King James I

• Born: 19 June 1566
• Birthplace: Edinburgh Castle, Scotland
• Died: 27 March 1625
• Best Known As: The Scottish and English king who sponsored the 1611 Bible

King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603. He was the first monarch of the House of Stewart (or Stuart) and succeeded Queen Elizabeth I, the last monarch of the House of Tudor. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stewart, Duke of Albany (known as Lord Dunley). James became the king of Scotland at age one (1567), when his mother was forced to abdicate the throne, and finally assumed real power himself in 1583. As a young king he survived several assassination attempts and strengthened the power of the crown over Parliament. He allied himself with England's Elizabeth (making only a token objection when she executed his mother), and when the childless queen died, her throne went to James. (He was her distant cousin as the great-grandson of Margaret Tudor, elder sister of England's Henry VIII, the father of Elizabeth.) His reign as James I was marked by unpopular policy decisions and uneasy relations with Parliament, who resented his assertion of the divine right of kings and considered him self-indulgent and crass. In 1611 he dissolved Parliament and, excepting what was called the Addled Parliament (1614), ruled without one until 1621. Raised a Protestant in Scotland, James angered Puritans with his support of the Anglican Church, and he frustrated both Catholics and Protestants with inconsistent policies. His personal extravagance and reliance on incompetent or corrupt court favorites made him increasingly unpopular and helped set the scene for the English Civil War under his son and successor, Charles I. The colonization of America began during his reign. Despite all the turmoil, he is probably best-remembered for commissioning the translation into English and publication (in 1611) of what is called the Authorized or King James version of the Bible.

James was more of a scholar than a warrior; he authored several treatises, including The True Laws of Free Monarchies and Demonology... The "Gunpowder Plot" to kill James in 1605 was foiled when Guy Fawkes was caught with 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords... Critics winked and nudged at James's close relationship with George Villiers, called "wife" by James and made Earl of Buckingham in 1623... James imprisoned a favorite of Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, and eventually had him beheaded.

James I (1566-1625) reigned as king of England from 1603 to 1625. As James VI, he was king of Scotland from 1567 to 1625.

The son of Mary Stuart, reigning queen of Scotland, and (presumably) her husband, Lord Darnley, James I was born in Edinburgh Castle on June 19, 1566. His mother's subsequent indiscretions forced her to renounce her title in her son's favor in 1567.

The infant king was placed in the trust of the Earl of Mar, a zealous Protestant, who was a firm believer in the value of education and discipline. The King's tutors, George Buchanan and Peter Young, were stern taskmasters, but James proved an apt pupil. By the age of 8 he was fluent in French, Latin, and reasonably conversant in English. But he received no instruction in the "courtly arts." James's sense of humor never outgrew the primitive, his language was coarse and vulgar, and his manner was most distinctly unregal.

In 1571 the regent, Lennox (James's paternal grandfather), was killed by the Marians, and he was then succeeded by the harsh Earl of Morton. In 1578 James was kidnaped by two of the Marians, Atholl and Argyle, only to be rescued within the month.

The two Catholic superpowers, France and Spain, both sought to influence developments in Scotland. From France came James's cousin, the corrupt Esmé Stuart, ostensibly to win James to the side of the house of Guise and the Catholic faith. The young king was completely smitten by this adventurer, and he gave him lands, income, and the title of Earl and then Duke of Lennox.

The new duke soon encompassed the downfall and execution of the regent, Morton. His influence over the King seemed paramount, and James's Protestant subjects vented their fears for the King's moral and religious state. In fact, the influence of Lennox and his equally corrupt accomplices seems to have been greatest in the field of politics - James completely turned from the basically democratic ideas espoused by his early tutors and began to think in terms of absolute monarchy.

In 1582 James was taken into custody at Ruthven Castle, and Lennox was driven from the country. Within a year the King had escaped from his new captors, but he succeeded merely in placing himself under the tutelage of Lennox's most aggressive companion, the Earl of Arran, who soon took over the actual running of the state.

Personal Rule

Egged on by Arran, James attacked the Presbyterian Church, and in 1584 he forced himself to be recognized as head of the Church. James's ambition to be king of England was matched by his need for English money; despite the attack on his favorite, Arran, the alliance with England was maintained. When his mother let herself be drawn into outright treason, James did little to prevent her execution in 1587.

