Sir James Melville: Scottish Ambassador

Sir James Melville is little known today, but he lived a life at the heart of Anglo-Scottish politics in the second half of the sixteenth century. Son of a traitor, executed for revealing secrets to Henry VIII's government, he served Mary Queen of Scots as ambassador to Elizabeth I of England, as well as managing other aspects of her foreign affairs. The Scottish court was a dangerous place, and Melville steered a careful path between the factions, whose increasingly bitter rivalry resulted...