Royal Family, Royal Lovers: King James of England and Scotland

King James, sponsor of the famous Authorized "King James" Bible, is often lauded as defender of the faith by some who worship his 1611 publication as the be-all and end-all of all English Bible translations. Many hagiographic works abound, but Bergeron's isn't one of those.While writing his Basilicon Doron to attack the sin of sodomy, James himself used his royal position to shield himself from such a charge against himself. Bergeron digs up the historical dirt and shares a contemporary's view of the hypocrisy, a diary entry in 1622 by one Simonds D'Ewes of a conversation he'd had with a friend:"Of things I discoursed with him that weere secrett as of the sinne of sodomye, how frequente it was in this wicked cittye, and if God did not provide some wonderfull blessing against it, wee could not but expect some horrible punishment for it; especially it being as wee had probable cause to feare, a sinne in the prince as well as the people, which God is for the most part the chastiser of himselfe, because noe man else indeed dare reprove or tell him them of ther faults." (Bergeron, p. 183)Many more pieces of evidence are to be found in those pages, and what emerges from Bergeron's picture is that of a great man who was both King of England and Scotland and quite human.