Once referred to as “the wisest fool in Christendom”, James VI, and would-be I, was arguably anything but. He ruled Scotland for just shy of 58 years, the longest of any Scottish monarch, and subsequently became the first Stuart to also rule England and Ireland – a role he held for over two decades.
Founder of the post-Reformation Jacobean era, under James VI arts and literature flourished (the translated King James Bible dates from this time), as did peace, and a shared coinage and free trade with England under the union of the crowns.
James walked a fine line between religious and political factions, believed in the divine right of king over kirk (to his detriment) and was the target of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot – an event now woven into our national psyche.
Perceptions of his ability as a ruler have fluctuated through the centuries, but there’s now more
