James VI and I united the crowns of England and Scotland. His books are fundamental sources of the principles which underlay the union. In particular, his Basilikon Doron was a best-seller in England and circulated widely on the Continent. Among the most important and influential British writings of their period, the king's works shed light on the political climate of Shakespeare's England and the intellectual background to the civil wars which afflicted Britain in the mid-seventeenth century. James' political philosophy was a moderated absolutism, with an emphasis on the monarch's duty to rule according to law and the public good. Locke quoted his speech to parliament of 1610 approvingly, and Hobbes likewise praised 'our most wise king'. This edition is the first to draw on all the early texts of James' books, with an introduction setting them in their historical context.
James (1208-76) himself wrote the account of his major military campaigns and some selected political events of his reign in what has become of the great works on medieval Catalan literature and an im
The selection is designed to demonstrate James' (1566-1625) diversity and achievements as a writer. In order to represent his poetry and political writing without resorting to excerpts, Rhodes (U. of
