WISEST FOOL: THE LAVISH LIFE OF JAMES VI AND I (PB)

James VI and I, the first monarch to reign over Scotland, England and Ireland, has long endured a mixed reputation. To what extent have myth, anecdote, and rumour obscured him? In this new and ground-breaking biography, James’s story is laid bare and a welter of scurrilous, outrageous assumptions penned by his political opponents put to rest. What emerges is a portrait of Elizabeth I's successor as his contemporaries knew him: a gregarious, idealistic man obsessed with the idea of family, whose personal and political goals could never match up to reality.