The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI & I
Aug 2025 · Random House
Ebook
432
Pages
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Eligible
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infoThis book will become available on August 28, 2025. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
A major reassessment of one of Britain’s most strange and fascinating kings, James I of England and VI of Scotland
James VI & I, who died 400 years ago this year, was one of the most consequential and most interesting of all British monarchs, not least in creating the British monarchy itself through the joining of the English and Scottish thrones. A major intellectual, a religious and constitutional thinker, an expert on witchcraft, James was also obsessed with hunting, building, diplomacy, poetry and fashion. His reign encompassed extraordinary dramas — such as the Gunpowder Plot — and powerful creative moments, from Shakespeare's later plays to the great translation of the Bible commissioned by James. He was also deeply involved in the new colonial ‘plantations’ of Ulster and Virginia, with its capital of Jamestown.
Clare Jackson's wonderful new book tells the story of this highly unusual monarch with great flair and insight. Jackson raises fascinating questions about the nature of rule, the making of culture and a period of in which political, economic and ecological changes were tipping much of Europe into disaster.
James VI & I, who died 400 years ago this year, was one of the most consequential and most interesting of all British monarchs, not least in creating the British monarchy itself through the joining of the English and Scottish thrones. A major intellectual, a religious and constitutional thinker, an expert on witchcraft, James was also obsessed with hunting, building, diplomacy, poetry and fashion. His reign encompassed extraordinary dramas — such as the Gunpowder Plot — and powerful creative moments, from Shakespeare's later plays to the great translation of the Bible commissioned by James. He was also deeply involved in the new colonial ‘plantations’ of Ulster and Virginia, with its capital of Jamestown.
Clare Jackson's wonderful new book tells the story of this highly unusual monarch with great flair and insight. Jackson raises fascinating questions about the nature of rule, the making of culture and a period of in which political, economic and ecological changes were tipping much of Europe into disaster.
About the author
Clare Jackson is Honorary Professor of Early Modern History at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity Hall. She has presented a number of highly successful programmes on the Stuart dynasty for the BBC and is the author of Devil-Land: England under Siege 1588-1688 (2021) which won the 2022 Wolfson History Prize.
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