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james-vi-stan-blog · 9 months ago

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Hi I was wondering if you could share what you and historians make of Anne’s take on James’ homosexuality and his relationship (romantic, platonic or otherwise) with his queen, at the start of their marriage (i.e the sailing to Denmark and obsession etc) and the end (i.e letting her corpse rot) Thank you!! - thelastplantagenet 💚

Please excuse incoherent and loopiness I'm so sleepy while writing this alkdgf;ldgdk

The impression that I get of James is that he was very proud of his self-image as "a good king", "a good Christian", and "a good husband", based on his ever-so-clever reading of Scripture and philosophy. Picture the most horrible Arrogant Smart Kid Syndrome, formed by being the smartest person in the (very small) room for many years, which was never properly challenged by reality, because he's the king. The True Law of Free Monarchies and Basilokon Doron just drip with this attitude. Therefore, his self-image as magnanimous, benevolent, and faithful to his queen was important to him, even if in reality he was not these things.

cn for miscarriages, cruelty to pets, creepy kinda incestuous vibes, child marriage, etc.

There are two rather different images of the courtship of James and Anna (who was very young, just 14-15 to James's 22-23). On the one hand, James is said to have instantly fallen in love with her portrait almost as soon as marriage negotiations opened, to have written to her ardently, written poetry for her, and then of course have boldly sailed to "rescue" her in 1589. There is a story that when they first met in the flesh, James rushed over and kissed her "in the Scottish style", which repelled her (she thought it was very forward), but they later came to an understanding about this when the cultural difference was explained.

Yet also, James himself wrote of his reasons for sailing to his bride in October 1589:

As to the causes, I doubt not it is manifestly known to all how far I was generally found fault with by all men for the delaying so long of my marriage. The reasons were that I was alone, without father or mother, brother or sister, king of [Scotland] and heir apparent of England. This my nakedness made me to be weak and my enemies stark. One man was as no man, and the want of hope of succession bred disdain. Yea, my long delay bred in the breasts of many a great [suspicion] of my inability, as if I were a barren stock. These reasons and innumerable others, hourly objected, moved me to hasten the treaty of my marriage; for, as to my own nature, God is my witness I could have abstained longer nor the weal of my patrie could have permitted.

Basically, "I could have remained unmarried forever, but I have to get heirs for political stability". He was also noted for being coldly hard-assed in the dowry negotations.

Apparently their very early marriage was warm, but Anna was criticized for not immediately producing a child. When she was pregnant with Henry Frederick, IIRC rumors flew that he was not James's but that of Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox (Esmé Stewart's son, therefore James's second cousin, who was also rumored to be a favorite of James's. Yes. This family is tangled and fucked up.) James was said to be jealous over this -- but was he jealous, or was he sensitive about the renewed rumors that Anna did not conceive by him because he was busy with his male favorites? (In reality, Anna had conceived immediately after their marriage, but then suffered a miscarriage.)

The marital relationship was then absolutely torpedoed by James's insistence on Henry Frederick being fostered at Stirling Castle by the Earl of Mar (the same Earl of Mar with whom he had huge childhood drama). This was traditional for Scottish heirs, and it was also sensible, as James and Anna were put in regular physical danger by rebellious lords, who you must remember repeatedly kidnapped young James and absolutely would pull all sorts of power shenanigans if they could lay hands on the heir. However, Anna was understandably furious and devastated by her separation from Henry. This became a huge battleground of their marriage, and James did not give way until the 1603 accession to the English throne, and it really ruined any affection Anna had for James. After that, Anna was often embroiled in schemes with factions that have grievances with James, like Bothwell and the Ruthvens. When the Ruthvens supposedly tried to assassinate James, Anna accused James of fabricating the whole thing. And as their children (Henry Frederick, Elizabeth, and Charles) grew up, Anna was often subtly working on them and turning them against their father (which wasn't hard because James was an awful, totally uninvolved father).

