James VI & I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625), is King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625.

He becomes King of Scots as James VI on 24 July 1567, when he is just thirteen months old, succeeding his mother Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been compelled to abdicate in his favor.

Four different regents govern during his minority, which ends officially in 1578, though he does not gain full control of his government until 1581.

On 24 March 1603, as James I, he succeeds the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who dies without issue.

He then rules England, Scotland, and Ireland for 22 years, often using the title King of Great Britain, until his death at the age of 58.

Under James, the "Golden Age" of Elizabethan literature and drama continues, with writers such as William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Francis Bacon contributing to a flourishing literary culture.

James himself is a talented scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie (1597), True Law of Free Monarchies (1598), and Basilikon Doron (1599).

Sir Anthony Weldon, as the purported author of The Court and Character of King James I, will claim that James had been termed "the wisest fool in Christendom", an epithet associated with his character ever since.