The early Stuarts are back in fashion. Within a year, three major books on the subject have appeared: one by Susan Doran, examining the change of dynasty from the Tudors, another by Stephen Alford on Robert Cecil, who masterminded James’s succession, and now a third by Anna Whitelock, whose The Sun Rising is the most ambitious of the three. 

Traditionally, Jacobean history was concerned with clashes in the English Parliament and the problems of finance and religion. More recently, the problems of governing multiple kingdoms (England, Scotland and Ireland) and of cultural identity have come to the fore. Whitelock, however, seeks to achieve a fundamental ‘reframing’ of James I’s reign, looking to place it in ‘a global context’ and to show how the king ‘laid the foundations for the future development of Britain’. Parliamentary clashes make only brief appearances in her book; religious controversies are largely stripped out of the story. Still fewer mentions occur of James’s sexuality and none of his drinking habits. Stereotypes are out; new ways of defining James and his world are in.

From the moment he crossed the border in 1603, James had two main policies. In his ‘British’ project, he sought a ‘perfect’ union of the realms of England and Scotland, with a new British coinage and flag, and ‘birthright citizenship’. Ireland was to remain a separate kingdom, but James sought