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 in the murder of the Queen's secretary, her husband, and, later, two of the four Regents for her son, James VI. Melville witnessed it all, but managed to die in his bed.

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