Historian of monarchy’s book about King James I draws the parallels between a modern, global Britain in an identity crisis and the first monarch of the Stuarts family.
By Eve Lacroix (Senior Communications Officer), Published
Professor Anna Whitelock launched her new book The Sun Rising: James I and the Dawn of a Global Britain at Daunt Books in Marylebone in April.
The book is a panoramic history of the arrival of the Stuarts, and how the reign of King James I saw England reach new corners of the globe.
Professor Whitelock is a historian of monarchy at City St George’s, University of London and Dean of the School of Communication & Creativity whose research spans the Tudor queens Mary and Elizabeth, the early Stuarts as well as the modern-day British monarchy.
Attending the launch event were fellow historians, broadcasters, journalists, family and friends, colleagues from City St George’s and her former employer Royal Holloway, University of London, as well as her secondary school history teacher.
Fellow historian Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford described The Sun Rising as “majestic, brilliant, spectacularly good” and wrote that it had “uncanny resonances for the interesting time for which we live.”
It is these uncanny resonances that inspired Professor Whitelock in her writing. Speaking at her launch at Daunt, Professor Whitelock said:
Research for the book took her eastwards across the world to Russia, Japan, India and to Iran as she followed the tracks of long-ago silk merchants, across spice lines and along the paths of colonial ambassadors.
In 1603 England was on the edge of crisis. Queen Elizabeth I had died, bringing the Tudor line to an end. Enter King James of the Stuart family, who established a new dynasty on the English throne and the first 'united' kingdom of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales was born.
James's global ambitions brought the fledgling East India Company closer with the crown and the English began to travel beyond the bounds of their island in greater numbers than ever before, the seeds of the future British Empire were sown.
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