Imagine an ambitious, well-connected parent of a dramatically good-looking twentysomething plotting to introduce their scion to a lustful monarch with a view to the young personage becoming the monarch’s lover and then the most powerful person in the kingdom. Unlikely, even impossible, you might think. But this is the theme of Sky Atlantic’s upcoming television series Mary & George, set in early 17th-century England and France.
Truth is stronger than fiction…
The loved-up monarch was the often-overlooked but immensely important King James I of England and VI of Scotland, the first to be styled King of Great Britain. Proclaimed James VI of Scotland aged 13 months, and James I of England and Ireland in 1603 aged 36, he was the genealogical link between Tudors, Stuarts and Hanoverians, the ancestor of every monarch since, and the creator of the first Union Jack.
Under him, the nascent British Empire began to claim territory in the Caribbean and in North America. King James, along with his ‘favourite’ and likely lover, was involved in encouraging Scottish Protestants to migrate to the north of Ireland, and from their conduct of national affairs some of the grievances that later seeded the Civil War were sown.
This tall, handsome favourite is one of the most striking figures in early modern history – George Villiers first met the king in 1614 aged 21 when, deliberately knocked by a rival, he spilled food in front of the monarch during a banquet at Apethorpe, one of James’s stately getaways. He was made a Gentleman of the Bedchamber at 22; thereafter, almost in successive years, he was promoted to baron, viscount, earl, marquess and Knight of the Garter, before ending
as Duke of Buckingham, Master of the King’s Horse, Lord High Admiral, Lord Lieutenant of both Buckinghamshire and Middlesex and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. For 10 years Villiers was the most important non-royal personage in Britain, engineering royal marriages, changing foreign policy, taking the country to war and amassing a huge personal fortune.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
