A panoramic history of the arrival of the Stuarts, and how the reign of King James I saw England reach new corners of the globe.

‘Spectacularly good’ Peter Frankopan
‘Fascinating’ The Times
‘Game-changing’ John Guy, Literary Review
‘Gripping' Lucy Worsley
‘Scintillating’ Suzannah Lipscomb

A panoramic history of the arrival of the Stuarts, and how the reign of King James I saw England reach new corners of the globe

In 1603, England was on the verge of crisis. Enter King James.

Four centuries ago James Stuart came to the throne with a dream of a united and global Great Britain. His reign saw expeditions reach Russia, India, Persia, China, Japan and the shores of the New World, while the East India Company grew ever closer to the crown. In this epic and panoramic history, Anna Whitelock casts the long-overlooked monarch in a new light – and explores how his reign sowed the seeds of the future British Empire.

"Well-informed, fluid and fascinating" - The Times

"A refreshing break with the Anglo-centricity of so much recent writing on James VI and I" - TLS

"Anna Whitelock proves a sure-footed and eloquent guide to James’s reign . . . What is striking when one reads this primer is that, exactly four centuries after James’s death, Britain finds itself once again playing catch-up, uncertain of its place in the world, and lacking the kind of identity that was forged in the seventeenth century" - Oldie

"Does away with conventional royal biography. This rich and evocative book takes us far from Whitehall in pursuit of James’ ambitious vision for a united, global Britain. Moving from the plantations of Ireland and trading posts in Indonesia to the courts of Japan and Russia, the book shows us the strange birth of an empire and pushes beyond anglocentric history" - History Today, Books of the Year

"Stereotypes are out; new ways of defining James and his world are in . . . Whitelock’s exploration of how political, cultural and commercial interests interlocked in James’s policymaking, so expanding conceptions of state power, is game-changing" - Literary Review

"Less a biographical study of the first Stuart king and more an ambitious, evocative “reframing” of James I’s reign, which attempts to show how he laid the foundations for the future empire" - New Zealand Herald, Books of the Year

"Does a terrific job of communicating the ways in which James and his time wereboth incredibly like and unlike our own" - Financial Times

"A panoramic view of Jacobean England . . . Studded throughout are fascinating episodes . . . Naturally, given Whitelock’s experience, the book is beautifully written by an author with an eye for detail and anecdote. In each chapter, Jacobean-era personalities, from Pocahontas to adventurers William Adams and John Saris to mariner Nathaniel Courthope, are brought to stunning life: James’s world emerges as a colourful and glittering one" - The Historian

"Covers what was a “golden age” of exploration, navigation, trade and propaganda, beginning with James’ accession to the English throne in 1603 … What emerges is a much-needed panoramic view of Jacobean Britain as it was projected across the globe . . . Whitelock provides a restorative to tiresome preconceptions about an often-maligned monarch . . . A variety of Stuart personalities appear in Whitelock’s account, including the outward-looking merchant Thomas Smythe, the American princess Matoaka (Pocahontas), the inventor John Harington, and the adventurer John Saris . . . They deserve, as Whitelock makes clear, to be as well-known as the courtiers, artists and adventurers of the Elizabethan and Henrician eras . . . Whitelock’s James is the king as he was in his day: confident, canny and colourful" - History Today