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 Baseilicon Doron was a best-seller in England and circulated widely on their period,the kings 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 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 frst to draw on all the early texts of James books,with an introduction setting them in their historical context.
Johann P.Sommerville is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin,Madison.He is the author of Politics and Ideology in England,1603-1640 and the editor of Sir Robert Filmer s Patriarcha in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought.
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