aBurntShip

             King James VI / I and Witchcraft Steven Veerapen is a Scottish academic, historian, and successful historical novel writer, focusing largely on the 16th century and early 17th century. His latest book is 'Witches-A king's Obsession' , published by Birlinn, 2025 in hardback.                                    Steven Veerapen is certainly well qualified to write about the Jacobean era : His previous works include biographies of James VI & I, 'The Wisest Fool   (2023) and his wife Anna of Denmark ' Queen in Two Kingdoms  (2022) .  There is a helpful background in this book showing how witchcraft and magic were viewed in past centuries. A turning point was the publication and circulation of the  Witch hunting manual  Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer (1487), aided by the rise of the printing press...

                                                       A Jacobean test of Loyalty ?      Sir William Parker (1578-1622),13th Baron Morley, inherited the title the 4th  Lord Monteagle: For the purposes of this post, the modern spelling of the title Lord Monteagle will be used..Other variants included Lord 'Mounteagle' or 'Mownteagle'.                                   The Monteagle Letter, is the most famous anonymous communication in British History. And perhaps the first British bomb scare. A deadly warning to Lord Monteagle -a Roman Catholic- who was due to take his seat in the House of Lords at the state opening of Parliament- on 5th November 1605. Who wrote or perhaps dictated, and delivered  the letter, is still disputed today. In ...

    A biography by Mark Turnbull -published by 'Pen & Sword'  Mark Turnbull is aptly qualified to write a biography of Charles I: He has written four well researched novels set during the British and Irish Civil Wars, and runs the 'Cavalier Podcast' series. Mr Turnbull has also appeared as a speaker on the Civil War history circuit.  This is the author's  the first non fiction work, and as Mr Turnbull already has the skill to make history interesting, the biography is ultimately a success. Also as a Civil War specialist, the author is more pro-Royalist whilst objective enough to look at the broader picture so to speak. The book is well footnoted, including references to  source material from the National Archives. .  I t is fair to say that the author seems quite distanced from the stance taken by historians such as Christopher Hill, who focused on alleged underlying  socio- economic causes of the conflict. Overall the emphasis is firmly place...

                                        The Lavish Life of James VI and 1                                           Steven Veerapen is an esteemed Scottish academic and fiction writer drawing on the late 16th century. His biography of Anna of Denmark, wife to James VI/1 was published in 2022, and Mr Veerapen has also written a non fiction book on Mary Queen of Scots-'Blood Feud-Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Moray' amongst other works . Over half the book deals with James's upbringing in Scotland and his kingship there. The focus on Scottish history is well done. The author works hard to try and explain the complex rivalries between the factions of Scottish nobility that could easily break out into armed fighting. The author makes an important distinction is made between the English Refo...

                        Fiction set in the Thirty Years War Sack of Magdeburg 1631 -  by    Matthäus Merian de Oude   (1659)  In public domain courtesy of Wikipedia   The Thirty Years War 1618- 1648 currently does not receive a great deal of attention in Britain. James I and Charles I were both keen to keep their realm out of the conflict, and then the  British and Irish Civil Wars dominated the mid 17th century. England and Scotland may been have drawn in if James elder son and  heir apparent Henry, an enthusiastic Protestant who died in 1612, had ascended the throne,   Yet  the Thirty Years War brought devastating misery to central Europe.As well as hundreds of thousands of combatants being killed or wounded, the civilian casualties -caught in the conflict, but also facing famine and plague- numbered in their millions. The conflict is often portrayed as a religious war be...