The widespread consensus is that King James wrote Daemonologie in response to sceptical publications such as Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft.

King James may also have been prompted to write the Daemonologie by an anonymous critical pamphlet John Upaland which circulated in 1597 and alleged the Scottish court was bewitched.

James begins the book: The feaefull aboundinge at this time in this countrie, of these detestable slaves of the Devil, the Witches or enchanters, hath moved me (beloved reader) to dispatch in post, this following treatise of mine (...) to resolve the doubting (...) both that such assaults of Satan are most certainly practised, and that the instrument thereof merits most severely to be punished.As detailed in his preface, the main sources of this work were that of historically confessed witches, judicial case history and the Bible itself.

This work reads as a political and theological dissertation in the form of a philosophical dialogue between the characters Philomathes and Epistemon who debate the various topics of magic, sorcery, witchcraft and demonology.

As the main plot, Philomathes hears news in the kingdom regarding the rumors of witchcraft which seems all miraculous and amazing but could find no one knowledgeable on the matter to have a serious political discussion on the issue.

The initial and subsequent publications of Daemonologie included a previously published news pamphlet detailing the accounts of the North Berwick witch trials that involved King James himself as he acted as judge over the proceedings.

The deputy bailiff to the kingdom of Scotland, David Seaton, had a servant named Geillis Duncan who, within a short period of time, was found to have miraculously helped any who were troubled or grieved with sickness or infirmity.

She also confessed to participating in a sabbat during All Hallows' Eve[A 11] where she and others sacrificed a cat and sent it into the sea as they chanted in hopes of summoning a tempest to sink a fleet of ships accompanying James as he was arriving in the port of Leith from a trip to Norway.

The case of Doctor Fian follows his compact with Satan, a conflict he had with another witch who sabotaged an enchantment meant for her daughter,[A 13] his examinations during the trial, the torture he endured, his escape and subsequent execution.

It has been noted that the themes taken from Daemonologie and King James' involvement in the North Berwick witch trials may have directly contributed to Shakespeare's work Macbeth.

This philosophical approach signified as a philomath seeking to obtain greater knowledge through epistemology, a term that was later coined by James Frederick Ferrier in 1854.