Known as the "Old Pretender," or James Edward, James Francis Edward Stuart was the son of King James II and Prince of Wales until his father's deposition in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James Edward became the claimant to the throne after his father's death in 1701 as James III of England and Ireland and James VIII of Scotland. With the support of his Jacobite followers and King Louis XIV of France, his father's cousin, James Edward made a few attempts to reclaim the crown.

- Brother to Charles II, James succeeded him to the throne in 1685. A convert to Catholicism, he made sweeping legal decisions consolidating royal power and extending tolerance to and empowering Catholics, leading to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which placed the Dutch Protestant William of Orange on the British throne.

Son of Mary, Queen of Scots, King James VI of Scotland became King of England in 1603 with the death of Elizabeth I.

James I of Scotland spent much of his early life as a prisoner of the English, then part of the household of Henry V. He returned to Scotland and was crowned in 1424. Thereafter he exercised a strong, even despotic, royal hand in a country that had long been dominated by semi-autonomous lords, meanwhile extending his international influence through both marital alliances and successful warfare. His methods compromised Scottish internal stability, however, and in a February 1437 coup attempt he was attacked, cornered, and, after a desperate fight, killed.

English legal writer, poet, and biographer best remembered for his A New Law Dictionary (1729) which became the most popular of its kind in the newly-independent United States. Jacob is also remembered for his collection of biographies, Poetical Register, or Lives and Characters of the English Dramatic Poets, (2 vols., 1719–20). However, Jacob's literary works were not as well-received as his legal ones, and he feuded with Alexander Pope publicly and in writing, culminating in Pope making Jacob a dunce in the 1728 edition of his The Dunciad.

Better known as a forger of Shakespeare manuscripts and documents, author William Henry Ireland also produced poetry, much of it satirical, a biography of Napoleon, a few volumes of verse tales (The Fisher Boy and The Sailor Boy ), several picturesque travel volumes in collaboration with minor landscape artists, some largely spurious histories, and the novels The Abbess, a Romance (1799), Rimualdo; or, The Castle of Badajos (1800), and The Woman of Feeling (1804).

Ine, also spelled Ini or Ina, was king of the West Saxons from 688 until his retirement to Rome in 726. As the first West Saxon king to issue a code of laws, Ine and his reign are valuable to the study of early English society.

One of the most successful among Romantic-era women authors, Elizabeth Inchbald did only moderately well in her early career as an actress but went on to produce numerous theatrical adaptations and original plays, two novels (A Simple Story, 1791, and Nature and Art, 1796), and a substantial body of literary criticism, most of which appeared as prefaces to the plays included in The British Theatre (1806-1808). Born in 1753 and raised near Bury St.

The main antagonist in Shakespeare's Othello, Iago is the trusted advisor of Othello, having fought at his side for several years. Believing that Othello unfairly promoted Michael Cassio to lieutenant instead of himself, Iago plots to manipulate Othello into demoting Cassio, effectively bringing about the downfall of Othello, as well. Iago convinces Othello that his wife, Desdemona, is having an affair with Cassio. After Othello kills Desdemona, Iago's wife, Emilia, reveals Iago's deception to Othello.

Daughter of Edward Hyde, member of the English gentry, and first wife of King James II. Hyde and James conceived a child out of wedlock in 1659 and married in 1660. The couple developed a reputation for their overt public displays of affection. Hyde bore eight of James's children, only two of whom survived past early childhood, future queens Mary II and Anne.