The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain [Hardcover]

Alan Stewart (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312274882 | ISBN-13: 978-0312274887 | Publication Date: December 16, 2003 | Edition: First Edition

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 rumored that his father, Henry, had tried to make the pregnant Mary miscarraige by forcing her to witness the assasination of her supposed lover, David Riccio. By the time James was a one-year-old, Henry was murdered, possibly with the connivance of his mother, Mary was in exile in England and he 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 the country. But even with power in his hands, he would never feel safe. For the rest of his life, he could be caught up in bitter struggles between the warring political and religious factions who fought for control over his mind and body.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following his biography of the quintessential Elizabethan, Philip Sydney, Stewart tackles the Stuarts with a political treatment of how James VI of Scotland (1567-1625) became James I of England. James's family background and early life in Scotland would have made a fine Jacobean tragedy-his father, Lord Darnley, was murdered with the apparent complicity of his doomed mother, Mary, along with a backstabbing court. Crowned as an infant, James spent his childhood as a political chess piece for various regents' ambitions, and he became jumpy if not slightly paranoid. By adulthood, he had learned enough realpolitik to play off the factious lairds and the Presbyterian kirk, survive rebellions and assassination attempts, and maintain Scotland's traditional European ties. Throughout, Stewart notes, he successfully cultivated Elizabeth I to become her heir. The tactics that had served James well in Scotland, however, did not adapt well to his new country, much less unify the new "Britain." James clashed with Commons, alienated Puritans, cracked down on Catholics, entangled his foreign alliances and invited scandal at court with favoritism (sometimes homoerotic). Although Stewart doesn't dwell on high points like the Gunpowder Plot or the King James Bible, he adds color to his narrative of nonstop plotting and politicking with choice extracts from contemporary records, clandestine correspondence and the occasional lampoon. Timed for the 400th anniversary of James's accession to the British throne this year, this is a thorough if narrowly focused courtside life of the "sovereign who gave his name to the Jacobean age, but who was never truly of it."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Alan Stewart is the author of the acclaimed biographies Philip Sydney: A Double Life and Hostage to Fortune: The Troubled Life of Francis Bacon (with Lisa Jardine).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (December 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312274882
• ISBN-13: 978-0312274887
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #888,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The first ruler of Britain, almost a capable plotter, January 19, 2006

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain (Hardcover)

What machinations! The court of the Tudors and Stuarts in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century were not easy places to navigate. For a young boy left by his mother to the in-fighting of Lairds and nobles it was an even more difficult place. It would be considered tragic now, that a boy like James should be used as a pawn for others gains, but for his time it was simply a game, and a game with huge wins and losses.

Alan Stewarts book is almost very very good but I felt it fell short on many points. It is a highly readable work, and it covers some excellent matieral I had never read about before - the plotting and constant scheming of the courts. It also, to my relief, treated the issues in context to the time. There was no moralising about what happened, but it was very much presentation of the facts and their consequences.

James VI of Scotland had grown up literally an orphan with his mother imprisoned in England and then beheaded. While he managed to manipulate the Scottish court, the intricacies of the British Court escaped him and his ability to rule England was often compromised. Perhaps too, in comparison to Elizabeth I he paled in significance in all aspects.

This is a pretty good presentation of the first of the Stuart Kings who lasted little more than a century - but in that time managed a huge amount of upheaval to the British landscape and temperament.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Scottish take over, June 16, 2007

By 

Mark Latchford (Sydney Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain (Hardcover)

Often books about European royalty are so complex that the reader needs to have a finger forever on family trees as he/she wades though the chapters. This book about a critical leader in our Anglo-Saxon past is very easy to read and provides some important new information and highlights the critical bonds between England and Scotland at the end of the Tudor era. I highly recommend this very readable book

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cradle King review, March 3, 2009

By 

C. Tuttle (Virgnia USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain (Hardcover)

I hadn't read much about James I so decided I wanted to find a book that covered his early childhood as much as his adult life as a king, given the turbulent and traumatic childhood he experienced. This work helped me understand how his personality developed in that environment and shaped who he became and the legacy he left his son, Charles I.