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Despite his privileged position, James Stuart did not have an easy start to life. Propelled to the Scottish throne at just 13 months old, following the murder of his father and the forced abdication of his mother Mary, Queen of Scots (whom he never saw again), the king’s early years were marked by political and religious turmoil, kidnap attempts, and assassinations. As an adult, he faced further controversies and conspiracies, including the Gunpowder Plot. Yet his long reign also witnessed an extraordinary cultural flowering and, following the death of Elizabeth I of England in 1603, the ‘Union of the Crowns’ that saw him ruling over two separate realms, styled as James VI and I.
These complexities form the focus of an exhibition currently running at National Galleries of Scotland: Portrait in Edinburgh. Over 140 objects, including paintings, writings, jewellery, clothing, and coins, have been brought together to help explore the king’s life and legacy, offering context to stubborn stereotypes and insights into his intellectual interests. Among the texts on display is James’ earliest published work: a collection of poems that he wrote as a teenager, which include an acrostic based on his cousin’s name and a sonnet in the Scots language. The latter, blotted with revisions and crossings-out, show a lively mind at work – but more sober subjects are represented by a guide to kingship that he later wrote for his eldest son, Henry Frederick. Sadly, Henry would never be able to put his father’s advice to use, as he died at the age of 18; items reflecting these events offer a thought-provoking ‘what might have been’, given the bloody conflict that ended the reign of Charles I, who inherited the throne instead.
Perhaps James’ most notorious work, however, is his Daemonologie, a treatise on witchcraft which the king wrote in the aftermath of a storm-tossed voyage that he blamed on black magic. This book sparked savage persecutions, but also possibly inspired one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, Macbeth. It is displayed alongside other evidence of contemporary superstitions, including a rock crystal ‘charmstone’ and a bezoar (a hard lump of chewed hair found inside the stomachs of cows and goats) which were thought to guard against poison and illness. Yet this was also the monarch who sponsored a hugely influential English translation of the Bible, and whose outward-looking court saw a great expansion of trade and diplomatic ties, including appointing the first English ambassador to Mughal India and establishing the first permanent English settlement in North America (although such efforts helped to foster early colonial exploitation as well).
More intimate insights come from displays exploring James’ relationship with his wife, Anne of Denmark, whose bejewelled initial he wears in some portraits (above), and the scandals surrounding some of his male ‘favourites’. Elsewhere visitors can learn about his passion for fine clothes and jewels, as well as his dislike of tobacco-smoking (‘a custom loathsome to the eye [and] hateful to the nose’) and ‘rough and violent exercises’ like football.
Perhaps the most personal items in the exhibition, however, are the letters that the king wrote in his youth – particularly one in which a six-year-old James thanks Annabella Murray, Countess of Mar, into whose care he had been entrusted, for a gift of fruit. James addresses her as ‘Lady Minny’, using a Scots word for ‘mother’ – a touching nickname given by a child who was raised without parents or siblings and faced such uncertainty.
Further information: The World of King James VI & I runs at National Galleries of Scotland: Portrait in Edinburgh until 14 September. Tickets cost £4-£9; see http://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/world-king-james-vi-and-i for more details.
Image: National Galleries of Scotland
