Conditioned by a childhood surrounded by the rivalries of the Stewart family, and by eighteen years of enforced exile in England, James I was to prove a king very different from his elderly and conservative forerunners. This major study draws on a wide range of sources, assessing James I's impact on his kingdom. Michael Brown examines James's creation of a new, prestigious monarchy based on a series of bloody victories over his rivals and symbolised by lavish spending at court.He concludes that, despite the apparent power and glamour, James I's 'golden age' had shallow roots; after a life of drastically swinging fortunes, James I was to meet his end in a violent coup, a victim of his own methods. But whether as lawgiver, tyrant or martyr, James I has cast a long shadow over the history of Scotland.

Michael Brown is Professor of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of a number of books including Disunited Kingdoms: Peoples and Politics in the British Isles 12801460 and Bannockburn: The Scottish War and the British Isles,13071323. His research interests are political society of Scotland c.1250c.1500. He has published studies of the practice and ideology of royal and aristocratic lordship in Scotland.