The King wears one of the three famous hat jewels comprised of square cut diamonds and known as “The Feather”. Both this jewel and the pearl and jewelled chain appear in other pictures by and attributed to de Critz. This treatment of the King’s face was standardised by de Critz from 1604 onwards. The same facial type was adopted by Marcus Gheeraerts in 1611, and was not changed until the arrival of Paul van Somer in 1618.  The King was thirty-seven when he came to the throne in 1603 and appears to have aged rapidly.   The red beard and fresh complexion suggests that this type dates from soon after 1603 as many of the later versions of the composition showed the beard as much greyer and thinner. James V1’s long reign in Scotland, (followed by joint monarchy with England after 1603), was a period of great turbulence. As King of Scotland, he had to come to terms with the fact that Queen Elizabeth 1 of England had executed his mother, Mary Queen of Scots.   As King of England, his posthumous reputation remains ambivalent, but he is chiefly remembered as the overseer of the Protestant Bible still known as the ‘King James’ version.

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