The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI & I
Aug 2025 · Random House
Ebook
432
Pages
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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, was one of Britain’s most consequential and interesting monarchs, not least in creating the British monarchy itself by joining the English and Scottish thrones. A major intellectual, James's preoccupations ranged from witchcraft and theological controversy to hunting, diplomacy, poetry and sartorial fashion. The 'Mirror of Great Britain' was a spectacular jewel that gave symbolic endorsement to James's vision of British union, but mirrors themselves - with their limitless capacity to magnify, illuminate and distort - supplied James with one of his favourite literary metaphors.
Ruler of Scotland for nearly four decades before his accession to the English throne in 1603, James was a ‘cradle king’ whose long reigns encompassed extraordinary dramas, including his abduction in the ‘Ruthven Raid’ in 1582 and his attempted assassination in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In his lifetime, James often confounded contemporaries’ expectations while his posthumous reputation has been distorted by crude stereotypes.
Closely attentive to James’s own words – in numerous publications, manuscript musings, topical verse and private correspondence – Clare Jackson's wonderful new book tells the story of this highly unusual monarch with great flair and insight.
James VI & I, who died 400 years ago, was one of Britain’s most consequential and interesting monarchs, not least in creating the British monarchy itself by joining the English and Scottish thrones. A major intellectual, James's preoccupations ranged from witchcraft and theological controversy to hunting, diplomacy, poetry and sartorial fashion. The 'Mirror of Great Britain' was a spectacular jewel that gave symbolic endorsement to James's vision of British union, but mirrors themselves - with their limitless capacity to magnify, illuminate and distort - supplied James with one of his favourite literary metaphors.
Ruler of Scotland for nearly four decades before his accession to the English throne in 1603, James was a ‘cradle king’ whose long reigns encompassed extraordinary dramas, including his abduction in the ‘Ruthven Raid’ in 1582 and his attempted assassination in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In his lifetime, James often confounded contemporaries’ expectations while his posthumous reputation has been distorted by crude stereotypes.
Closely attentive to James’s own words – in numerous publications, manuscript musings, topical verse and private correspondence – Clare Jackson's wonderful new book tells the story of this highly unusual monarch with great flair and insight.
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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