The king who united two crowns
On 19 June 1566, James Charles Stuart was born in a small chamber in the royal apartments of Edinburgh Castle. His mother was Mary Queen of Scots; his father was Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. The birth was difficult, and rumours swirled almost immediately — Darnley publicly doubted the child was his, a dangerous accusation that Mary furiously denied. The infant who entered the world in that cramped, vaulted room would grow to become one of the most consequential monarchs in British history.
James became King of Scots at just thirteen months old when his mother was forced to abdicate in July 1567. He never knew her — Mary fled to England when James was still a baby, and he was raised by a succession of regents and tutors, most notably the brilliant but brutal scholar George Buchanan. Buchanan gave James a formidable classical education but also instilled a terror of his mother, teaching the boy that Mary was an adulteress and a murderer. James grew into a highly intelligent, deeply insecure young man who craved stability above all else.
As King of Scots, James proved far more capable than his fractious nobility expected. He managed the competing factions of the Scottish aristocracy with skill, survived multiple kidnapping attempts, and gradually imposed royal authority over both the Kirk and the clans. He wrote books on subjects ranging from witchcraft to the divine right of kings, composed poetry, and patronised the arts. He was learned, shrewd, and physically ungainly — a combination that led to the famous quip that he was "the wisest fool in Christendom."
When Elizabeth I of England died on 24 March 1603, James inherited the English throne. The son of Mary Queen of Scots — the woman Elizabeth had imprisoned for nineteen years and then executed — now ruled both kingdoms. James rode south to London, promising to return to Scotland every three years. He came back once, in 1617. The tiny chamber in Edinburgh Castle where he was born is still one of the most visited rooms in Scotland, a small stone space that witnessed the beginning of a life that would reshape the entire British Isles.