James then turned his attention to dynastic (and romantic) matters, and he began his courtship of Anne of Denmark. The King, newly come of age, sailed after his bride, to the joy of his subjects. He married her in Norway, where severe weather had compelled her to remain. Six months later the royal couple returned to Scotland.

By 1592 the feuds between Lord Bothwell and the Catholic lords had reduced James to a virtual fugitive, pursued by one side and then the other. By 1593 Bothwell had made James his captive - to the praise of the Presbyterians and Elizabeth, who both feared the influence of the Catholic Earl of Huntly. Bothwell, however, had overplayed his hand - James talked his way to freedom, and with the aid of the middle classes he proceeded against the man who had not merely held him a prisoner but had also sought his life through witchcraft and the black arts.

Bothwell, now desperate, allied himself with Huntly, Errol, and Angus. The result was the destruction of the Catholic earls as well as Bothwell. By the end of 1594 the position of the monarchy seemed exceptionally secure.

James's sense of security was heightened by another event of 1594 - the birth of a son and heir, Henry Frederick. Entrusted to the care of the Dowager Countess of Mar, the young prince symbolized James's coming of age.

During the next 4 years James continued to consolidate his position. His finances were restored by the efforts of the "Octavians," and when the Catholic earls returned to Scotland they seemed a much chastened lot. Their return led to an excess of emotion on the part of the most zealous of the Presbyterians, and this in turn allowed the King to proceed against them and to further advance the episcopal form of ecclesiastical polity. His ideas on church-state relations, on the attitude of subjects toward their king, and on the nature of divine right appeared in print in 1598 in The Trew Law of Free Monarchies. Within 2 years James had further refined his ideas in his most important work, Basilikon Doron (written for the edification of the young Henry).

King of England

James also accepted the advice offered by Robert Cecil, Elizabeth's most astute minister, to abandon his harebrained plots with Catholics and Protestants alike and to adopt a respectful and calm tone toward the aging queen. On Mar. 24, 1603, only 8 hours after Elizabeth's death, James was proclaimed king in London.

In a sense, the events of the first 2 years of James's reign in England serve to "set the stage" for the growing conflicts that marked the remainder of his 22 years on the throne. James had decisions to make in the areas of foreign policy, domestic religion, finance, and, in the broadest sense, in the field of governmental theory. In each of these areas, and in the matter of his northern kingdom and his royal favorites, he came into conflict with the English Parliament - especially with the House of Commons. James's great failure as an English king stemmed from his inability at first to perceive wherein the English assembly differed from the Scottish Parliament, and from his unwillingness to accept the differences when at last he became aware of them.

Especially in matters of secular domestic policies, James's first year on the English throne led to his asserting what he considered to be his "rightful" role in the government and in the constitution. Thus, in the first session of his first Parliament (1604), the King's speeches about his prerogative and the privileges that he had granted Parliament led that body to draft the "Apology of the Commons," in which the Commons equated their rights with those of all Englishmen. The Commons had suddenly assumed a new role. During James's first Parliament, which lasted until 1610, the opposition to him was sporadic and relatively uncoordinated. It tended to center on the figure of James's heir, Henry, who was given his own household at the age of 9.

Affairs of Church and State

The harsh treatment to which he had been subjected by some of his ministers of the Presbyterian Church as a youth, and the disruptive, highly antimonarchical bias of the Church, led James to support an episcopal church - a church that moreover acknowledged him as its head. Indeed, James's instincts seemed to incline him toward a very highly ritualized form of worship, and he seemed at first disposed to move toward a more lenient position regarding Roman Catholicism. Whatever his real feelings on this issue might have been, the discovery of a Catholic conspiracy led by Guy Fawkes to blow up the royal family - and Parliament as well - robbed him of any initiative in dealing with the Catholics as a group. He was forced to bow to the harsh measures adopted by Parliament; his subsequent efforts to relieve the disabilities imposed on Catholics only made Parliament suspect his motives.

Suspicion clouded James's relations with Parliament over several other issues as well. His attempts to unite England and Scotland as one kingdom were thwarted; his meddling in the dealings of his common-law courts led him to quarrel with his own chief justice, Sir Edward Coke, and to espouse a more extreme view of his own prerogative; his arbitrary raising of customs duties further outraged the Commons; finally, his untoward fondness for a succession of worthless favorites (Scottish and English alike) annoyed Parliament, irked Prince Henry, and irritated Queen Anne.

