The Prince Who Would Be King

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Henry Stuart's life is the last great forgotten Jacobean tale. Shadowed by the gravity of the Thirty Years' War and the huge changes taking place across Europe in seventeenth century society, economy, politics and empire, his life was visually and verbally gorgeous. Charismatic, gifted, dynamic - dead at only eighteen years old, on the point of succeeding to the throne. In 1610, Henry Stuart was a celebrity throughout Europe, at a momentous period for European history and culture. Eldest son of James VI and the epitome of heroic Renaissance princely virtue, his life was set against a period about as rich as any. The King James Bible, religious tension throughout Europe, Gunpowder plot, Jacobean theatre and the dark tragedies pouring from Shakespeare's quill, innovation in learning and science, exploration and trade - as well and the bloody traumas of the Thirty Years War were his backdrop. [This] tells the life story of the prince, now completely forgotten, who might have saved us from King Charles I, his spaniels and the civil war his misrule engendered.