The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain
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Another successor might have avoided some of these unwanted bequests, but Charles was already too implicated. Unlike James, who had consistently distanced himself from government, for the past five years Charles had shown himself keenly interested, a regular attender at Privy Council meetings and in Parliament. And Charles made one decision that was to prove highly damaging: he followed James by keeping Buckingham as his confidant and chief counsellor. Buckingham had reacted to the death of his self-styled maker by publicly wallowing in grief, falling seriously ill once again (‘much troubled with an impostume that brake in his head’ reported Chamberlain), and having to be carried to the funeral in a chair.71 Charles immediately adopted him: ‘I have lost a good father and you a good master,’ he said, ‘but comfort yourself, you have found another that will no less cherish you.’ Buckingham joined Charles’s own Bedchamber, and was confirmed in all his offices – Charles even gave him a golden key as a symbol of his right to enter any royal residence at any time of day or night.
But within months, Buckingham was a liability, despised by the public, and vilified by the House of Commons. Much of the opprobrium was a reaction to his foreign policy failures: various much-vaunted attempts at an alliance with France fell through, and a 1627 mission to save the Huguenots of La Rochelle ended in an ignominious siege on the Isle of Ré, leaving the Duke as the object of widespread ridicule. In 1626 Dr George Eglisham implicated Buckingham of malpractice in the deaths of the Duke of Lennox, the Earl of Southampton, the Marquis of Hamilton, as well as that of King James himself.72 Charges were brought against Buckingham, claiming that he had acted improperly when he caused an empirical medicine to be administered to the King, and a parliamentary inquiry was held in April, hearing evidence from the royal physicians, including William Harvey. The Duke was formally criticised but not condemned for his actions.73 Buckingham’s immediate influence came to an abrupt end on 23 August 1628, when he was stabbed to death by a discharged officer named John Felton. But Charles would never fully rid himself of the accusation that he owed his throne to murder. In February 1648, when a list of offences was being drawn up against the deposed and doomed King Charles, alongside the charges of violating the privileges of the kingdom, of causing the present Civil War, Parliament dredged up ‘old and almost forgotten charges, that his Majesty hastened the death of his father by poison, or that Buckingham attempted it with his consent…’.74
It is perhaps fitting that the death of King James aroused such speculation and innuendo. After all, his mother, it was said, had murdered his father. James himself, some had claimed, had connived at the death of his eldest son. And his father, many had claimed, had killed David Riccio precisely in order to ensure that Mary’s child would never be born alive. James, it seems, had not come so far from the bloody nest. As his life drew to a close, the attacks on him continued to multiply, many of them harshly ad hominem. When a libel entitled ‘The Commons’ Tears’ was dropped in court, James responded with a verse that opened ‘The wiper of the people’s tears | the drier up of doubts and fears’. Much of it was a typically uncompromising declaration of James’s superiority over the reader – ‘Kings walk the milky heavenly way | but you by bye-paths gad astray’ – but it did, however, contain an uncharacteristic admission of his own fallibility.
Tis true I am a cradle king
yet do remember every thing
That I have heretofore put out
and yet begin not for to doubt.75
It is only a passing stumble before James resumes his tirade – ‘O how gross is your device…’ – but in these four lines of doggerel rhyme, there is a rare hint of self-knowledge. For James was indeed a ‘cradle king’, crowned when barely a year old; by the time he came to respond to ‘The Commons’ Tears’ he was approaching sixty, and had over five decades of kingly experience on which to draw, all of which, as he here declared, he could still remember. But there is something telling in James’s expression here. Despite his age, despite his many years on two great thrones, he still uses the present tense – ‘Tis true I am a cradle king’ – as if, even now, he remains an infant, an innocent for whom the harsh realities of kingship are still unimaginable.
Notes
The following abbreviations are used in the notes.
