James VI and I was one of Britain’s most consequential and fascinating monarchs. Ruler of Scotland for four decades before his accession to the English throne in 1603, he sought to bring the two kingdoms together in some form of union. Surviving the Gunpowder Plot, he was also a major intellectual, whose preoccupations ranged from witchcraft and theology to hunting, diplomacy, poetry and sartorial fashion.

Clare Jackson is Honorary Professor of Early Modern History at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity Hall. "The Mirror of Great Britain" was awarded the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2026.