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'This book offers a splendid new account of King James VI’s life from his birth in 1566 down to his accession to the English throne in1603. It is beautifully written, persuasively argued, and deeply researched in primary sources. Alexander Courtney’s picture of James’s personality and Scottish kingship is entirely coherent and consistently original. Courtney draws on much new material that has previously been neglected by historians, and as a result his book presents what is by far the most detailed and compelling treatment of James VI’s Scottish rule that has yet been published.'

David L. Smith, University of Cambridge, UK

'This remarkable book is a gripping account of a child-monarch becoming a man in a profoundly dysfunctional kingdom and preparing to become king of the whole of Great Britain and Ireland. Based on deeply impressive research, this is a story that is told – and very, very vividly told – with flair, and it changes large parts of the long-established narrative. This is a major contribution not only to Scottish and British History but to our understanding of the geopolitics of Europe in an age of turmoil.'

John Morrill, University of Cambridge, UK

'A genuinely research-led new biography of King James VI and I has been a long time coming. In this - the first of a two-volume account of the first Stuart king of Great Britain - we have a highly convincing narrative of his reign. Via an accessible retelling of the king's life and rule, using new material from Scottish as well as other archives, Dr Courtney allows us to revisit the controversies that have grown up around this Scottish and British king, ones that still sit at the centre of much academic history of the period.'

Michael Questier, University of Durham, UK

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