The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart

Description

Henry Stuart's life is the last great forgotten Jacobean tale. Shadowed by the gravity of the Thirty Years' War and the huge changes taking place across Europe in seventeenth-century society, economy, politics and empire, his life was visually and verbally gorgeous. NOW THE SUBJECT OF BBC2 DOCUMENTARY The Best King We Never Had By 1610, the precocious and dynamic Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales was the hope of Britain and Protestant Europe. Eldest son of James VI of Scotland & I of England, his interests ranged far beyond his Court's renowned love of the arts. He invested in cutting-edge science, and began modernising Britain's military and naval capacity. Hailed as 'Protector of Virginia', Henry stood at the forefront of the founding of British America. All before his tragic death, aged 18. In this rich and vibrant biography, prize-winning author, Sarah Fraser, brings Henry Stuart to life as the epitome of a Renaissance prince - active, virtuous, ambitious. Henry's story recreates an exciting part of the Jacobean era, during a transformational period of British history.

In 2002 Sarah Fraser and her family moved to a ramshackle Italian farmhouse in Tuscany with dreams of self-sufficiency and a more 'down-to-earth' lifestyle. Seven years and three TV series later (UK Channel 4's 'No Going Back', 'A Year in Tuscany' and 'The Great Italian Escape'), Sarah has amassed a wealth of knowledge about cultivating Italian produce and what you can do with it.

'A well-written account that reminds us, through vignettes of Thomas Coryate, Inigo Jones, and many others, how lively and promising the period was', Books of the Year, Theodore K Rabb, TLS 'Fraser paints a striking picture...[this] highly readable book has restored this lost prince to his rightful place in our national memory...It is to be hoped she has also contributed to the necessary task of weaning us off our national addiction to the Tudors. The seventeenth century is a crucial...period of our history' BBC History Magazine 'Fraser...has created an attractive picture of a young man in a hurry...With a strong narrative...Fraser's account of his investiture in June 1610 is one of the highlights of the story...It helps that Fraser is clearly not a little in love with her subject and why not? From all the available accounts Henry was the Prince Charming of his day, a young man who combined physical attributes, notably courage, with a ready wit and a capacity to wear his learning lightly' Glasgow Herald 'Among the larger than life characters of the Tudor and Stuart period, Henry Stuart is often relegated to a ... side player. Here, he gets a whole book dedicated to his story, and it's certainly a tale worth telling. Son of James VI and I, Henry was a key figure in his own right: he created a ... renaissance court of writers and thinkers, and worked to establish a permanent British presence in America ... What he packed into his brief life, and why it should be better remembered, are explored in this compelling, lively biography' History Revealed Magazine 'The person to whom the public looked for future deliverance was James's eldest son, Henry, the subject of this compelling and lyrical new biography. Fraser shows how Henry came first to embody the expectations of a nation and then shatter them by dying suddenly from typhoid in 1612, at the age of 18. She manages to distil from Henry's short life a thorough case study of a crown prince coming of age ... excellent book' Country Life