This was a really well written historical nonfiction book, it had that feel that I was looking for and thought worked in telling a interesting story. I didn't know much about King James I and enjoyed getting to learn about him in this. Jamie Holmes was able to weave a strong tale and had that research element that I was looking for and enjoyed getting into this piece of history.

Decent research that is presented in a readable manner. Nothing earth-shattering or amazing, but a good read.

This book was very informative and not too pop-history without also being too dry. The writing and tone were straightforward but interesting, the citations weren’t overwhelming, and I thought the evidence provided for conjectures and piecing together history was helpful without bogging the book down.

This was such an interesting breakdown of James I lovers. I had only ever really heard of George Villiers, who of course was the most prominent, but now I know he certainly wasn't the only one.

I’ve long found King James I of England (VI of Scotland) to be a fascinating figure. This was a man, after all, who hated witches and oversaw the magisterial translation of the Bible that is still the go-to version for many Protestants, and he was also the man who was (in)famous for his many male favorites, some of whom became enormously powerful in their own right. In other words, James was a bundle of contradictions in both his private and his political life, and this is precisely what makes him such a compelling figure for biographers, both in his own time and in our own.

His love life is the center of The Six Loves of James I, the new book from historian Gareth Russell. In lively, engaging prose and drawing Russell draws attention to the ways that James’ various loves shaped his political life, both for the good and for the bad. What’s more, the roots for James’ life and loves lay in his childhood and youth in Scotland, long before he would ascend the English throne as James I. As Russell reminds us in some detail, James had a very troubled childhood. After his mother Mary was deposed and fled to England–where she would spend the rest of her life in prison before being executed for scheming to steal her cousin Elizabeth’s throne–he was essentially at the whim of the various men who occupied the regency and, to make matters worse, he was also subjected to the stern and terrifying rule of his tutor, George Buchanan.

Fortunately, there were some key men in his life, even when he was young, that came to his rescue. One of the most important of these was his cousin, Esmé Stuart, who swooped in and cast a spell over the young king. He brought a lot of joy to a young monarch who’d been very lonely and traumatized due to the violence of his early reign and the efforts of many to bully him, and he was one of the first in a long line of handsome young men that James would take to his breast, both in Scotland and then in England.

One of the most important of these was Robert Carr, the man who would become the Earl of Somerset. His relationship with the king began, oddly enough, when he broke his leg, an event that led James to care for him. In Russell’s capable hands we get a front-row seat to this extraordinary romance and, while it remains unclear just how far the physical/sexual aspect of their relationship went, there’s no question that James fell passionately and deeply in love with this particular favorite, which just makes Somerset's eventual disgrace–he got caught up in a murder scandal–all the more tragic. Poor James just couldn’t get a break when it came to his lovers, many of whom disappointed him in one way or another.

There’s no question, though, that the real love of James’ life was George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham. This handsome and dashing young man cast an undeniable spell on the King of England, and from the moment the two met their lives and destinies would be forever intertwined. George might have been from humble origins, but he took to the life of a favorite like a duck to water, and he soon became indispensable to James not just as a lover but also as a counselor. His rise, as Russell documents, was truly meteoric, and it wasn’t long before he was the only non-royal duke.

Russell deserves a great deal of credit for looking beyond the propaganda and anti-Buckingham vitriol that dominated the latter part of his career to show the real man beneath. Reading this book one gets the sense that Buckingham really was quite fond of James and, though he wasn’t afraid of making sure that his friends and relatives benefited from his rise,

Yet, for all that the men of James’ life were important to him, Russell is also at pains to demonstrate that his wife, Queen Anna, was also a formidable influence in his life and at his court. What’s more, she was also happy to make use of her husband’s well-known penchant for young men by putting some of them into his path at key moments. She was, in fact, the very person who made sure that James met George in the first place. Before they drifted apart they seem to have been at least somewhat close, especially since James even went out of his way to sail to Norway to procure her when the ships intended to bring her to Scotland were beset by foul weather. Theirs might not have been a passionate or even a particularly happy marriage–they largely lived separate lives once they came to England–but for a time at least there seems to have been genuinely fond of one another.

The Six Loves of James I is a nuanced and thoughtful portrait of the progenitor of the Stuart dynasty and the ancestor of the current King Charles. James was not the fool that many took him to be and, while he had more than his fair share of flaws–as is as true of monarchs as it is of regular folk–he was also a learned man. He loved his favorites deeply, but he also genuinely wanted to see them wedded and living happy lives. James might have been largely dismissive and contemptuous of women, but there were some that he managed to respect, including both his wife and George’s mother, Mary.

I appreciate the way that Russell combines scholarly rigor with a lively voice that invites us right into the sometimes sordid but always interesting world of the Stuart monarchy. Just as importantly, I also appreciated the way that he showed the extent to which James’ private life intersected in fascinating ways with his political one. I also appreciated that he was careful in his use of terminology when it comes to defining James’ sexuality, always a tricky balancing act when one is dealing with figures from the past for whom our own categories of sexual identity don’t necessarily apply.

Even so, The Six Loves of James I demonstrates that, whatever else he was, King James was at the very least a very queer monarch. Unusual and complicated and contradictory, he continues to fascinate even after all of these centuries, a try icon if ever there was one.

Was taken by the cover of this and by the fact I had recently watched Mary & George on Starz - loved that the show got a mention here!

