an authorized English version before 1611?

The 1579 edition (which contained the apocrypha, BTW) was authorized, but not by the king.

The "authorized' aspect of the KJV stems from the assumed imprimatur of the crown, which sponsored the work. The Geneva Bible did not enjoy a similar "authorization"; its came from the General Assembly of the Kirk, which is what you referenced, and from the Scottish Parliament, which in 1579, to spur purchase of the new Geneva Bible, required wealthy Scots to purchase "a Bible and Psalm-book in the vulgar tongue" or face a fine (which happened to be twice the purchase price of the new Bible).

The 1579 Geneva was on roughly similar footing as the Bishops Bible as far as "authorization." The 1571 Canterbury Convocation (which also formalized the Thirty-Nine Articles of Relgion) "required a copy to be kept in every archbishop's and bishop's house and in every cathedral, and, as far as could conveniently be done, in all churches. The Bishops' Bible, in fact, superseded the Great Bible as the official version, and its predecessor ceased henceforth to be reprinted ... " (from Fredric G. Kenyon in A Dictionary of the Bible by James Hastings published in 1909.)

The Church of England did not officially adopt the authorized version, though the KJV bcame the de facto version of the church owing to legal pressure from the crown and decline of the Presbyterian faction after the restoration of the monarchy following Cromwell's protectorship. The Book of Common Prayer, in fact, retained the Great Bible readings until 1662, when it was revised with Parliament's consent, to include readings from the gospels and epistles from the 1611 version; the Psalms, however, remained those of Coverdale (and still are).

James did not have the same authority over the Scottish church as he did over the Anglican church (certainly not in his early years). In 1581 the General Council adopted a thoroughly Preesbyterian Book of Discipline that said, for example:

While James did attempt to bring the Presbyterians to heel, as with the Black Acts of 1584, he had mixed success, most of which came after he acceded to the English throne.