Scotland’s queer king has a show of his own at Edinburgh and it’s as wild as any fringe event. Where else will you get explosions, witches and lacy ruffs all on the same bill? Step right up to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery for The World of James VI and I. James has become more box-office friendly lately, because of his passionate friendships with a series of male favourites, including the Duke of Buckingham, as seen on TV. You’ll find portraits of his favourite men here, the lushest by far being Rubens’ 1625 painting of Buckingham, his cheeks flushed, moustache neatly upturned, eyes flashing. There’s an astrological watch, too, in an egg-shaped silver case that James presented to another favourite, the Earl of Somerset.
This exhibition refuses, however, to pin down the exact nature of James’s sexuality, seeing it as just part of his times. When his voyage home from Elsinore Castle with his new bride was hit by storms, he blamed witches. His book Daemonologie incited Scottish witch-hunting and inspired Shakespeare to write Macbeth. The world he lived in was full of invisible magical forces. On view are relics of that universe, including a bezoar, to protect from poison, and the Charmstone of the Stewarts of Ardsheal.
