King James & letters of homoerotic desire - David M. Bergeron

What can we know of the private lives of early British sovereigns?
Through the unusually large number of letters that survive from King
James VI of Scotland/James I of England (1566-1625), we can know a great
deal. Using original letters, primarily from the British Library and
the National Library of Scotland, David Bergeron creatively argues that
James' correspondence with certain men in his court constitutes a gospel
of homoerotic desire. Bergeron grounds his provocative study on an
examination of the tradition of letter writing during the Renaissance
and draws a connection between homosexual desire and letter writing
during that historical period.

King James, commissioner of the Bible translation that bears
his name, corresponded with three principal male favorites-Esm Stuart
(Lennox), Robert Carr (Somerset), and George Villiers (Buckingham). Esm
Stuart, James' older French cousin, arrived in Scotland in 1579 and
became an intimate adviser and friend to the adolescent king. Though
Esm was eventually forced into exile by Scottish nobles, his letters to
James survive, as does James' hauntingly allegorical poem Phoenix.
The king's close relationship with Carr began in 1607. James' letters
to Carr reveal remarkable outbursts of sexual frustration and passion.

A large collection of letters exchanged between James and
Buckingham in the 1620s provides the clearest evidence for James'
homoerotic desires. During a protracted separation in 1623, letters
between the two raced back and forth. These artful, self-conscious
letters explore themes of absence, the pleasure of letters, and a
preoccupation with the body. Familial and sexual terms become
wonderfully intertwined, as when James greets Buckingham as "my sweet
child and wife."

King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire presents a
modern-spelling edition of seventy-five letters exchanged between
Buckingham and James. Across the centuries, commentators have condemned
the letters as indecent or repulsive. Bergeron argues that on the
contrary they reveal an inward desire of king and subject in a mutual
exchange of love.