ABSTRACT
Afraid that England might lose its national identity, the English Parliament was very reluctant to accept the title of King of Great Britain for James. Nevertheless, James's royal proclamation of October 1604, assumed the title of 'King of Great Britain, France and Ireland' for himself, which was followed a month later by a further proclamation announcing the issue of a single currency for Scotland and England. A powerful metaphor used by James to persuade his subjects of their subservience to himself was that of the family. In 1603 James VI of Scotland was proclaimed James I of England and Wales. Of immediate interest here is the change in the monarch's title from that of 'Queen of England' to that of 'King of Great Britain'. The immediate political context of such references to Wales as the land from which the king of Britain emerges may be the creation of Henry as Prince of Wales in 1610.
