The problem with their relationship for Scottish nobles, and particularly the Protestants, was not so much the same-sex desire they showed for each other, but more that, in their relationship, they saw the consolidation of power in the hands of the king’s favourite – a dynamic which became a lifelong concern for James’s court – and especially a Catholic favourite. The peace in Scotland was fragile, and the Kirk (the Scottish national church, a Presbyterian, protestant institution) was young: only six years older than James himself. For James to be ‘in such love with [Esmé] as in the open sight
...more