Always impecunious, and without a trace of thrift, James maintained finances that were a source of embarrassment and of weakness. By 1610, amidst mutual recriminations and with the financial crisis unabated, James's first Parliament came to an end.

With Parliament in abeyance, government rested in the hands of James's favorite of the moment, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, and Carr's pro-Spanish in-laws, the Howards. Carr's implication in a scandalous murder trial, the death of Henry Howard, leader of the Spanish faction, and the emergence of a new favorite, George Villiers, seemed to under-cut the Spanish party, but this eclipse was only temporary; the more the King seemed to incline toward Spain, the more he alienated his more substantial subjects. This mutual mistrust found expression in the "Addled Parliament" of 1614. For 2 months neither Commons nor King would concede a point to the other, and finally, despite his growing need for money, James dissolved his unruly legislature.

In his desperation, James now turned for help to Don Diego Sarmiento, the Spanish ambassador. His poverty really afforded him no choice, but his subjects saw this as further proof of duplicity. James began to consider a Spanish bride for Prince Charles, who had succeeded his late brother as Prince of Wales - a most unpopular project, but one which endured for more than a decade. Sarmiento encouraged the King but demanded substantial concessions that would have been impossible for James to meet.

Thirty Years War

The year 1616 saw the new favorite, Villiers (raised to the peerage as Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquis, and finally, Duke of Buckingham), secure his position at court and become the focus of royal government. By 1618 he had destroyed the Howard family, and his power seemed to be complete. Buckingham's rise and his arrogance led to a quarrel with Prince Charles. James reconciled the two young men, and they soon became the best of friends.

By 1618, too, James's health was failing. He was badly crippled by gout and by attacks of kidney stones, and he clearly was no longer as alert mentally as he had been. It was precisely at this unfortunate moment that he was called upon to meet the greatest challenge of his reign: the outbreak of the Thirty Years War.

James's potential reasons for action were immediate, urgent, personal, and obvious - the conflict revolved around his son-in-law, daughter, and grandchildren. On a broader level, the very existence of the reformed faith was in danger. Despite the virtually unanimous urging of his subjects, favorite, and son for an aggressive foreign policy, James vacillated, hesitated, and ultimately to his disgrace appeared to abandon his own family and to attempt an alliance with their enemies. That James sought to use Spanish friendship to aid his son-in-law's cause was neither apparent nor sensible to his subjects. When, in 1620, Spain invaded the Palatinate itself, even James was roused to anger.

Royal anger, to be effective, needed money, and money could only come from a Parliament. Reluctantly, against the advice of Buckingham (who had become pro-Spanish), James summoned Parliament in 1621. At first, despite James's habitual sermonizing to the Commons, things seemed to go well. Money was voted, and while the King refused to allow Parliament to discuss matters of foreign policy, he made no overt move to keep them from overhauling domestic affairs. By the end of the first session, Commons and King were closer together than they had been for years.

Spanish blandishments dissipated this goodwill, and when, during November and December 1620, the Commons refused to vote supplies blindly but insisted on presenting their views on foreign policy, the King was furious. He denied virtually all of Parliament's privileges, and when the Commons responded with a mild protestation, he dissolved Parliament.

Final Years and Death

The gulf between James and his subjects, indeed between the Crown and the nation, was now total. Morally as well as financially, James was bankrupt. He was also wholly dependent upon the goodwill of Spain, or so he thought.

As James grew senile, he lost control not only over his country but over his son and his favorite as well. Charles and Buckingham exposed themselves, their King, and their country to ridicule by their hasty and futile pursuit of the Spanish Infanta.

James's last Parliament was no more peaceful than his first had been. Again King and Commons clashed over prerogative and privilege, but now the Commons was joined by the Lords, and the King's harsh strictures were explained away by his own chief minister and his heir. In the end, the King, and not Parliament, gave way, and England's long flirtation with Spain was at an end.

James's end came soon after; always in poor health, he died on March 27, 1625. He left behind an empty treasury, a malcontented Parliament, and a son who would succeed him peaceably - for a while.

