(born June 19, 1566, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scot.—died March 27, 1625, Theobalds, Hertfordshire, Eng.) King of Scotland, as James VI (1567–1625), and first Stuart king of England (1603–25). He was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Lord Darnley, and at age one James succeeded his mother to the Scottish throne. Controlled by a succession of regents, he became the puppet of contending intriguers—Roman Catholics, who sought to bring his mother back to the throne, and Protestants. In 1583 he began to pursue his own policies as king, allying himself with England.
On the death of Elizabeth I, he succeeded to the English throne as great-great-grandson of Henry VII. He quickly achieved peace and prosperity by ending England's war with Spain (1604). He presided over the Hampton Court Conference (1604), rejecting most of the Puritans' demands for reform of the Church of England but permitting preparation of a new translation of the Bible, the King James Version. His policies toward Catholics led to the Gunpowder Plot, and his growing belief in royal absolutism and his conflicts with an increasingly self-assertive Parliament led to his dissolution of Parliament from 1611 to 1621. With the death of Robert Cecil, he came under the influence of incompetent favourites.
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