by some supposed to be a son of the Countess of Mar, which is impossible, and by others to be the son of a common woman of the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, purchased to foil Darnley's plot. It is said that the body of an infant was discovered last century in the wall of Edinburgh Castle, clothed in purple. I have been unable to confirm this rumour which might explain some of the discrepancies of James's character. James's early appearance, however, while not typically Stuart, had several of the characteristics of that family. The long jaw is particularly notable in contemporary portraits ofJames III and James VI. At the age of five days he was seen by Henry Killigrew, who reported in these enthusiastic words: 'I was brought to the young prince, sucking of his nurse, and afterwards saw him as good as naked ... all to my judgement well proportioned and like to prove a goodly Prince' (Cal. Scottish Papers, a). Yet the Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (I869) remarks that he 'carried in his constitution a weakness of the most lamentable nature, affecting both his body and his mnind'. James was baptized according to Roman Catholic ritual in Stirling Castle in December I566, when his father, although in the town, did not attend the service, while Bedford, Elizabeth's envoy, and the Protestant lords stood outside the chapel. He was taken to the Earl of Mar at Stirling in March I567 and, after the abdication of his mother, was crowned in the parish kirk there on 29 July I567 at the age of thirteen months. Thus he never remembered a time when he had not been king or, indeed, when his body was not a pawn in the politics of the time. His childhood companion was the son of the Earl of Mar, and his tutors were the renowned, though unsympathetic, George Buchanan and Peter Young. He was at first attended by a wet nurse, of whom no details are available, and by four 'rockers'. His youth was complicated by many attempts to seize his person and by the policies of Mar and Morton. In I578, after a plot by Atholl and Argyle, he nominally took over the government himself at the age of twelve. In 1579, James first entered Edinburgh, and that fateful year also saw the appearance of the first of his evil geniuses. Esme Stuart, Seigneur D'Aubigny, was the son ofJohn Stuart, brother ofJames's grandfather, the Earl of Lennox. He was sent by the Guise faction to spy on the young James and his court, but, being an opportunist, he rapidly realized that his influence with James was of more value to himself than were his hopes if Mary were restored. James's taste for beautiful young men was first awakened by Stuart, whom he rapidly made Earl, and later Duke, of Lennox. Contemporary hints of the nature of this friendship are not wanting. Moysie wrote, 'His Majesty, having conceived an inward affection for the Lord D'Aubigny, entered in great familiarity and quiet purposes with him'.