Further Reading

The best modern biography of James is David Harris Willson, King James VI and I (1956), which provides a lucid and balanced picture of the age as well as an insightful study of the King. David Mathew, James I (1967), is episodic and far less satisfactory. James's early life is recounted in Caroline Bingham, The Making of a King: The Early Years of James VI and I (1968). Other biographical works include Thomas Finlayson Henderson, James I and VI (1904), and William Lloyd McElwee, The Wisest Fool in Christendom: The Reign of King James I and VI (1958). James figures prominently in Godfrey Davies, The Early Stuarts (1937; corrected repr. 1952), and G. P. V. Akrigg, Jacobean Pageant (1962). Documents dealing with James's view of the monarchy and with his clashes with the courts and Parliament are in J. P. Kenyon, The Stuart Constitution, 1603-1688: Documents and Commentary (1966). Wallace Notestein, The English People on the Eve of Colonization (1954), is a readable and scholarly study of the period.

Additional Sources

Bergeron, David Moore, Royal family, royal lovers: King James of England and Scotland, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991.

Bingham, Caroline, James I of England, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981.

Durston, Christopher, James I, London; New York: Routledge, 1993.

Finsten, Jill, Isaac Oliver, art at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I, New York: Garland Pub., 1981.

Fraser, Antonia, King James, VI of Scotland, I of England, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994.

Houston, S. J., James I, London; New York: Longman, 1995.

Lee, Maurice, Great Britain's Solomon: James VI and I in his three kingdoms, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.

McElwee, William Lloyd, The wisest fool in Christendom; the reign of King James I and V, Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press 1974, 1958.

For more information on James I, visit Britannica.com.

Early Life

The son of Lord Darnley and Mary Queen of Scots, James succeeded to the Scottish throne on the forced abdication of his mother. He was placed in the care of John Erskine, 1st earl of Mar, and later of Mar's brother, Sir Alexander Erskine. The young king progressed in his studies under various teachers, notably George Buchanan, and acquired a taste for learning and theological debate. During James's minority, Scotland was ruled by a series of regents—the earls of Murray, Lennox, Mar, and Morton. The king was the creature of successive combinations of the nobility and clergy in a complicated struggle between the remnants of his mother's Catholic party, which favored an alliance with France, and the Protestant faction, which wished an alliance with England.

In 1582, James was seized by William Ruthven, earl of Gowrie (see Ruthven, family), and other Protestant adherents. He escaped in 1583 and began his personal rule, though influenced by his favorite, James Stuart, earl of Arran. James considered an alliance with his mother's French relatives, the Guise, but in 1586, to improve his prospects of succeeding to the English throne, he allied himself with Elizabeth I. This caused a break with his mother's party, and he accepted her execution in 1587 calmly.

James, by clever politics and armed force, succeeded in subduing the feudal Scottish baronage, in establishing royal authority, and in asserting the superiority of the state over the Presbyterian Church. In 1589, against the wishes of Elizabeth, James married Anne of Denmark. He succeeded in 1603 to the English crown by virtue of his descent from Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII.

King of England

Although at first welcomed in England, James brought to his new kingdom little understanding of its Parliament or its changing political, social, and religious conditions. James's reliance on favorites whose qualifications consisted more of personal charm than talent for government, the extravagance and moral looseness of the court, and the scandalous career of James's favorite Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, all furthered discontent.

Religious Controversies

On his arrival in England, the king was presented with the Millenary Petition, a plea for the accommodation of Puritans within the Established Church. However, at the Hampton Court Conference (1604), called to consider the petition, James displayed an uncompromising anti-Puritan attitude, which aroused great distrust. (This conference commissioned the translation of the Bible that resulted in the Authorized, or King James, Version.)

James's inconsistent policy toward English Roman Catholics angered both Catholic and Protestant alike. The Gunpowder Plot (1605), which sprang from Catholic anger at the reimposition of fines and penalties that James had earlier relaxed, led to greater harshness toward Catholics and prevented any cordial relations thereafter. Yet the suspicion arose that the king favored the Catholics, because he sought to conciliate Spain and attempted to arrange a marriage between the Spanish infanta and Prince Charles (later Charles I).

Conflicts with Parliament

James's relations with the English Parliament were strained from the beginning because of his insistence upon the concept of divine right of monarchy and his inability to recognize Parliament as representative of a large and important body of opinion. As it was, Parliament—and particularly the House of Commons, where Puritanism was strong—soon became the rallying point of the forces opposing the crown. The Commons blocked (1607) James's cherished project of a union with Scotland. They also complained bitterly about James's methods of raising revenue by imposing new customs duties and selling monopolies. The Great Contract of 1610, a compromise whereby James would relinquish some of his feudal rights in return for a yearly income, did not come to fruition.

