ALBION, that ancient term of British geography, used from the time of Pliny onwards to designate the island of Britain, came of age in the seventeenth century. When James VI of Scotland acceded to the English throne in 1603 and created an island polity, Albion found its political meaning. Indeed, to judge from the output of British presses, it exploded into life. Drayton's Poly-Olbion, published in 1612, carried on its title page the personification of Albion, ‘th'Oceans Island’. In the following year James Maxwell celebrated in print the genealogy of ‘the infanta of Albion’, James I's daughter, while his Carolanna was published in 1619 ‘in honour of the immortall memory of our late good queen of Albion and Union’. The personified Albion featured in Jonson's masque for the Court at Twelfth Night 1623, New Albion served as a term for the American colonies and thereafter Albion provided a suitably grandiloquent style for kings, queens and princesses: thus Albion's Tears were shed for Queen Mary, Albion's elegy was addressed to Prince James and Albion's Blessing to William III.