THE CRADLE KING: The Life of James VI & I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain

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." (Dec. 17)