On This Day: January 16

1707 - The Parliament of Scotland passes the Union with England Act

Meeting of the Parliament of Scotland in Edinburgh.

     On this occasion, the Scots Parliament was passing the legislation which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union, which had been agreed to by negotiators from England and Scotland in the previous summer of 1706. Queen Anne, who was the monarch of both countries, was a supporter of the union.

     The English wanted to ensure a Protestant succession in both countries upon the death of Queen Anne, and feared that Scotland might go along with Anne's Catholic half-brother, James Edward Francis Stuart, the son of the deposed and exiled King James VII & II. The Scots wanted free trade rights throughout the island of Great Britain and in the English colonies, largely in North America at that time.

     In the end, the Treaty of Union provided for the unification of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain; the representation of Great Britain by one and the same Parliament; the succession to the monarchy of Great Britain being vested in the House of Hanover (who were German Protestant descendants of James VI & I); and that freedom of trade would be available to all Britons throughout the island and in the colonies.

     Within the Scottish Parliament, there had been months of vigorous clause-by-clause debate on the union, and the outcome was not assured. Yet, on that fateful day, the Scots Parliament voted decisively 110 to 67 for the Union with England Act. This act, and its English equivalent took effect on May 1, 1707, and on that day, Queen Anne exchanged her titles of Queen of England and Queen of Scots for the new unified title - Queen of Great Britain.

1942 - Death of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn - Queen Victoria's last surviving son.

Prince Arthur as Governor-General of Canada.

     Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He attended the Royal Military College at Woolwich, and went on the serve in the British Army for over forty years, during which he was stationed in several parts of the Empire and eventually rose to the rank of Field Marshal. In 1911, he was appointed as Canada's 10th Governor-General by his nephew, George V on the recommendation of UK Prime Minister, Henry H. Asquith. In this role, Prince Arthur proved to be an able representative for King George, especially during the early years of the First World War. Upon returning to the United Kingdom, Arthur continued to carry out royal and military duties until his retirement from public life in the early 1930's. He lived so long, that he served as a Personal Aide-de-Camp to his mother, brother (Edward VII), nephew (George V), and great-nephew (Edward VIII).