Episode Details

James I of England was called the wisest fool in Christendom — a king who wrote books on theology and demonology, commissioned the most famous English Bible in history, and managed to unite the Scottish and English crowns without firing a shot. He was also vain, physically awkward, and dangerously attached to handsome young courtiers.

This episode traces James from his traumatic childhood as King of Scotland through his inheritance of the English throne, the Gunpowder Plot, and the contradictions that made him both brilliant and ridiculous.

• He commissioned the King James Bible, which became the most influential English text ever published
• He survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Catholic conspirators tried to blow up Parliament
• He was King of Scotland from the age of thirteen months after his mother Mary Queen of Scots was deposed
• He united the crowns of England and Scotland for the first time, ruling both kingdoms from 1603