James VI & I (
19 June 1566 –
27 March 1625) was
King of Scots as
James&_160;VI from 1567 to 1625, and
King of England and
Ireland as
James&_160;I from 1603 to 1625.
He became King of Scotland as James VI on 24 July 1567, when he was just thirteen months old, succeeding his mother Mary, Queen of Scots. Regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government until 1581.[1] On 24 March 1603, as James I, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue.[2] He then ruled the kingdom of England, Scotland, and Ireland for 22 years, often using the title King of Great Britain, until his death at the age of 58.[3]
Under James, the "Golden Age" of Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such as William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Francis Bacon contributing to a flourishing literary culture.[4] James himself was a talented scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie (1597),[5] True Law of Free Monarchies (1598),[6] and Basilikon Doron (1599).[7] Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed "the wisest fool in Christendom", an epithet associated with his character ever since.[8]
James Charles Stuart was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. He was a descendant of Henry VII of England through his great-grandmother Margaret Tudor, older sister of Henry VIII. He was King James I of England and King James VI of Scotland.[9] Mary's rule over Scotland was insecure, for both she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by the Protestant population. Lord Darnley secretly allied himself with the rebels and murdered the Queen's private secretary, David Rizzio.[10]
