King James (review)

Pauline Croft's King James is an easily read, pocket-book account of the life, writing and political career of King James I (and VI of Scotland), which offers an undemanding introduction to the political life of Jacobean England. While the study is not broadly revisionary, the author is determined to offer a more favourable account of James than many previous studies have allowed. Croft shows us a king who was far more sensitive, literate, intelligent and diplomatic than was suggested in the early posthumous accounts by anti-Scots commentators, who helped established his long-held reputation as a timid, duplicitous, homosexual drunkard. Croft openly associates her own study of James with the more recent 'rediscovery' of the King's importance by early modern historians such as Jenny Wormald, Maurice Lee and David Bergeron. In particular she is eager to reinvestigate James's personal contribution to the broader cultural development of early modern Britain, as well as the newly forming notion of 'Britain' itself.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this straightforward chronological study is its success in placing James, not only at the centre of British political culture in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, but also at the centre of its literary culture. The Introduction points out that James's reign in England spanned the emergence of the 'twin peaks of the English language' (p. 1) – the King James Bible and the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays. Unfortunately Croft makes the extraordinary error of dating the Folio at '1616', in apparent confusion with the year of Shakespeare's death, rather than the Folio's actual date of 1623. The author is far more convincing when linking James's own literary production to significant personal and political events in a way that should interest historians and literary scholars alike.

The opening chapter seeks to find the roots of James's interests in scholarship, literature, statecraft and theology. It begins with a brief history of James's cloistered early life in Scotland, with emphasis on the formative influence of his strict childhood tutor George Buchanan. Croft creates a plausible link between James's early commitment to scholarship and the fact that many significant events in James's life seem to have inspired his literary production. Interestingly she identifies a therapeutic aspect in James's writing, claiming that it served as a way for the young King to 'help himself cope with stress.' (p. 23) Prime examples of which are The Phoenix, which laments the passing of James's close friend and confidante Esme D'Aubigny and later Ane Fruitfull Meditatioun (1588) expressing James's growing anxiety over European politics.

The first few chapters cover James's term as King as Scotland, prior to 1603. This includes well-worn issues such as the popular concern over his preference for young men and lack of interest in women prior to his highly successful marriage to Anne of Denmark in April 1590. While the marriage oscillated between 'affection and estrangement' (p. 36), the marriage produced two male heirs, Henry and Charles (later Charles I), as well as providing the King with a well-trained royal wife and a much-needed dowry. This example serves to produce an account of James as a King who, from his early days, had a happy knack of easing popular anxiety over his personal habits just in the nick of time.

Chapter Three deals with James's accession to the English throne, hailed as a success by the his ability to cement himself in the seat of an important Protestant power, while maintaining peace with Spain and pushing for the Union of England and Scotland. Croft maps out here the difficulties posed by James's lack of financial prudence, culminating in the failure of the 'Great Contract' and his preference for hunting over matters of state, but also points out that peaceful rule was sustained by his equally strong ability to forge close personal relationships at a domestic and foreign level. She argues that foreign policy 'was a more...