James VI and I (1566–1625), King of Scotland from 1567, and King of England from 1603, had a large collection of jewels. Many were inherited from his mother Mary, Queen of Scots, or recovered from her supporters after the end of the Marian Civil War in 1573. James bought more jewels from goldsmiths. He wore them to emphasise his majesty, gave them as gifts to his favourites, commissioned their depiction in his portraits, and occasionally pawned them with goldsmith-financiers to fund his rule. At the Union of Crowns in 1603, James obtained the jewels of the English monarchy.Anna Groundwater, "Tracing royal Stewart jewels in the archives", Decoding the Jewels: Renaissance Jewellery in Scotland (Sidestone Press: NMS, 2024) Bruce Lenman, "Jacobean Goldsmith-Jewellers as Credit-Creators: The Cases of James Mossman, James Cockie and George Heriot", Scottish Historical Review, 74:198 Part 2 (October 1995), pp. 159–177. James favoured hat jewels set with large precious stones.Maria Hayward, Stuart Style: Monarchy, Dress and the Scottish Male Elite (Yale, 2020), p. 211.
Jewels throughout a reign
Anthony Standen, an English servant of James' father Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, wrote that Mary, Queen of Scots, showed him James in his cradle at Edinburgh Castle. The infant Prince was asleep, a cross of diamonds fixed on his breast.Joseph Stevenson, The History of Mary Stewart by Claude Nau (Edinburgh: Paterson, 1883), p. ciii: Standen's "Relation" is in The National Archives, TNA SP 14/1/237.
Childhood at Stirling Castle After Mary was deposed in 1567, James was brought up at Stirling Castle, in a household managed by Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar.Alan Stewart, The Cradle King: A Life of James VI & I (London: Pimlico, 2004), p. 38. In January 1570, Mary, Queen of Scots, who was in captivity in England at Tutbury Castle, sent a present of clothes to James VI. She wanted these to be his first proper clothes, his first "doublet and long hose" provided by his mother. In her letter to the Countess of Mar, Mary said the gift did not include essential buttons, which with the rest of her jewels were kept from her, "whereto there wants such buttons as were worthy to garnish it, thanks to them who withholds from us suchlike and better." Mary's buttons were obtained for James three years later, when William Kirkcaldy of Grange surrendered Edinburgh Castle.William K. Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 3 (London, 1903), p. 57 no. 90
A coffer containing the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots, was recovered from Edinburgh Castle, and Regent Morton obtained other jewels which had been pawned by William Kirkcaldy of Grange.Michael Pearce, "The Jewels Mary Queen of Scots left behind" On 28 July 1573, Morton sent some of these jewels to Annabell Murray to be sewn on the king's clothes, including gold buttons enamelled in white and red, and white and black, and sets of large "horns" or "points" with enamel and engraving. Morton also had 60 new gold and silver buttons made for James VI.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1566-1574, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), pp. 353-4. Annabell Murray received a variety of jewels over the subsequent years until 1579 when the King was declared an adult and moved to Edinburgh.Bruce Lenman, "Jacobean Goldsmith-Jewellers as Credit-Creators: The Cases of James Mossman, James Cockie and George Heriot", Scottish Historical Review, 74:198 (October 1995), p. 167. These included a fossil shark tooth or "serpent's tongue" mounted in gold as an amulet intended to neutralise any poisons in the king's food.Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 277-284.
On 16 September 1577, Mungo Brady was appointed as the King's goldsmith,Lyndsay McGill, "Scottish Renaissance Jewels in the National Collection: making and makers", Anna Groundwater, Decoding the Jewels (Sidestone, 2024), p. 109.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI: A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 114.Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy seal, 7 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1966), pp. 280–281 no. 1740. Brady made gold rings for the King to give as New Year's Day gifts,Maria Hayward, Stuart Style: Monarchy, Dress and the Scottish Male Elite (Yale, 2020), p. 216: Accounts of the Treasurer, 13 (Edinburgh, 1978), p. 304. and silver-gilt buckles for the King's boots.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer, 13 (Edinburgh, 1978), p. 191. Elizabeth I, Queen of England, sent King James a hat badge set with diamonds and rubies, which was described in Scots as "ane litle targett on his Majesties bonatt send to him be the Quene of England sett with litle diamantis and sparkis of rubyis".Thomas Thomson, A Collection of Inventories and Other Records of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewelhouse (Edinburgh, 1815), p. 315. James VI was declared an adult ruler in October 1579, and rewarded a workmen who brought the coffer of jewels from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace with three shillings.Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 13 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1978), p. 289.
James exchanged rings with his mother in January 1581, sending her a letter in French. A postscript refers to his faithful little monkey that stays beside him and would often bring news. This seems to refer to an actual monkey given to James by Mary, though it has also been suggested as a reference to a messenger like George Douglas.George Akrigg, Letters of King James VI & I (University of California, 1984), p. 45: Patrick Fraser Tytler, History of Scotland, 6 (Edinburgh: Tait, 1845), pp. 486–487: James Anthony Froude, History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, 5 (New York, 1871), p. 492.
