PAULINE CROFT is Reader in Early Modern History at Royal Holloway University of London. She has published widely on British history in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction'The Bright Star of the North'The English ThroneEarly Years in EnglandThe Rise of the FavouritesWar in EuropeThe Spanish MatchMonarch of Three KingdomsSupreme GovernorConclusionBibliographyIndex.

'This is a very clear, readable, balanced and perceptive account of King James...Dr Croft never loses sight of the fact that James ruled over multiple kingdoms, and has very interesting things to say both on the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland, and their interaction with England. A book very much to be welcomed.' - Jenny Wormald, St Hilda's College, Oxford 'King James offers a clear and judicious narrative of James's reign in the three kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland as well as in seventeenth-century Europe. Admirably lucid and succinct, it covers a great deal of material and historiographical controversy with remarkable ease.' - Linda Levy Peck, George Washington University 'An incisive view of James' life in the context of his times...the flawed greatness of this extraordinary man really can be savoured.' - Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Tablet 'By far the best analysis of the subject, and easily the best for teaching purposes.' - Professor Peter Lake, Princeton 'This is a short but extremely clear and readable account both of the reign and the historiographical issues which currently dominate the Jacobean period. The author is au fait with and authoritative on all of them. This will be an, if not the, indispensable guide to the subject for many years.' - Michael Questier, Queen Mary, University of London '...highly readable...' - Jenny Wormald, Times Literary Supplement 'A stimulating lucid book which can be recommended to general reader and specialist alike.' - P.R.Seddon, History Today '...balanced, interesting biography...accessible to the careful reader.' - Dennis Lythgoe, Deseret Morning News 'Pauline Croft now enters into this context with a splendid new study of king James. Compact. elegant, accessible, Croft's book will doubtless serve as the standard introduction to Jacobean Britain for many years to come. In it she seeks to synthesize the revisionist findings. But she also seeks to do more. She has absorbed the insights of revisionism and yet tries to see beyond them. She undertakes not simply to rehabilitate James against very long-standing criticisms, but to look with fresh eyes at the deep and enduring problems of his reign. The result is at once refreshing and powerful.' - Arthur Williamson, California State University, H-Albion