Some KJV-only advocates emphasize a claim that suggests that King James had very little to do with the KJV. Bob Steward claimed that "he [King James] personally had no part in its being translated" (Close Look at the NKJV, p. 22). Dick Cimino contended that "King James did not attempt to superintend the work in any way" (The Book, p. 99). D. A. Waite claimed: "Now King James had nothing to do with the translation itself other than making the rules" (Defending the KJB, p. 85).
In his book printed in 1730, Anthony Johnson noted that “the King recommended the following rules to be by them most carefully observed” (Historical Account, p. 93). Likewise, John Lewis affirmed that “his Majesty recommended the following rules to them to be very carefully observed” (Complete History, p. 317). P. W. Raidabaugh noted that Bancroft that sent a copy of the rules along with a letter from the king to Cambridge for the persons selected as translators (History, p. 55). The evidence that King James made or approved the rules for the translating would demonstrate a great deal of influence on the making of the KJV.
Furthermore, King James followed up on the rules by having Archbishop Richard Bancroft oversee the translation. Donald Brake noted: “The translation of the KJV was conducted according to controlling rules and principles established by Archbishop Bancroft” (Visual History of the KJB, p. 115). Brake added: “His fifteen rules for translation clearly reveal bias against the Puritans and inevitably led to a translation that favored the Church of England” (p. 116). Alister McGrath observed that Bancroft “was in a position to exercise considerable influence over the new Bible, by laying down rules of translation that would ensure that it would be sympathetic to the position and sensitivities of the established Church of England” (In the Beginning, p. 164). McGrath wrote: “The translators were instructed to follow strict ‘rules of translation,‘ drawn up by Bancroft and approved by James” (p. 173). David Teems referred to Bancroft as “the man James charged with organizing, policing, and managing the enterprise of translation” (Majestie, p. 163). In their preface, the KJV translators referred to Bancroft as the "chief overseer and task-master under his Majesty, to whom were not only we, but also our whole Church, much bound." In the preface of his 1659 book, Robert Gell, who had been chaplain of George Abbot, asserted that those who set the translators to their work “limited them, (as some of them have much complained)” (An Essay, p. ix). James MacKnight referred to “the restraint they [the KJV translators] were laid under by those who employed them” (New Literal Translation, p. 9). Henry Craik also maintained that the KJV translators were “limited” by “the regulations of their royal patron” (Hints, p. 27). William Orme claimed: “The translators were embarrassed by the rules of their royal master—rules which were dictated by his prejudices, and his partiality for episcopacy, as much as by his learning” (Bibliotheca Biblica, p. 38).
There may be other possible ways that King James could have influenced the making of the KJV. If I recall correctly, the King's professor of Hebrew and the King's professor of Greek, who would be indebted to the king for their positions and who would likely be expected to be loyal to the king, may have been appointed chairmen of committees of the translators. Westminster, one of the places where groups of the translators met, was said to be under the direct authority of the king.