Conditioned by a childhood surrounded by the rivalries of the Stewart family, and by eighteen years of enforced exile in England, James I was to prove a king very different from his elderly and conservative forerunners. This major study draws on a wide range of sources, assessing James I's impact on his kingdom. Michael Brown examines James's creation of a new, prestigious monarchy based on a series of bloody victories over his rivals and symbolised by lavish spending at court. He concludes that, despite the apparent power and glamour, James I's 'golden age' had shallow roots; after a life of drastically swinging fortunes, James I was to meet his end in a violent coup, a victim of his own methods. But whether as lawgiver, tyrant or martyr, James I has cast a long shadow over the history of Scotland.

Michael Brown is Professor of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of a number of books including Disunited Kingdoms: Peoples and Politics in the British Isles 1280-1460 and Bannockburn: The Scottish War and the British Isles,1307-1323. His research interests are political society of Scotland c.1250-c.1500. He has published studies of the practice and ideology of royal and aristocratic lordship in Scotland.