The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of King James VI and I [Hardcover]

History has not been kind to King James. A cradle king who was crowned in Scotland in 1567 and England and Ireland in 1603, James VI and I has long been eclipsed in fame and reputation by his predecessor and cousin, Elizabeth I, and his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots. In research, analysis and imagination, its a masterpiece. [A] terrific book.... [An] impressive biography, which combines a variety of productive approaches to the life of James into one scintillating work. Marvelous.... There are few monarchs who could sustain a study of their thought and habit like Its 400 years since James death. Clare Jacksons is the third book in six months to make the anniversary and is undoubtedly the best.... She understands the importance of looking at James through his own words. This is a wonderful read, a very clever book both in structure and argument, and at last we have a book that recognizes the last great humanist ruler with high ideals and a good deal of pragmatism.... This is the biography he has long deserved. What emerges most powerfully is James intelligence. He was a prolific author, even if the topics he defended  witch-hunting and divinely sanctioned monarchy  exist now on the other side of the intellectual Rubicon created by the Enlightenment. Jackson has an eye for a telling anecdote that shines new light on James writings, such as the fact that, when it came to poetry, James considered English to be an inferior language to Scots, or that some of his most famous reflections on monarchy, including those he addressed to his sons Prince Henry and the future Charles I, were inspired by brushes with mortality via illness. Jackson, a noted Cambridge historian and BBC presenter, shows her respect and affection for James in this highly readable history. As the first king of a united England, Scotland, and Ireland, [James] faced scheming courtiers and long-standing religious and nationalist enmity among his disparate subjects, making his long reign even mo