PERSONAL ABBREVIATIONS
A
Anna of Denmark
C
Charles, later Prince of Wales
DC
Dudley Carleton
E
Elizabeth I of England
FW
Francis Walsingham
GV
George Villiers, later Duke of Buckingham
H
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, later King of Scots
J
James VI and I
JC
John Chamberlain
M
Mary, Queen of Scots
PC
Privy Council
RCa
Robert Carr, later Viscount Rochester, Earl of Somerset
RCe
Robert Cecil, later Viscount Cranborne, Earl of Salisbury
TR
Thomas Randolph
WC
Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley
FREQUENTLY CITED SOURCES
APC
Acts of Privy Council
Akrigg
Letters of King James VI and I, ed. G.P.V. Akrigg
Barlow
William Barlow, The summe and substance of the conference
Bergeron
David M. Bergeron, King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire
BL
British Library
Border Papers
Joseph Bain ed., The Border Papers
Calderwood
David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, ed. Thomas Thomson
CJ
Journal of the House of Commons
CSPD
Calendar of State Papers – Domestic
CSPF
Calendar of State Papers – Foreign
CSPSc
Calendar of State Papers – Scotland
CSPSp
Calendar of State Papers – Spain
CSPV
Calendar of State Papers – Venice
CSP Simancas
Calendar of Letters and State Papers relating to English affairs preserved in … the archives of Simancas
Dalrymple
David Dalrymple ed., Secret Correspondence of Sir Robert Cecil with James VI. King of Scotland
‘Danish
‘Danish Account’ in David Stevenson,
Account’
Scotland’s Last Royal Wedding
Diurnal
A Diurnal of Remarkable Occurants, ed. Thomson
DNB
Dictionary of National Biography
FSL
Folger Shakespeare Library
Gardiner
Samuel Rawson Gardiner, ‘On certain Letters of Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar’
HMC
Historical Manuscripts Commission
HMCD
HMC, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord L’isle & Dudley
HMCS
HMC, Calendar of the Manuscripts of … the Marquess of Salisbury
LJ
Journals of the House of Lords
McClure
The Letters of John Chamberlain, ed. Norman Egbert McClure
Nichols
Nichols, John ed., The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First
Normand & Roberts
Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts eds, Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland
PRO
Public Record Office
Rait & Cameron
Robert S. Rait and Annie L. Cameron, King James’s Secret
RPCS
Registers of the Privy Council of Scotland
SHR
Scottish Historical Review
Sommerville
SP
State Papers
Stevenson
David Stevenson, Scotland’s Last Royal Wedding
Willson
D.H. Willson, King James VI and I
NOTES TO INTRODUCTION
1. Oglander, A Royalist’s Notebook, 193–8. The dating is Oglander’s.
2. His Majesties Speach in This Last Session of Parliament; Sommerville 147–8.
NOTES TO CHAPTER ONE
1. Mauvissière to Charles IX, cit. Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, 4: 207.
2. For Mary, see esp. Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots; Wormald, Mary Queen of Scots. For Henry, see Bingham, Darnley.
3. TR to Leicester, 3 July 1565, cit. Fraser, The Lennox, 1: 480–81.
4. Keith, History of the Church and State, 2: 347.
5. On Scottish political and religious history of this period, see Tytler, History of Scotland; Reid, Kirk and Nation; McMillan, Worship of the Scottish Reformed Church; Donaldson, Scotland; Donaldson, ‘The Scottish Church’; Wormald, Court, Kirk and Community. On Knox, see Ridley, John Knox.
6. TR to WC, 8 May 1565. CSPSc 2: 156. DNB s.v. Stewart, Lord James, Earl of Mar, and afterwards Earl of Moray (1531?–1570).
7. DNB s.v. Hamilton, James, second Earl of Arran and Duke of Châtelhérault (d. 1575).
8. Reid, Kirk and Nation, 40.
9. Melvill, Autobiography and Diary, 1: 33.
10. Knox, A Sermon preached … vpon Sonday, the 19. of August. 1565; Knox, History of the Reformation, 332.
11. Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots, 282; Bingham, Darnley, 112–13.
12. Knox, History of the Reformation, 334.
13. Bingham, Darnley, 124.
14. DNB s.v. Hepburn, James, fourth Earl of Bothwell (1536?–1578); Bingham, Darnley, 117.
15. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 80.
16. Bingham, Darnley, 117–18.
17. TR to WC, 25 December 1565, Edinburgh. CSPF 1564–1568, 541.
18. TR to WC, 25 December 1565. CSPSc 2: 248.
19. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 74.
20. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 75.
21. Blackwood, History of Mary Queen of Scots, 9–10.
22. Lennox Narrative, para. III in Mahon, Mary Queen of Scots, 121.
23. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 75.
24. Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots, 289–90.
25. Blackwood, History of Mary Queen of Scots, 10–11.
26. Melville, Memoirs, 51.
27. Ruthven, ‘Relation’, 16–18; Bingham, Darnley, 133.
28. Ruthven, ‘Relation’, 17–18.
29. TR to Leicester, 13 February 1566; Keith, History of the Church and State, 402n.
30. Melville, Memoirs, 49; Bingham, Darnley, 134.
31. Accounts by: M to the Archbishop of Glasgow [after 9 March 1566]. Mary, Queen of Scots, Letters, ed. Strickland, 1: 22–5; Ruthven, ‘Relation’, 12–35, also in Keith, History of the Church and State, 3: 260–78; TR and Bedford to WC, 27 March, 1566. Mumby, Fall of Mary Stuart, 48–56; Knox, History of the Reformation, 34.
32. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 76–7.
