When James I became King of England in 1603, having a Bible version dedicated to him was the farthest thing from his mind. But being a good administrator, when the Puritans presented him with a list of grievances they had against the Church of England, James decided to convene a conference to try to work out the differences. No real decisions of lasting worth were made at that conference except one: To create a new version of the English Bible.
In 1611 the first copies of the new "Authorized Version" were released. Like every new Bible version before, it had to deal with people hesitant to give up their older versions. But it quickly overcame these trials, and within 25 years it had replaced the Geneva Translation as the version most used in Churches and for private study. And because of its excellence, the King James Version would become the only English Bible for almost three centuries.