It is said that Anna once """"accidentally"""" killed one of James's favorite hunting dogs named Jewel.

Despite this, I would say that James always respected Anna… as much as he was capable of respecting any woman. Because James was really a misogynist, even more than the typical man of his time. His thoughts about marriage, and about the respect one should give one's wife, are clearly articulated in Basilokon Doron, and it's not pretty. (Full text is online here) Essentially, he gave Anna what he thought a wife should have from her husband: condescension, indulgence, honor before other ladies, sexual attention and fidelity (men don't count, ofc). James, one must remember, had a strong sense of himself as a divine right king, God's representative on Earth. The position of queen therefore also had an aura of the divine, and deserved respect for that - but not for her personhood, personality, or ideas. This is the man who is wearing a bejeweled "A" on his hat to celebrate his love for his wife at the same time he denies her access to her child and basically opposing her in court schemes.

Treat her as your own flesh, command her as her Lord, cherish her as your helper, rule her as your pupill, and please her in all things reasonable; but teach her not to be curious in things that belong to her not.

Something interesting is that when James learned of Anna's secret conversion to Catholicism, he told her he had no issue with her following her conscience as long as she kept it under wraps for the sake of political stability. For this time that's remarkably tolerant, both of Anna and of Catholicism.

Both Goodman and Weldon (remember them? writing from totally opposite English Civil War factions, one pro-Stuart and one anti-Stuart) described James as "not very uxorious". Maybe because he was too gay to really love his wife; maybe, as Goodman accused, Anna did not give him much cause to love her (can you blame her!?). But certainly there was not the sort of effusive affection for Anne he would show to his male favorites.

Over time the king and queen lived more and more separately. Until a miscarriage in 1606, after which Anna decided she was done with pregnancies, they continued to sleep together, but emotionally their lives were rather divorced. Especially after 1606 but IIRC even before, a separate "king's court" (dominated by James's male favorites) and "queen's court" developed. Real political power was located in the king's court, of course, but Anna used her influence to create a much more culturally sophisticated and artistically influential court. The Jacobean flourishing of the arts is more attributable to Anna's patronage than to James's (he fell asleep during plays and much more enjoyed watching a good debate).

But, I feel that their relationship somewhat recovered with time. In the more peaceful environment of England, they negotiated a sort of understanding, and had a cool but amicable relationship, sometimes working as partners and sometimes at cross purposes.

Anna's attitude to James's favorites seems to have been ambivalent. On the one hand, she was said to have understood "the king could not exist without his favorites" (I tried to find the source for this quote and failed but I'll look again later), and for his part he allowed her some degree of veto over his favorites, if only so that if she complained later, he could tell her "But you recommended him to me!" But it doesn't seem like she was happily indulgent - rather, pragmatic.

Also, as regards the Gowrie Conspiracy, Michael B. Young, author of King James and the History of Homosexuality, relates a conspiracy theory (not Young's own invention) that the Ruthvens might have lured James in not with a pot of gold (what a ridiculous story) but with sex appeal, and that Anna's reaction to the plot subtly accused him of this. And I believe it because I blindly believe everything that Michael B. Young says.

Even though James barely interacted with her by the point of her death in 1619, he was reportedly pretty upset about it, writing her a commemorative poem and going into a depression. You could say that his failure to appear at her funeral (it was Charles who was chief mourner) was evidence of his not caring very much, but some historians, like IIRC Rictor Norton, say that Anna's death actually triggered a minor breakdown for James, who was now facing his own mortality as well, due to his worsening illnesses. James may have also avoided the funeral because he had a longstanding fear of death, disease, and funerals (he also did not attend Henry Frederick's, and likewise that can be read as absence of love, depression, and/or neuroticism.)

IMO, the M&G monologue that I reblogged is not a bad take on the overall tone. I actually don't think James would have been so self-aware or ever considered that God was against any of his ideas, but it captures the ambivalence.

I hope that's a fair picture and of interest, @thelastplantagenet!

