SOURCE: Wormald, Jenny. “James VI and I, Basilikon Doron and The Trew Law of Free Monarchies: The Scottish Context and the English Translation.” In The Mental World of the Jacobean Court, edited by Linda Levy Peck, pp. 36-54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

In the following essay, Wormald elucidates James's political theory and places Basilikon Doron and The True Lawe of Free Monarchies into their historical and political contexts.

The Trew Law of Free Monarchies was published in 1598. It is significant that the only writings in English of the period of the reign of Elizabeth that definitely formulate a doctrine of absolute monarchy were written by a Scot in Scotland, and by a man who suffered from the drawback of being himself a King.¹

Thus in 1928 did J. W. Allen debar James VI from serious consideration, because of the twin disabilities of Scottishness and royalty. Much more recently, and...