James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, and thus a potential successor to all three thrones. In 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died childless. He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known as the Jacobean era and styled himself "King of Great Britain and Ireland". In his reign, the English colonization of the Americas began. Under James, the "Golden Age" of Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such as William Shakespeare and Sir Francis Bacon contributing to a flourishing literary culture. James sponsored the translation of the Bible into English later named after him, the Authorized King James Version. He was succeeded by his second son, Charles.