In 1611, James dissolved Parliament and except for the Addled Parliament of 1614, which produced no legislation, ruled without one until 1621. After the death (1612) of his capable minister, Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, the king exercised the royal prerogative with even less restraint and entered into battle with the courts of common law, whose position was strongly defended by Sir Edward Coke. After the fall of Somerset, George Villiers, later 1st duke of Buckingham, rose to favor and by 1619 was in complete possession of the king's confidence.

At the Parliament of 1621, called in order to raise money for the cause of the German Protestants and James's son-in-law, Frederick the Winter King, in the Thirty Years War, James was forced to abolish certain monopolies that had been abused by their holders. This Parliament also impeached the lord chancellor, Francis Bacon. It was dissolved by James for asserting its right to debate foreign policy.

The unpopular Spanish policy was pursued until the 1623 expedition of Prince Charles and Buckingham to Spain to facilitate the marriage arrangements ended in failure. A marriage treaty with France was concluded in 1624, and James was unable to prevent Parliament from voting a subsidy for war against Spain. James left to his son, Charles I, a foreign war and events leading up to the English civil war.

Literary Works

James I was active as an author. He produced several youthful essays on literary theory, poetry, and numerous political works. Two other important writings are his True Law of Free Monarchy (1598), an assertion of the concept of divine right of kings, and Basilikon Doron (1599), a treatise on the art of government. His political works have been edited by C. H. McIlwain (1918, repr. 1965).

Bibliography

See biographies by D. H. Willson (1956, repr. 1967) and D. Mathew (1967); G. Davies, The Early Stuarts (2d ed. 1959); J. P. Kenyon, The Stuarts (1958); G. P. V. Akrigg, Jacobean Pageant (1962, repr. 1967).

James I and VI (England and Scotland) (1566–1625), king of England (as James I, 1603–1625) and Scotland (as James VI, 1567–1625). Born in June 1566, James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. Rumors abounded from his birth that he was in fact the son of Mary's lover, her Italian secretary David Riccio. Although these were probably unfounded, Mary's marriage to Darnley was certainly an unhappy one: in February 1567 she was involved in the assassination of the feckless Darnley by Scottish lords, led by James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, at Kirk O'Fields near Edinburgh. Bothwell then divorced his own wife and married Mary. The Protestant Scottish lords were outraged by their behavior, and Mary was deposed. On 19 July 1567 her thirteen-month-old son was crowned James VI of Scotland.

James's minority was dominated by his various noble regents, two of whom were killed in the political violence that characterized Scottish politics during this period, and by his tutors, the strict Calvinist George Buchanan and the more sympathetic Peter Young. In August 1582 James was lured into Ruthven castle and held captive for more than a year by the Protestant earls of Gowrie and Angus. This led to the downfall of James's friend and regent, the pro-French Esmé Stewart, duke of Lennox, and made an indelible mark on the young king. In June 1583 James escaped from his captors and began to assert his authority as king. Chief among his targets was the Scottish Kirk, or assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which the king never forgave for rejoicing in the fall of his friend Lennox. The struggle for control of the Scottish church was a defining feature of James's rule in Scotland, and he continually strove to enforce the so-called Black Acts of 1584, which asserted royal authority over the church. James was only moderately successful; he did not succeed, for example, in appointing any new bishops (the counterweight to the authority of the Kirk) in Scotland between 1585 and 1600. In 1592 the Golden Acts recognized the Kirk's authority in religious matters but retained the king's right to summon it when and where he wished. James also struggled to overcome a factious nobility, notably Francis Stewart, earl of Bothwell (nephew of the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots) and George Gordon, earl of Huntly. Nevertheless, by 1600 James had established royal control over the Scottish nobility, and his relations with the Scottish Parliament were generally good.

James's international and dynastic standing was increased in October 1589 by his marriage to Anne of Denmark (1574–1619). James traveled to Denmark to collect his bride and only returned to Scotland the following April. Anne bore him three sons and four daughters: Henry, Elizabeth, Margaret, Charles, Robert, Mary, and Sophia. James had made only token gestures against the execution of his mother by Elizabeth I of England in 1587, and was careful to maintain his position as the obvious successor to the English throne. When Elizabeth died in March 1603, James was named as her successor and arrived in London the following month.

