him was likely physical. The settled affection of a king had political consequences. As James put it, the 'infinite privacy' that his late favourites enjoyed with him was extraordinary; the intensity of their relationships with James was unlike that of any which had gone before them.
Exactly what they did or did not do in the royal bedchamber cannot be determined and speculative answers to such questions can advance our understanding of James and of Jacobean politics and court society very little. What can more readily be recovered is how those relationships were perceived and represented by others, what the promotion of his favourites meant politically for James, for his other counsellors and his subjects.
In researching James, has there been anything that has surprised you?
The sources for James's life and reign are so rich, so complex and colourful, that I just keep finding things that surprise me. I have stuck close to my sources in James VI, Britannic Prince and included new archival (and pictorial) discoveries as well as reinterpretations of more familiar materials, so readers will hopefully experience that richness, colour and surprise too.
James's resourcefulness and inventiveness as a writer came through to me especially strongly as I worked on this book. His strategic intent to fashion his writings to meet his political ends is as apparent in his first published book of poetry, the Essayes of a prentise (1584), as it is in the crossings out in his manuscript draft of Basilikon Doron (1599). When we look at such texts afresh and in context, it is hard not to be impressed by his capabilities.
In the big picture, however, I was struck by how many of the familiar elements of conventional narratives of English Elizabethan politics look rather different when James VI and developments in Scotland are put centre stage. Without that, so much of Elizabethan politics seems like a production of Hamlet without the prince.
What will you be researching next?
I have not finished with James quite yet.
I have three Jacobean projects on the immediate horizon. Besides the second volume of the biography, covering James's life from 1603 to 1625, I am co-editing a volume of essays on James's kingship with Michael Questier, to be published by Routledge in 2025 to mark the 400th anniversary of the king's death. I am also working on an edition of the newly discovered letters of Mary Queen of Scots, deciphered by George Lasry, Norbert Biermann and Satoshi Tomokiyo.
Alongside my teaching, that is enough to keep me busy for now!
James VI, Britannic Prince will be published by Routledge on 3 June 2024
“A splendid new account of King James VI’s life” - David L. Smith, University of Cambridge
“A major contribution not only to Scottish and British History but to our understanding of the geopolitics of Europe in an age of turmoil” - John Morrill, University of Cambridge
Dr Alexander Courtney will be speaking about James VI & I at HistFest 2024. Online tickets to his panel event How To Survive a Tudor and Stuart Court with Charlie Higson are still available.
Well, this is a timely piece with Mary & George flooding social media. King James's Scottish reign deserves more attention and I for one would like to know more about it. I'll order the new book.