Esmé Stewart and a diamond cross
James gave several of his mother's jewels to his favourite Esmé Stewart in October 1581, including the "Great H of Scotland" and a gold cross set with seven diamonds and two rubies.Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2023), p. 57. He was a second cousin to James and Master of the Wardrobe.Gareth Russell, Queen James: The Lives and Loves of Britain's First King (London: William Collins, 2025), p. 58. Esmé returned the jewels before he left Scotland for ever.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland: 1578-1585, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1880), p. 392: Anna Groundwater, "Tracing royal Stewart jewels in the archives", Decoding the Jewels: Renaissance Jewellery in Scotland (Sidestone Press: NMS, 2024), p. 166: Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 307–308.
In the weeks before the end of the Gowrie Regime, James sent James Murray secretly to France with a gold button from his doublet for Lennox, one that he had worn next to his heart.Jason O'Toole, Exploring Early Modern Sexualities: The Desires of King James VI & I (Bloomsbury, 2025), pp. 48–49: Arthur John Butler, Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Elizabeth, 17 (London: HMSO, 1909), p. 396 no. 363: Karl Stählin, Der Kampf Um Schottland Und Die Gesandtschaftsreise Sir Francis Walsinghams Im Jahre 1583 (Dersden, 1902), p. 41.
In August 1584, William Davison heard that Elizabeth Stewart, Countess of Arran had new keys made for the coffers in Edinburgh Castle containing the jewels and clothes of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was said to have tried on many of the queen's garments to see if they fitted her, and chosen what she liked.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1913), pp. 292-3 no. 266: Letters and papers relating to Patrick, Master of Gray (Edinburgh, 1835), p. 6. She passed sets of pearl, ruby, and diamond buttons or settings from the garnishings for a French hood to the Master of Gray, who was master of the king's wardrobe. The precious stones were sewn on the king's cloak.Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 316-320.
In September 1584, a German travel writer Lupold von Wedel saw James, who was staying at Ruthven Castle, wearing the cross on his hat ribbon in St John's Kirk in Perth. James was accompanied by Esmé Stewart's son Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox.Thomson (1815), pp. 307–8: Gottfied von Bülow, 'Journey Through England and Scotland made by Lupold von Wedel', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 9 (London, 1895), p. 245 In October, the king's valet John Gibb returned the cross to the Master of Gray, the newly appointed Master of the Royal Wardrobe.Thomson (1815), p. 314. It may have been the same diamond and ruby cross that his grandmother, Mary of Guise, had pawned to John Home of Blackadder for £1000 when she was Regent of Scotland, and Mary, Queen of Scots, had redeemed.Accounts of Treasurer, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1915), pp. xxxi-xxxii, 237. Possibly the same gold cross, with seven diamonds and two rubies, was pawned by Anne of Denmark to George Heriot in May 1609.Archibald Constable, Memoirs of George Heriot, p. 197.
Jewels of Arbella Stuart
The King's cousin, Arbella Stuart, was bequeathed jewels by her grandmother Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox in 1577.Elizabeth Cooper, The Life and Letters of Lady Arabella Stuart, 1 (London, 1886), pp. 48–50, 100-2: Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1581-1590, p. 661: TNA SP 12/231 f. 176. Thomas Fowler, the executor of the Countess of Lennox, brought some of these jewels to Scotland.Helen G. Stafford, James VI of Scotland and the throne of England (AHA, 1940), p. 59. When Fowler died in 1590, the jewels were obtained by Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, who seems to have passed them on to James.Sarah Gristwood, Arbella: England's Lost Queen (London, 2003), pp. 52, 109: William Boyd & Henry Meikle, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 312 no. 414, 329, 428: Catalogue of the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1819), p. 118, British Library, Lansdowne Vol/63 f.165.
Adrian Vanson and Thomas Foulis
King James employed two Flemish painters, Arnold Bronckorst and Adrian Vanson to paint his portraits.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI, A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 173: Rudi Ekkart, "The Scottish painter Adam de Colone identified as the Dutch painter Adam de Colonia", Burlington Magazine, 154:1307 (February 2012), p. 91: Duncan Thomson, Painting in Scotland, 1570–1560 (Edinburgh: HMSO, SNPG, 1975), pp. 22, 25.Clare Farrow and Martin Kemp, "Humanism in the Visual Arts, 1530–1630", John MacQueen, Humanism in Renaissance Scotland (Edinburgh, 1990), p. 40: Michael R. Apted and Susan Hannabuss, Painters in Scotland: A Biographical Dictionary (Edinburgh: Scottish Record Society, 1978), pp. 31, 98–99. The French ambassador in London, Michel de Castelnau sent Mary, Queen of Scots, a portrait of James in a new style in October 1582.George Lasry, Norbert Biermann, Satoshi Tomokiyo, "Deciphering Mary Stuart's lost letters from 1578-1584", Cryptologia, 47:2 (8 February 2023), p. 156.
Elizabeth sent James her portrait and a jewel, perhaps a portrait miniature, as a New Year's Day gift for January 1583. According to Robert Bowes, James showed her "portraiture" to noblemen and others of his chamber.Isaac Herbert Jeayes, Charters and muniments at Berkeley castle (Bristol, 1892), p. 331.