This book looks at the genesis of British national identity in the reign of King James I and VI. It does this by studying two things: the political language of the King's project to replace England, Scotland and Wales with a single kingdom of Great Britain and cultural representations of empire on the public and private stages.

Tristan Marshall lectures on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century cultural history at Shakespeare's Globe

Introduction: James VI and I and the reinvention of Great Britain
1 A Jacobean empire
2 1603-10: 'Britaine is now, Britaine was of yore'
3 1611-13: 'The true Panthaeon of Great Britaine'
4 1614-25: Brute, force and ignorance?
Afterword: 'Neuer a trve Britaine amongst you?'
Index