Two years later, he married Anne of Denmark. Happy together at first they had three sons and four daughters, but gradually drifted apart.

Then, leaving his wife in tears in Edinburgh High Street, he set off, a tall gangling man with straggling sandy hair and a straggling beard. William E. Thompson, Her Walls Before Thee Stand: The 235-Year History of the Presbyterian Congregation at Hampden-Sydney, Virginia (2010), revised 2011 edition, p. 15

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A young scholar who enjoyed studying and not naturally inclined towards sport the teenage James revelled in reading and learning languages from Greek to Latin and French as well as composing poetry and translating the bible. Not known to be a social creature James nevertheless cultivated a close friendship with the married 37-year-old Esme Stuart, 1st Earl of Lennox, to who he also dedicated a poem. What was more likely a crush for the then 14-year-old James than a friendship is the first indication of the Scottish king’s latent homosexuality which Protestant nobles disdained given James's enjoyment of demonstrating public displays of affection with the earl. He united the thrones of Scotland and England, changing the direction of English history. As the patron of Inigo Jones’s dazzling Banqueting House, he made an important contribution to English architecture.

Dabiri, Emma. "Filled with 'a number of male lovelies': the surprising court of King James VI and I". BBC Scotland. BBC . Retrieved 28 August 2020. James’s controversial reign over two countries saw him in constant struggles with Parliament particularly when it came to spending treasury money. Parliament on the other hand was determined to control taxation. But James believed that he was only answerable to God alone and should be able to do as he liked. As James ignored Parliament for most of the decade, his personal relationships with favourites - offering them expensive gifts and high ranking titles - also irked the authorities. But few at the time were aware of the intimate nature of some of these relationships. Gay lovers From 1601, in the last years of Elizabeth's life, certain English politicians—notably her chief minister Robert Cecil [f]—maintained a secret correspondence with James to prepare in advance for a smooth succession. [83] With the queen clearly dying, Cecil sent James a draft proclamation of his accession to the English throne in March 1603. Elizabeth died in the early hours of 24 March, and James was proclaimed king in London later the same day. [84] [85] Bray, Alan (2003). The Friend. University of Chicago Press. pp.167–170. ISBN 0-2260-7180-4. ; Bray, Alan (1994). Goldberg, Jonathan (ed.). Homosexuality and the Signs of Male Friendship in Elizabethan England. Duke University Press. pp.42–44. ISBN 0-8223-1385-5. {{ cite book}}: |work= ignored ( help)This course will examine the ideas and writings of King James VI & I, beginning with his rule over Scotland and including England after 1603, as expressed thought his own writings and those of his contemporaries. Like many early modern monarchs, James was much concerned with his role and destiny as King, and all this entailed. During his reign he faced a number of unique challenges in part brought about by the geography of his realms, including the so-called Highland problem, the Union of the Crowns between Scotland and England, the Ulster plantation and the newly claimed lands in the Americas, as well as religious unrest at home and conflict abroad. This course will take a thematic approach and consider, among others, James' ideas on kingship, religion, war and peace, union, and empire, mainly using primary material. James's captors forced from him a proclamation, dated 30 August, declaring that he was not being held prisoner "forced or constrained, for fear or terror, or against his will", and that no one should come to his aid as a result of "seditious or contrary reports". [33]