In 1603, when James VI succeeded Elizabeth I to become James I of England, his court was packed with Scottish courtiers, and \u201cthis was particularly noticeable in the bed chamber\u201d, explains Joe Ellis of the University of York on an upcoming episode of the HistoryExtra<\/em> podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n This was \u201cthe real inner sanctum of royal life, where only very few courtiers were allowed to be,\u201d says Ellis. \u201cThe bed chamber was somewhere where everybody wanted to be if they wanted to get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n While the king married Anne of Denmark<\/a> in 1589, and fathered as many as seven children, there was a culture within his court of elevating the status of young, attractive men. They shared his bedchamber with him \u2013 a convention of the time (more below). This trait of raising up the status of his male favourites dates back to when the young king was a teen, explains Ellis.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he was only 13 years old, the absence of his own family, I think, led James to call Esm\u00e9 Stewart, his cousin, back to Scotland from France.\u201d At 37 years old, Stewart was much older than James, and Ellis explains that he was something of an exotic presence at court who fascinated the young king.<\/p>\n \u201cStewart was showered with rewards. He was made the only duke in Scotland at the time. But he was deeply unpopular at court, because he was French, and also Catholic,\u201d says Ellis. \u201cI think what we see here is the beginning of a pattern emerging, where James was facilitating the rise of a favourite.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon after James\u2019s accession to the English throne, Scottish noble Robert Carr became a prominent favourite, gaining status as a groom of the bedchamber around 1604.<\/p>\n Having been knighted by the king, Carr soon became influential in royal policy and was given titles and property (including Sherborne Manor, formerly owned by the condemned Sir Walter Raleigh<\/a>). In 1613, he was advanced to the Earldom of Somerset, and Carr (and his wife, Frances Howard) enjoyed much favour.<\/p>\n In 1614\/15, George Villiers<\/a>, a second son born into a family of middling nobility on the edges of royal favour, was backed by a group of English courtiers (including his mother, Mary Villiers<\/a>) who sought to combat the influence of the Scottish nobles that had previously formed James\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n Villiers began to cultivate a relationship with the king, which put him at odds with Carr, resulting in a bitter contest that culminated in Carr\u2019s fall from grace and implication in a court poisoning; he ended up imprisoned in the Tower of London<\/a>.<\/p>\n Having gained the king\u2019s favour, Villiers enjoyed an unprecedented rise to power that continued into the early reign of Charles I<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Anna](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-558914501-465857f-e1709640123254.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Anna")
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![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2024\/03\/RealRobertCarrGettyImages-114728484-dee4878-e1709638941834.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Robert")
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