Royal demonology and witch persecution

King James I of England (James VI of Scotland)

1566 – 1625

James VI of Scotland and I of England was deeply shaped by his personal involvement in the North Berwick witch trials of 1590 — in which he believed himself to be the target of a demonic conspiracy — and authored Daemonologie (1597), a theological and philosophical treatise endorsing witch-hunting and arguing from scripture and reason for the reality of witchcraft, demonic pacts, and the devil's power. His book helped legitimize large-scale persecution and shaped the intellectual climate in which thousands of Scottish and English witch trials took place, while his commissioning of the King James Bible (1611) simultaneously made him the most influential figure in Anglophone religious culture. As royal author of a demonological text, he represents the intersection of sovereign power and occult terror in early modern Britain.