A study of James Hay, a little known 17th-cent. Scotsman who was a key figure in the early Stuart era. Unlike the vast majority of Scots who entered England with James I, Hay absorbed the culture of England and tried to become a genuine part of it, in order to play an important role for his adopted country on both the nat. and internat. level. For more than three decades Hay was at the right hand of those who made the decisions, and advised them on what to decide. Between 1616 and 1629 Hay traveled to virtually every major Western European nation. Hay’s lesser gentry origins, emphasis on civilian gov’t. employment, devotion to the court over the country and ardent entrepreneurship all single him out as a Jacobean aristocrat. A print on demand pub.