The Sun Rising: James I and the Dawn of a Global Britain

(Hardback)

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A panoramic history of the arrival of the Stuarts, and how the reign of King James I saw England reach new corners of the globe

'A majestic, brilliant account of the birth of an empire. Spectacularly good' PETER FRANKOPAN

'With its gripping storytelling combined with historical rigour, The Sun Rising is just the right kind of zesty treatment a neglected period needs. Fresh and fabulous' LUCY WORSLEY

1603. Elizabeth I dies and with her, the Tudor line comes to an end. England is plunged into crisis.

Into this time of uncertainty arrived James I, reaching London after an unprecedented procession from Scotland. In taking the throne, he established a new dynasty and the first united kingdom of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales was born. The Stuarts had arrived.

But first, this new Great Britain had to play catch up. Spain and Portugal had entered the New World and begun exploiting it for profit; the discovery of a direct trade route to India had begun to shift trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. England was behind, but Jamess global ambitions began to shift the tide. As ships departed London for America, Russia, Persia, India and Japan, as the fledgling East India Company began to intertwine ever closer with the crown and as the English began to travel beyond the bounds of their island in greater numbers than ever before, the seeds of the future British Empire were sown.

Long overshadowed by the glory of Elizabeth I and the fatal nadir of Charles I, the reign of the first King of Great Britain is at last told in a new light. Taking in everything from the historic voyage of the Mayflower to the alliance between James and the Persian shah over a joint love of silk, The Sun Rising revolutionises our understanding of the early seventeenth century and the figures that forged a global Britain.

Reviews

A majestic, brilliant account of the birth of an empire. Spectacularly good -- PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads
With its gripping storytelling combined with historical rigour, The Sun Rising is just the right kind of zesty treatment a neglected period needs. Fresh and fabulous -- LUCY WORSLEY
Richly evocative and brilliantly provocative, The Sun Rising transports its readers far from Whitehall in pursuit of James Is vision for a united, global Britain. From the plantations of Ireland and trading posts in Indonesia to the courts of Russia and Japan, Anna Whitelocks compelling narrative looks afresh at James I, and at the idea of Britain that emerged during his reign and which still resonates today -- ALICE HUNT, author of Republic: Britain's Revolutionary Decade, 1649-1660
A picturesque portrait of the nascent Great Britain in an extraordinary age of unification, expansion and commercial experimentation. With sympathy and vigour, Anna Whitelock showcases many facets of this emerging world at home and overseas, ruled over by a fascinating monarch too often neglected and misunderstood by posterity -- MALCOLM GASKILL, author of The Ruin of All Witches
A very lucid, exciting and well-researched narrative of a part of British history which has been relatively neglected and yet is of vital and enduring importance for the development of Britain -- RONALD HUTTON, author of The Witch
With shrewd reasoning and in lucid prose, Professor Anna Whitelock refuses the vision of James VI and I as an insular caretaker king, uncomfortably sandwiched between the glittering Elizabeth and the ill-fated Charles. Here, instead, is a focal reign in which the British reached tendrils out into the corners of the globe and entwined themselves with the history of the world. A scintillating and vital read -- SUZANNAH LIPSCOMB, author of Six Queens: The Wives of Henry VIII
Fascinating, razor-sharp and shot through with uncanny resonances for the interesting times in which we live, The Sun Rising is the brilliantly realised story of James I and the men who, under his rule, sailed the world in search of power and profit. With wit and acute insight, in a page-turning read, Anna Whitelock shows us the seventeenth-century making of Global Britain -- HELEN CASTOR, author of She-Wolves
Big, bold, bracing history that expertly captures the energy, ambition and ruthlessness by which a fledgling Britain took wing and then proceeded to feather its nest. Anna Whitelock gives us wide vistas, sharp insights and immersive prose; I can almost taste the salt and smell the sulphur -- JESSIE CHILDS, author of The Siege of Loyalty House
Intended as a 'provocation' to rethink established narratives, The Sun Rising takes readers from Jamestown to Archangel and from Mughal India to Pulo Run in modern-day Indonesia. Assembling a large cast of explorers, envoys and entrepreneurs, Whitelock's new book vividly underscores the vitality and global ambitions of early seventeenth-century Englishmen and their first Stuart king -- CLARE JACKSON, author of Devil-Land

Author Bio

Anna Whitelock is Professor of the History of Modern Monarchy and Executive Dean of the School of Communication and Creativity at City St Georges, University of London. She is an international media commentator on monarchy, public history, and the Tudors and Stuarts. Her previous books include Mary Tudor: Englands First Queen and Elizabeths Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queens Court. She lives in Cambridge.

@AnnaWhitelock www.annawhitelock.co.uk