This was a fun and interesting read. A lot of information I already knew but compiled this way with added details made it feel new.

Russell has become an author that I will automatically pick up a book he has written simply because he is a masterful wordsmith. Russell's ability to provide interesting, personal, and nuanced narrative biographies keeps you hooked from beginning to end in all of his works. This book, in particular, is no exception.

This is the first book about James VI and I that I have read, which provides an intimate portrait of him as a man. Russell references how James is often portrayed in the media as bowlegged and unable to walk, which was how I always pictured him (probably thanks to Robert Carlyle's portrayal of James in Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot). So, it was refreshing to have those notions blown away by Russell's diligent and colorful descriptions of James' life.

I particularly enjoyed the focus on James's childhood. Due to my interest in his mother, I had never really learned about the details of James's life before he reached adulthood. The interpersonal dynamics of the Scottish court during this period were incredibly complicated, and Russel captured the fear that James must have experienced from the abundance of violence that surrounded him so well that it was heartbreaking to read. Also, the stories of physical abuse that James suffered because his tutor did not believe in the right of kings (which is a fair opinion to have, but I'm not sure what he was hoping to accomplish by bullying a child) were harrowing. I also appreciate that Russell provided the evidence and allowed the reader to draw their conclusions about the psychological impacts these events must have had on James. Diagnosis at a distance is not advisable, but not to consider that James experienced psychological processes is also just as dishonest.

My favorite parts of the book were related to James's relationship with his wife, Anna of Denmark. I desperately want to read a biography of her, but have not been successful in finding one. The complexity of James and Anna's relationship was so well detailed throughout the book. It's clear that their marriage was one of two strong personalities, but that they found a way to work together to have at minimum a working dynastic relationship and at best a loving partnership. Hearing of James's reaction to Anna's death also painted James in a whole new light. I am not sure where I got the sense that James was stoic and didn't express his feelings, but Russell's depiction during this scene quickly disuaded me of this idea.

My second favorite part of the book, and it is a very close second, is the quotations from the letters that James and his epinonymous six loves wrote to one another. There is a mix of sweetness, love, anger, and horniness that makes the intimacy that James experienced with these men quite clear. I particularly enjoyed the insights into how James balanced his feelings with the larger political world. I also found the cognitive dissonance of James not wanting the British public to know of his liaisons, but his not hiding it at court, particularly interesting.

There were a few instances where the text wandered a little bit to describe much wider court and European events. They were interesting, but did feel a bit long in some places.

Overall, this was a fantastic book. I have a fundamentally different understanding of James VI and I. I also learned about several important figures in his life that I had little to no knowledge about, particularly Robert Carr. I would highly recommend this book to history lovers and Stuart dynasty fanatics alike.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Cursing, Miscarriage, Medical content, Pregnancy, War, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Outing, Colonisation

I have been trying to find books that would speak at length of the childhood of monarch in the middle age and renaissance time for SO LONG.

And then this come along.

Make no mistake: this does speak about James I / IV love life, but it is also in general a more humane look at the life of a king in the 1600s. Which, not to make too fine a point to it, sucked in a lot of way.

As a queer person myself, I also DEEPLY appreciated how Russel had no qualms about using the word "homosexuality" for the obvious times James I had relationship with other men, like Villiers (as the author says himself: when it is about a heterosexual relationship, we aren't NEARLY as afraid to claim a man and a woman had sex with FAR flimsier claim.

Another interesting part was the deep dive into the importance that magic had for people at that time. They *believed* it. They deeply believed magic could and would be used for evil. Necromancy was a real fear in people's lives, including the nobility.

All in all, a very interesting take, and a refreshing one.

I was given this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Russell depicted beautifully the life of James I, not settling for just stating facts, but engaging with his life-story like one should, humanly and passionately.

Gareth Russell’s The Six Loves of James I is a truly captivating and revelatory biography that breathes new life into the long-discussed but often misunderstood reign of King James I. With his signature blend of scholarly insight and “rollicking, gossipy” narrative (as praised by Dan Jones), Russell invites readers into the intimate world of one of England’s most fascinating monarchs. The book deftly explores the intricate and often controversial aspects of James’s personal life—specifically, his complex relationships with five prominent men—and tackles a topic that has long been relegated to whispers or dismissed entirely: the king’s sexuality.

What sets this biography apart is not only its candid approach but its ability to contextualize James I within the social, political, and philosophical currents of his time. Russell doesn’t simply recount the king’s personal affairs; he intricately ties them to the broader political landscape, demonstrating how these relationships influenced James’s reign and shaped his decisions. The result is a nuanced portrait of a monarch whose public power was often intertwined with his private vulnerabilities.

For too long, James I’s sexuality has been an area of historical hesitation or outright condemnation, but Russell challenges the outdated standards and invites us to consider the monarch in a fuller, more human light. This isn’t just a biography—it’s a groundbreaking work that illuminates the intersections between power, identity, and personal experience in royal history.

Russell’s command of the subject matter, paired with his engaging storytelling, makes The Six Loves of James I a significant and highly enjoyable read for anyone interested in the fascinating and often contradictory nature of the English monarchy. Whether you’re a seasoned historian or a casual reader, this biography is a must-read. It’s a rich, thoughtful, and thoroughly absorbing exploration of one of history’s most enigmatic kings.