A Mirrored Life

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.