ABSTRACT
A visit of the king to his native country must therefore mean either a sharp drop in living standards or the transport of a great deal of English cash and goods. James came to like other things in the south besides luxury: he made friends there, and though at first he took with him a group of Scottish courtiers who annoyed the English by doing well out of the move, as well as by bringing their lice with them, he had in a few years dropped his Scottish favourite, Carr, for the Englishman, George Villiers. Villiers, ennobled as the Duke of Buckingham, moved in on the court and organized rackets and extortions, sales of honours and economic privileges, on a scale that made all previous attempts at this mere pickings. Not many Scots could afford to keep up with the court on these terms, and those that did tended to slip out of touch with Scottish feeling and affairs. English politics were more clamant and time-consuming than Scottish, and the new country had dealings with foreign powers that had never meant much to Scotland. All in all it is not surprising that James only once managed to return to Scotland, in 1617, and that his son paid only a single visit before the crisis of his reign forced him to try to woo the Scots.
