307 years ago on May 1st, Great Britain was born.
Of course, the ancient kingdoms of England and Scotland had
been in existence on the island of Great Britain for nearly a thousand years, and for a
substantial part of that time, the kings, queens, and peoples of each country
fought – sometimes with each other, but often against each other in several
conflicts.
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| Queen Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors. |
Then on March 24, 1603, Elizabeth I of England and Ireland
died without an heir, and her closest blood relation was her cousin – James VI
of Scotland, who journeyed from Edinburgh to London to peacefully – and amid
much celebration – take his place as James I of England and Ireland. With Wales
having been annexed into the Kingdom of England during the reign of Henry VIII,
King James was now the first person to rule over all Britain in an arrangement
that has become known as the Union of the Crowns.
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| King James. |
But the kingdoms over which he reigned remained separate and
distinct from each other, and they had their own parliaments, along with their
own national interests. James VI & I sought to change that by attempting to
persuade the parliaments of England and Scotland to agree to a full political
and economic union, which would create a new kingdom under the name of Great
Britain.
Indeed, King James was a passionate supporter of the
concept. In his Accession speech to his first English Parliament, James made
references to his great-great grandfather, Henry VII of England, who united the
warring royal houses of York and Lancaster under the Tudor dynasty, which had brought peace to England following the Wars of the Roses. He went on the say
that “union of these two princely houses is nothing comparable to the union of
two ancient and famous kingdoms, which is the other inward peace annexed to my
person.”
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| St. Andrew's Saltire |
With this message, he saw himself and his Stuart
dynasty as bringing peace to the whole of Britain by ending the ancient
Anglo-Scottish feuding. He also emphasized the similarities between the English
and Scots “in language, religion, and similitude of manners”, and believed that
God had meant for the kingdoms to be united in such a way as to make the border
between the two indistinguishable.
(“What God has conjoined then, let no man separate.”) Persons opposed to
bringing the countries together were “blinded with ignorance, or else transported
with malice.”
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| Cross of St. George |
James continued on his theme of a destiny towards union
by reminding his audience that England was once divided into seven kingdoms
(known as the Heptarchy) and Wales, and that Scotland was also an amalgamation
of Picts, Scots, Gaels, and others.
With unification to become Great Britain,
the peoples of this new country would become part of a stronger entity, where they could work with a common purpose and toward a common cause. In other words, they were better together.
This was all very well, but on both sides of
the border, there was lukewarm reaction as well as outright hostility to the
concept of union – some of it driven by xenophobia. There was already some
consternation amongst the English political elite at the fact that they were
now being ruled over by a Scot, whilst some in Scotland were fearful of their
country being annexed into England as a mere province. In addition, there were
other nagging questions on trade, commerce, religion, and political
representation.
During remainder of James’ reign, the differences and fears
between the two kingdoms proved insurmountable and the union did not come to
pass. However, he did enact the merger symbolically by using his powers under
the Royal Prerogative to proclaim himself as “King of Great Britain”, combine
the royal arms of England and Scotland (with the English lion balancing the
Scottish unicorn), and to mesh the flags of St. George (England) and St.
Andrew (Scotland) into a new Union Flag.
Over the next hundred years, there were other attempts to
create an official union, but one country or the other had reasons to resist.
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| Queen Anne |
Then in 1702, Queen Anne ascended to the thrones of England,
Scotland, and Ireland, succeeding her childless brother-in-law, William III
& II.
Like her predecessors going back to James VI & I, Anne was a
believer in the political integration of Britain, but what finally made the
circumstances favorable to union on both sides during her reign was a mixture
of religion, monarchical succession, politics, and economics.
For starters, it had been nearly fourteen years since Anne’s father – James
VII & II, a Catholic – had been deposed in the Protestant-led Glorious
Revolution, in which the Dutch prince, William of Orange, invaded Britain.
William, along with his wife (and Anne’s older sister) Mary were eventually
declared joint monarchs of England, Scotland, and Ireland, but they failed to
produce a healthy heir to the throne by the time Mary died in 1694.
Then in
1700, Anne’s only child to survive infancy – Prince William, Duke of Gloucester
– died aged eleven. This meant that loyalty to the House of Stuart could only
lead to one thing – the return of the Stuart male line, embodied
by the ex-King James, and following his death in 1701, his son (and also Anne's half-brother) James Francis
Edward Stuart, who were living in exile in France.
In England, parliamentarians were determined not to have a
Catholic back on the throne, so they passed – and King William granted Royal Assent to
– the Act of Settlement in 1701, which barred Catholics from the succession,
and handed it to Sophia of Hanover in Germany. She was a granddaughter of James
VI & I, and though there were about 50 other claimants ahead of her, she
was the first Protestant on the list.
Meanwhile in Scotland, there were similar feelings towards
having a Catholic king, but there was also a sense of loyalty to the Stuart
family, who had originated from Scotland and reigned in that country since
1371.
