Despite being born in France to a French mother and Scottish father, the poet John Barclay retained a strong Scottish identity throughout his life. He also considered himself to be a subject of King James. The family relocated from France to London in 1603 and hoping to gain royal favour Barclay wrote and presented Latin poetry to the king. Over the next decade he travelled and worked between England and France before finally moving to Rome with his family in 1616. The move was to ensure his children, who had been born in Protestant England, could be raised as Catholics.