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A question for any historian that studies (Original Post) multigraincracker Aug 2023 OP
Well the Pope looks like one Farmer-Rick Aug 2023 #1
Perhaps a bit off-topic usonian Aug 2023 #2
Interesting Duncanpup Aug 2023 #3
History seems to confirm that. multigraincracker Aug 2023 #4
He had a crush on an Earl and other men in his court Farmer-Rick Aug 2023 #6
The humor at the time was ribald anc court comedies were participatory Warpy Aug 2023 #5

Farmer-Rick

(11,308 posts)
1. Well the Pope looks like one
Sat Aug 19, 2023, 01:39 PM
Aug 2023

And his cardinals look like back up singers in a drag show.

Let's face it, filthy-rich and religious men have always liked pretty dresses. But what was good for weird dictatorial and imaginary being leaders was forbidden for the vast majority of us.



usonian

(13,581 posts)
2. Perhaps a bit off-topic
Sat Aug 19, 2023, 01:44 PM
Aug 2023

But all those biblical figures wore "dresses" and our Extreme Court parades around in black nightgowns.

Who are they to say what people otta wear?


Farmer-Rick

(11,308 posts)
6. He had a crush on an Earl and other men in his court
Sat Aug 26, 2023, 11:00 AM
Aug 2023

He wrote poems to them.

"James nevertheless cultivated a close friendship with the married 37-year-old Esme Stuart, 1st Earl of Lennox, to who he also dedicated a poem. What was more likely a crush for the then 14-year-old James than a friendship is the first indication of the Scottish king’s latent homosexuality which Protestant nobles disdained given James's enjoyment of demonstrating public displays of affection with the earl."

https://www.history.co.uk/articles/the-life-of-king-james-i-and-vi-the-wisest-fool-in-christendom

But all the innocent women he murdered, and caused to be murdered, burned at the steak or hanged for being witches put a pall on his 25 year reign. He died of dysentery at the age of 58.


"‘The North Berwick Witch Trials’ saw James taking it upon himself to appear in person to interrogate a group of people accused of witchcraft. James played the role of prosecuting barrister, interviewing women such as Agnes Sampson, a ‘healer’ known as the ‘Wise Wife of Keith’ which kicked off a witch craze of prosecutions between 1590 – 1662. It is estimated that about 1500 people were executed in Scotland under charges of witchcraft, most of whom were women who had become victims of gossip and hearsay."

He then went on to write books about witchcraft spreading this mass delusion throughout the empire; causing even more innocent people to die.

Warpy

(113,130 posts)
5. The humor at the time was ribald anc court comedies were participatory
Sat Aug 19, 2023, 04:33 PM
Aug 2023

and yes, the king joined in the fun. Dignified pomp happened in cathedrals and anywhere he appeared in front of the commons. At home with his homies, anything went. And did.

While portraits make him look like a rather tight tipped Puritan and he did commission the scholarly KJV of the bible, his court was anything but understated:

As King of Scotland, James’s artistic patronage had facilitated a flourishing Renaissance court culture. The baptismal celebrations for the King’s heir, Prince Henry – held at Stirling Castle in 1594 – provided symbolic confirmation of Stuart dynastic fecundity, in contrast to Tudor barrenness. Fourteen new outfits were designed for James and his Danish queen, Anne, crafted from imported plush, satin and taffeta from Genoa, velvet from Lucca, and cloth of silver and gold in a rainbow palette. The baptismal banquet included a 40ft-high galleon, with ‘herrings, whiting, flounders, oysters, whelks, crabs and clams – all modelled in sugar’, according to one account of the festivities.


https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/magazine-lockdown-and-luxury-the-court-of-james-i

If you're asking if he was gay, that has not been established. He and his queen did their duty and produced heirs.
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