James VI and I

The renowned historian Jenny Wormald was a ground-breaking expert on early modern Scottish history, especially Stewart kingship, noble power and wider society. She was most controversial in her book-length critique of Mary, Queen of Scots. Unfortunately, Jenny never got round to producing a similar monograph on a monarch she was infinitely more fond of, King James VI and I, before her untimely death in 2015.

In the absence of such a book, this volume brings together all the major essays by Jenny on James. She wrote on almost every aspect and every major event of James' reign, from the famous Gunpowder Plot, the Plantation of Ulster, the Gowrie Conspiracy, to the witchcraft panics, as well as James' extensive writings. She wrote extensively on James' Scottish rule, but she was also keenly interested in James as the first king of all of Britain, and many of her essays unpick the issues surrounding the Union of the Crowns and James' rule over all three of his kingdoms.

This book is an invaluable resource for any scholar on this crucial time in the history of the British Isles.



Jenny Wormald was one of the most influential Scottish historians of her generation. She taught history at Glasgow University for 20 years, and was then appointed to a fellowship in Modern History at St Hilda's College, Oxford, for a further 20 years. After retirement to Edinburgh she became an Honorary Fellow in Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. She wrote a number of significant books and articles, including Court, Kirk and Community: Scotland 1470-1625 and Mary, Queen of Scots: A Study in Failure.

Miles Kerr-Peterson is an independent researcher. His interests include early modern Scottish politics, culture and society; he is author of A Protestant Lord in James VI's Scotland: George Keith, Fifth Earl Marischal (1554–1623) (2019) and co-editor of James VI and Noble Power in Scotland (2017).

Rev. Professor Diarmaid N.J. MacCulloch, Kt, DD, FBA is Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford, Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, and a prize-winning author. He has written extensively on the sixteenth century and beyond it.



'Connects an impressive selection of Wormald's life's work through which past historiographical developments can be clearly traced, whilst also providing readers a space to reassess their own understanding of James VI & I'