In response to the English, the Scots Parliament passed – and Queen Anne granted Royal
Assent to – the Act of Security in 1703, which declared that the next monarch
of Scotland should be Protestant and of the royal line, but should not be the
same person who succeeded Anne to the Crown of England (probably in the hope that James
Stuart would convert), unless the English granted freedom of trade to Scottish
merchants within England, Ireland, and the overseas colonies.
With the ball back in England’s court, it then passed – with
Anne’s assent – the Alien’s Act of 1705, which declared that all Scots were to
treated as aliens in England (save for those already living there) unless
Scotland either repealed the Act of Security or agreed to a union with England.
The Scots chose the latter option, and a set of commissioners from both
countries were appointed by the Queen, who met in London to hash out an
agreement.
From April to July 1706 at the Palace of Whitehall, the
commissioners worked out a Treaty of Union, which contained the following key
provisions:
- That from May 1, 1707, the kingdoms of Scotland and England
were to be “united into one kingdom by the name of Great Britain”, with the
flags of St. George and St. Andrew to be combined,
- That the succession to the monarchy of Great Britain would
be vested in the House of Hanover, and to the exclusion of Catholics, as well
as people marrying Catholics, and
- That the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain were
to be represented by one and the same parliament, known as the Parliament of
Great Britain.
These were main objectives of the English commissioners. On
the other side, the Scots replied that they would agree to them in exchange for
free trade throughout the United Kingdom and access to the combined colonies of
a British Empire. The English promptly accepted this on the principle that such free trade - including a customs and monetary union -
was necessary for a full and complete union.
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The Scottish copy of the Articles of Union.
Image Credit: Scottish Parliament (Public Domain) |
There were other provisions as well, including ones for Scottish
representation in the House of Commons and the House of Lords within the new
British Parliament, where MP’s and peers from both sides of the border were
afforded equal rights and privileges.
Language was eventually added in the parliamentary debates on both sides of the border which guaranteed the
independence of the Scottish legal system, education system, as well as the Presbyterian
Church of Scotland (the Kirk), and the Scottish Crown Jewels were to remain in Edinburgh. Similar language would also protect the independence and status of the Church of England.
On July 23, 1706, the articles of the Treaty were presented
to Queen Anne at St. James’s Palace, and from there, they had be ratified
by the Parliament of England in London and the Parliament of Scotland in
Edinburgh.
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Illustration of the Opening of the original Scottish Parliament.
Image Credit: Atlas Historique (Public Domain-US) |
The Scottish Parliament took up the Treaty first in October,
and clause-by-clause debates were held through the rest of year and into
January when the last article was approved, and a formal bill was presented to
the assembly. That bill, known as the Union with England Act, was passed by a
healthy majority of 110 to 67 on January 16th.
To this day, there has been debate on the extent to which
members of the parliament were bribed in order to ensure passage of the Act. It is known that the Treaty and the Act basically provided for the compensation of losses in the Darien scheme, which was Scotland’s failed attempt to
establish a colony in Central America.
But there were also some back-room deals
regarding pensions, honors, titles, and appointments which has given rise to
the idea that Scotland was "sold out" by its own politicians at a time when there was considerable opposition amongst
Scots toward the Union, and it is a debate which may never fully be
settled.
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The original Palace of Westminster, home to the houses of the parliament for England and Great Britain.
Image Credit: HJ Brewer - 1884 (Public Domain-US) |
With the Scots Parliament having done its work, the English
Parliament took up the issue of the Union in February 1707, where the Commons
required only two sessions to pass the articles.
But in the House of Lords,
some members of the Tory Party held up the proceedings by voicing concerns over some provisions, especially
with regard to the status of the Church of England, and they also had issues
with the confirmation of the Scottish Kirk. Objections were raised on every
article, but the opposition did not gain much traction, and the articles were
approved at the end of February.
The Commons then drafted and passed the Union
with Scotland Act, which was passed by the Lords and received Royal Assent from
Queen Anne in the Lords’ chamber on March 6, 1707.
Almost two months later, the date of April 30, 1707 marked
the last day of England and Scotland being separate and independent sovereign
states. On the following day of May 1st, Anne came to St. Paul’s
Cathedral to attend a service of thanksgiving in honor of the Acts of Union that had taken
effect.
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| The original Union Flag of Great Britain |
It was a grand celebration involving 400 horse-drawn coaches, and the Queen herself
wore the combined honors of the English Order of the Garter and the Scottish
Order of the Thistle. A Scottish nobleman who attended the service wrote: "nobody
on this occasion appeared more sincerely devout and thankful than the Queen
herself."
Indeed, she told her cheering subjects that this day marked the
true happiness of her reign – the day that England and Scotland became the
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN.
To
this day, England and Scotland have remained together as part of a country that has proudly spread its wings far and wide over the last 307 years, and the monarchy is a living symbol of the unity that has made Britain what it is today. Indeed, it is better to be together. Long may this Union continue.
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| The current flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with St. Patrick's Cross added for Northern Ireland. |
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