Almost immediately, however, James came into conflict with his new subjects. Two issues in particular stood out: first, the English disliked the Scottish courtiers who accompanied their new king, and second, James's wish for political union between England and Scotland was opposed by the English Parliament. On 20 October 1604 he assumed the "name and style of King of Great Britain" but by November had confided to his ministers that full union of the kingdom should be left to "the maturity of time." James's major achievement of the first year of his reign was the ending of the long and costly war with Spain in August 1603.

As king of England James enjoyed both successes and failures. Perhaps his most successful area of policy was toward the church. James ensured that the English episcopacy and clergy were well-educated and administered a broad, national church, although tensions with the persecuted Catholic minority surfaced in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. This conciliatory tone was also apparent in his relations with the Scottish church after 1603. Less successful was his management of English political society, particularly Parliament. When he acceded to the English throne James considered himself an experienced ruler who knew how to manage his subjects' concerns, but he failed to appreciate the differences between his realms. He was unable to tackle the principal problem facing his English realm, that of the inadequacy of the fiscal system and the spiraling costs of England's involvement in European affairs. James thus clashed with his Parliaments: the so-called Great Contract of 1610 (an attempt to replace the crown's ancient fiscal rights with an annual income tax) failed, and the king closed Parliament in anger in 1610, 1614, and1621. James also clashed with the Parliament over the management of his household, his extravagant spending, and the influence of his favorites, most notably George Villiers, duke of Buckingham.

James died of a stroke on 27 March 1625. He left a considerable literary legacy including political works and poetry. His first book of poetry was published in 1584; in 1599 he set out his theory of kingship in Basilikon Doron; in 1611 he oversaw the translation of the King James Version of the Bible. His historical legacy is mixed. For centuries the hostile contemporary portrait by Sir Anthony Weldon (in The Court and Character of King James, 1650) of a lazy, unhygienic, and homosexual king devoted to his favorites to the detriment of his kingdoms held sway. More recent historians have stressed that James must be judged first as a largely successful king of Scotland who rescued that realm from political and religious turmoil and, second, as a king of three kingdoms (England, Scotland, and Ireland) who struggled manfully with the unique problems of multiple monarchy. They argue that James strove to avoid entanglement in the developing Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in Europe and thus saved the lives and purses of his subjects. Although in some areas, such as the settling of Protestants in Ulster and his failure to reach accord with the English Parliament, James contributed to the problems that would beset his son, Charles I, there was nothing in James's reign that made the English Civil War (1642–1649) inevitable.

Bibliography

Barroll, Leeds. Anne of Denmark, Queen of England: A Cultural Biography. Philadelphia, 2001.

Cogswell, Thomas. The Blessed Revolution: English Politics and the Coming of War, 1621–1624. Cambridge, U.K., 1989.

Croft, Pauline. King James. Basingstoke, U.K., 2003. Most accessible recent account of James's reign, stressing his role as monarch of three kingdoms.

Fincham, Kenneth. Prelate as Pastor: The Episcopate of James I. Oxford, 1990.

Fischlin, Daniel, Mark Fortier, and Kevin Sharpe. Essays on Royal Subjects: The Writings of James VI and I. Detroit, 2002.

Galloway, Bruce R. The Union of Scotland and England, 1603–1608. Edinburgh, 1986.

Goodare, Julian, and Michael Lynch, eds. The Reign of James VI. East Linton, U.K., 2000.

Lee, Maurice Jr. Great Britain's Solomon: James VI and I in His Three Kingdoms. Urbana, Ill., and Chicago, 1990.

Lockyer, Roger. Buckingham: The Life and Political Career of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, 1592–1628. London, 1981.

Peck, Linda Levy, ed. The Mental World of the Jacobean Court. Cambridge, U.K., 1991.

Sommerville, Johann P., ed. King James VI and I: Political Writings. Cambridge, U.K., 1994.

Wormald, Jenny. "Gunpowder, Treason and Scots." Journal of British Studies 24 (1985): 141–168.

——. "James VI and I: Two Kings or One?" History 68 (1983): 187–209. Seminal article, the first to tackle the problem of James ruling simultaneously over more than one kingdom and the beginning of the reinterpretation of James's reign.

—DAVID GRUMMITT

Quotes:

"The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth: for kings are not only God's Lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called Gods."

"A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."