New book tackles Anglocentric view of James VI and I

AN Anglocentric focus and a man with a grudge have led to the unflattering portrait of the first monarch to reign over both Scotland and England.

That’s the conclusion of the author of a new book about James VI and I which disputes the claims he was a smelly coward with a tongue too big for his mouth.

He was also groomed as a child by a sexual predator the same age as his mother, Mary Queen of Scots (below), ­according to Dr Steven Veerapen of Strathclyde University.

Sadly, one fact that cannot be disputed is that James drove the horrific witch hunts in Scotland after witchcraft was blamed for causing storms that threatened to sink the ship carrying his bride-to-be from Denmark.

“When it was suggested that the admiral of the Danish fleet had not made a good job of outfitting the ships supposed to carry Anne of Denmark (below) over to Scotland he blamed witchcraft,” Veerapen told the Sunday National.

“James heard about this and ­decided the witches in Denmark could not have been working alone and there must be witches here. He really let the genie out of the bottle.”

Veerapen describes James’s attitude to witchcraft as “bizarre”.

“On the one hand he was very well educated and wanted to show off as a leading European intellectual, but on the other he wanted to be head of the Kirk which involved ­identifying religious enemies and religious non-conformists and, to him, that included witches.”

While the witch hunts are a horrific stain on James’s reign, his success in keeping peace in both his kingdoms is often overlooked, argues Veerapen in his book The Wisest Fool – the ­Lavish Life of James VI and I.

After previously dispelling some of the myths around Elizabeth I of England – such as her reputed love of white lead make-up – ­Veerapen ­started to question some of the ­accepted narrative around James.

“The white make-up was one of those tales made up to mock ­Elizabeth so I was curious about whether what we think we know about James is ­similarly just more of these slanderous tales,” he said.

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What he found was that the stories were political propaganda of the time and had no basis in reality.

“A lot of what is said about James – like he only ever washed his hands – I have traced back to a courtier called Anthony Weldon who had had a bit of falling out with the king,” said Veerapen. “No-one else was saying these things and once I researched them I found they were nonsense.”

He also discovered an Anglocentric slant to many stories about James.

“It’s almost as if his life started when he became King of England and people forget or are not ­interested in the life he had before that when he was King of Scotland only,” said Veerapen.

“He was accused of being the most cowardly man that ever lived and I found a lot of that was written ­because he opposed England’s going to war in Europe. He was also ­terrified of assassins but he would have been stupid not to be as there were many about.

“When you look into it you find he led this really vigorous life in his youth when he was sailing off in the middle of storms and quelling ­rebels but that is never really spoken about. It is to his credit that when he left for England, Scotland remained ­fairly stable. He was able to leave and govern remotely and there were no major uprisings.”

This James did so effectively he was able to boast that he governed Scotland by the pen when others could not do it by the sword. He kept ­England from going to war in Europe, preferring civilised debate to any warmongering. It was also said that James’s tongue was too large for his mouth making his speech unclear.

“I don’t think that was the case – I think it was just that he had a ­really strong Scottish accent so was not ­always understood in England,” said Veerapen.

It’s perhaps ironic, then, that one of the great works of English literature is the King James Bible, which was commissioned by James in 1604 in an attempt to reinforce his image as a spiritual as well as political leader.

Yet for someone who wanted to convey a spiritual persona, James was very keen on pursuing pleasures of the flesh and a good part of the new book deals with his sexuality.

“He was known as the king who was secretly gay but what I found was that as far as lovers go he cast a wide net,” Veerapen said. “He definitely did have lots of male relationships but he had sensual female relationships as well. He cheated on his wife with a woman and then remained faithful until he got to England and took male lovers.”

IT is now recognised that Elizabeth I was groomed when she was just 13 years old by Admiral Thomas Seymour and James was also groomed as a child but, like Elizabeth, was blamed for the relationship with the adult.

“It’s another interesting story that has not been given the attention it maybe should have been given,” said Veerapen.

“When James was 13 his cousin Esmé Stewart, who was in his late 30s, came to Scotland from France and James was accused of a grotesque sexual relationship with him when it was clear he was being groomed by this guy.”

At the English court, James was frequently seen on the arms of very handsome young men, and one wrote to him: “Next time I get hold of your bedpost I will never let go.”

“James was a very educated man under his tutor George Buchanan but the men he suddenly elevated to high office and was seen kissing publicly would have been more likely to win beauty contests rather than debates,” Veerapen said.

The term bisexuality had yet to be coined, but at that time people were less concerned with what people were actually doing in the bedroom than the political ramifications of their liaisons.

“For his part the only thing James identified as was king,” said Veerapen.

One of the other recurring themes of the book is James’s fixation with the notion of family.

“I think that goes back to childhood when he was taught by Buchanan, who was a misogynist, that he was ‘a bird of a bloody nest’ and his mother, Mary, was a whore and a murderess,” Veerapen said.

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“He was taught all this vile stuff and taught to hate and really fear his family but you find throughout his life that he was constantly talking about family. His political rhetoric was all about family – he would say ‘I am the husband and this island is my wife’.”

It was often said that James left his mother to die at the hands of ­Elizabeth I but Veerapen pointed out that he did make strong efforts to save her when she was on trial.

Those attempts failed but in 1612 James had Mary’s body disinterred from Peterborough Abbey and reburied under a big tomb in Westminster.

“It’s bigger than Elizabeth’s,” said Veerapen.

Rather than being labelled “the ­wisest fool in Christendom”, ­Veerapen thinks it would be more ­appropriate if James were ­remembered as a man “who loved deeply, sought peace ­assiduously, joked terribly and sought a sense of family that was always just beyond his reach.”

The Wisest Fool – the Lavish Life of James VI and I by Steven Veerapen is published by Birlinn