WE will never truly know if King James VI of Scotland had a homosexual relationship with his first cousin once removed Esme Stuart who, as we saw in the last column, was certainly the object of immediate infatuation by the king even though Esme was more than twice James’s age and married with children.
His dazzlingly handsome looks and worldliness were undoubtedly attractive to the teenage king, who had been deprived of affection and contact with the outside world during his stern upbringing and education by George Buchanan.