#james vi and i #anne of denmark #anna of denmark #james's weird stan rambles again #content note #tw csa #tw child marriage #tw animal death #tw animal cruelty #tw miscarriage

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james-vi-stan-blog · 1 year ago

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I‘m a bit confused about James sexuality tbh. I was convinced he was solely attracted to young men at first, but then I read somewhere that he also had female mistresses. How true is that?

This is one of those unknowable things. I can tell you what I know and my opinions. Cut for massive length as usual, I'M SORRY I CANT RESIST RAMBLING ABOUT JAMES

James was married to Anna of Denmark, and she had many pregnancies, so he was certainly performing regularly with her. He was said to be in love with her early in their marriage (though, he fell in love with her before they met, based on a portrait and letters in French -- and was also noted for being coldly hard-nosed in the dowry negotiations. So is this really ardently heterosexual behavior?) Their relationship fell apart very fast after James separated her from Henry Frederick and never really recovered to anything better than a friendly but cool alliance in their later years. Historians can use Anna's pregnancies as evidence of bisexuality, but there are a million examples in history of gay men marrying and fathering children. And you can't get away with just one. The more princes you have, the more spares (and many died); the princesses you have, the more marriage alliances.

One of James's defining characteristics is also his pompous self-image as "a good Christian [x]". A good king, a good father, and a good husband, even when he plainly was not. James boasted that he never kissed a single woman besides his wife and strongly disapproved of royal mistresses because of the threat that bastards pose to orderly succession. Therefore, I think it's very plausible than James's claims to love his wife, and his faithful performance, may have more to do with his self image of "good Christian husband" than his deep desires. In England he was clearly observed to be "not very uxorious", and he and the queen kept separate households and barely spoke or interacted.

A point in favor of James's actual bisexuality is that, while he had many male favorites before Carr, these relationships did not become that intense until Anna declared herself done with sex after a miscarriage -- in 1607, right before James fell head over heels for Carr.

There is one alleged mistress of James's, Anne Murray, based on a poem James wrote around the same time that rumors of his homosexuality were circulating because he had failed to impregnate Anna. If they actually had a relationship, then James was lying about only kissing Anna. (Which he totally could have been, and he totally could be hypocritical about kings keeping mistresses, as he was wildly hypocritical in many areas.)

But, when I first learned about this, I always wondered if the poem might have more to do with, again, James's self-image, as well as his attempts to create "an Athens of the North" at this time, to cultivate Scottish courtly culture -- and "poem to a mistress" is simply a genre. Actually, "poems about ANNE MURRAY" were themselves a micro-genre of the court at this time! So I don't know if this is proof of an actual relationship. I'm not the only one who thinks this. As @royalsandcourtiers put it, "the man wrote one poem referencing his love for ‘Lady Glammis’ and an entire love affair complete with sex has been assumed, and a mistress identified, from nothing more than these few words", while historians have long looked at the overwhelming evidence of James's love for men and explained it away as friendship.

Putting ahistorical labels on historical figures' sexualities is always fraught. I think, based on the evidence, the "safest guess" is that James was bisexual.

However, I actually read James as closer to homosexual. This is because his emotional life, romantic and passionate feelings, were overwhelmingly oriented towards men. Men captured his attentions, his feelings; he wept over men, he sacrificed for men, he whined for more intimacy at men. Women did not inspire these sorts of passions in him; his one for-sure heterosexual relationship is wrapped up in duty and performance, while his homosexual affairs are raw and discomfitingly corporeal to the courtiers watching him make out in public with his favorites. I have mentioned King James and the History of Homosexuality before, and to me it convincingly argues that James was not only queer, but recognized as queer by his contemporaries.

Of course we cannot know if he would self-identify as gay or anything else. We can't even know for sure that he did have sex with men! But I do map him as closer to gay than to bi.

#james vi and i #anne murray #anna of denmark #james's weird stan rambles again

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