33. Cit. Bingham, Darnley, 139–40.
34. Nau, History of Mary Stewart, 4, 7.
35. Melville, Memoirs, 52.
36. Keith, History of the Church and State, 3: 276–7.
37. Nau, History of Mary Stewart, 16.
38. M to E, 15 March 1566, Dunbar Castle. CSPSc 2: 268.
39. TR to WC, 21 March 1566. CSPSc 2: 269.
40. Bingham, Darnley, 143.
41. Wormald, Mary Queen of Scots, 159; TR to WC, 21 March 1566, CSPSc 2: 269–70.
42. Bingham, Darnley, 148–9.
43. TR to WC, 4 April 1566, CSPSc 2: 274, mentioned again, TR to WC, 25 April 1566, CSPSc 2: 276.
44. English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. Sayer and Kitteredge, no. 174, ‘Lord Bothwell’, 423–4.
45. M to E, 4 April 1566, Edinburgh. CSPSc 2: 275.
46. TR to WC, 25 April 1566, Berwick. CSPSc 2: 276.
47. TR to WC, 26 May 1566, Berwick. CSPSc 2: 281. For Maister Randolphes Phantasey, see Cranstoun ed., Satirical Poems.
48. TR to WC, 7 June 1566, Berwick. CSPSc 2: 283.
49. Killigrew to WC, 28 June 1566, Edinburgh. CSPSc 2: 290.
50. Robertson ed., Inventaires, xxxi–xxxii, cit. Bingham, Darnley, 149–50.
51. TR to WC, 14 June 1566, Berwick. CSPSc 2: 286.
52. Diurnal, 100; Sir William Drury to WC, 24 June 1566, Berwick. CSPF 1566–1568, 93.
53. Herries, Historical Memoris, 79.
54. Killigrew to WC, 24 June 1566, Edinburgh, CSPSc 2: 290.
55. Lennox Narrative, para. V in Mahon, Mary Queen of Scots, 122–3.
56. Bedford to WC, 3 August 1566. Stevenson, Selection of Unpublished Manuscripts, 165.
57. Nau, History of Mary Stewart, 28.
58. Bingham, Darnley, 155.
59. Bedford to WC, 8 August 1566, Berwick. CSPF 1566–1568, 114. See also ‘Advertisements out of Scotland’, [15] August 1566. CSPF 1566–1568, 118.
60. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 80–81.
61. Sir John Forster to WC, 8 September 1566. CSPF 1566–1568, 128.
62. ‘Advertisements out of Scotland’, [15] August 1566. CSPF 1566–1568, 118.
63. Hume, Love Affairs of Mary Queen of Scots, 318.
64. Lords of Council to Catherine, 8 October 1566, cit. Mumby, Fall of Mary Stuart, 116; Keith 2: 455.
65. Bingley, Darnley, 157–8: Mumby 117, 121, 122; Keith, History of the Church and State, 2: 450, 451, 456.
66. Diurnal, 101. See also Maitland to WC, 24 October 1566, Jedburgh. CSPSc 1563–1568, 301. Maitland to WC, 26 October 1566, Jedburgh, reports a crisis on 25 October 1566 after a brief reprieve. CSPSc 1563–1568, 302.
67. Diurnal, 101–2.
68. Lethington to Beaton, 24 October 1566. Mumby, Fall of Mary Stuart, 127.
69. Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots, 274.
70. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 81.
71. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 82–3.
NOTES TO CHAPTER TWO
1. Adamson, Genethliacum, title page. See DNB s.v. Adamson, Patrick; E to Bedford, 13 November 1566. CSPF 1566–1568, 146; Bedford to WC, 17 November 1566, Garendon. CSPF 1566–1568, 148.
2. Giovanni Correr to the Signory of Venice, 13/23 January 1567, Paris. CSPV 7: 386–7.
3. Bedford to WC, 25 November 1566. CSPF 1566–1568, 151.
4. Le Croc to the Archbishop of Glasgow, 23 December 1566, Stirling. Keith, History of the Church and State, 1: xcvii.
5. James VI and I, Apologie, (e3)r.
6. Keith, History of the Church and State, 2: 486–7; Diurnal, 104.
7. Instructions to Bedford, 7 November 1566. Keith, History of the Church and State, 2: 477–83.
8. Diurnal, 103.
9. Melville, Memoirs, 171.
10. Melville, Memoirs, 171–2.
11. Nau, History of Mary Stuart, cxlvii–cxlviii.
12. Le Croc to Glasgow, 23 December 1566, Stirling. Keith, History of the Church and State, 1: xcvii–xcviii.
13. Le Croc to Glasgow, 23 December 1566, Stirling. Keith, History of the Church and State, 1: xcviii.
14. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 81.
15. Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots, 540.
16. M to Beaton, 20 January 1567, Edinburgh. Mumby, Fall of Mary Stuart, 154.
17. Diurnal, 105.
18. Lennox Narrative, para. VIII, in Mahon, Mary Queen of Scots, 125.
19. Melville, Memoirs, 179.
20. H to Lennox, 7 February 1567, Edinburgh. Lennox Narrative, para. XI, in Mahon, Mary Queen of Scots, 127.
21. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 84.
22. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 84.
23. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 84.
24. Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots, 305–6.
25. Killigrew to WC, 8 March 1567, Edinburgh. CSPSc 2: 317.
26. E to M, 24 February 1567, Westminster. CSPSc 2: 316.
27. Killigrew to WC, 8 March 1567, Edinburgh. CSPSc 2: 317.
28. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 85.
29. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 85.
30. M to Mar, 29 March 1567, Edinburgh. HMC Mar & Kellie 16–17.
31. Herries, Historical Memoirs, 87.
32. Answers to Bothwell’s cartel, April 1567. CSPSc 2: 320–21.
33. William Kirkcaldy of Grange to Bedford, 20 April 1567. CSPF 1566–1568, 212.