Born in Hanover to its Elector Ernest Augustus and Electress Sophia, George inherited the titles and lands of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg from his father and uncles. A succession of European wars expanded his German domains during his lifetime; he was ratified as prince-elector of Hanover in 1708. After the deaths in 1714 of his mother and his second cousin Anne, Queen of Great Britain (r. 1702–1714), George ascended the British throne as Anne’s closest living Protestant relative under the Act of Settlement 1701. Jacobites attempted, but failed, to depose George and replace him with James Francis Edward Stuart, Anne’s Catholic half-brother.

During George’s reign, the powers of the monarchy diminished and Britain began a transition to the modern system of cabinet government led by a prime minister. Towards the end of his reign, actual political power was held by Robert Walpole, now recognised as Britain’s first de facto prime minister. George died of a stroke on a trip to his native Hanover, where he was buried. He was the last British monarch to be buried outside the United Kingdom.

Parliament of Ireland
Long title An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland
Citation 40 Geo. 3 c.38
Introduced by John Toler[1]
Dates
Commencement 1 January 1801
Status: Amended
Revised text of statute as amended
Constitutional documents of the UK
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
vte
The Acts of Union 1800 (sometimes referred to as a single Act of Union 1801) were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The acts came into force on 1 January 1801, and the merged Parliament of the United Kingdom had its first meeting on 22 January 1801.

Both acts remain in force, with amendments, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,[2] and have been repealed in the Republic of Ireland.[3]

Contents
1 Name
2 Background
3 Passing the Acts
4 Provisions
4.1 The first parliament
5 Union flag
6 References
6.1 Sources
6.2 Citations
7 Further reading
8 External links

Armorial of Walpole: Or, on a fesse between two chevrons sable three crosses crosslet of the field[1]

Quartered arms of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, PC (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British politician who is generally regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Although the exact dates of Walpole’s dominance, dubbed the “Robinocracy”,[2] are a matter of scholarly debate, the period 1721–1742 is often used. He dominated the Walpole–Townshend ministry, as well as the subsequent Walpole ministry, and holds the record as the longest-serving British prime minister in history. W. A. Speck wrote that Walpole’s uninterrupted run of 20 years as Prime Minister “is rightly regarded as one of the major feats of British political history… Explanations are usually offered in terms of his expert handling of the political system after 1720, [and] his unique blending of the surviving powers of the crown with the increasing influence of the Commons”.[3]

He was a Whig from the gentry class who was first elected to Parliament in 1701 and held many senior positions. He was a country squire and looked to country gentlemen for his political base. Historian Frank O’Gorman says his leadership in Parliament reflected his “reasonable and persuasive oratory, his ability to move both the emotions as well as the minds of men, and, above all, his extraordinary self-confidence”.[4] Hoppit says Walpole’s policies sought moderation: he worked for peace, lower taxes and growing exports and allowed a little more tolerance for Protestant Dissenters. He mostly avoided controversy and high-intensity disputes as his middle way attracted moderates from both the Whig and Tory camps, [5] but his appointment to Chancellor of the Exchequer after the South Sea Bubble stock-market crisis drew attention to a perceived protection of political allies by Walpole.[6]

H. T. Dickinson sums up his historical role by saying that “Walpole was one of the greatest politicians in British history. He played a significant role in sustaining the Whig party, safeguarding the Hanoverian succession, and defending the principles of the Glorious Revolution (1688) […] He established a stable political supremacy for the Whig party and taught succeeding ministers how best to establish an effective working relationship between Crown and Parliament”.[7]

The Alien Act provided that Scottish nationals in England were to be treated as aliens (foreign nationals), and estates held by Scots would be treated as alien property,[2] making inheritance much less certain. It also included an embargo on the import of Scottish products into England and English colonies – about half of Scotland’s trade, covering goods such as linen, cattle and coal.[3] There was also an embargo on the export of arms, ammunition, and horses to Scotland so that they could not raise an army and invade England.[4] Faced with the economic pressure the Scottish decided to unionize, something England had wanted for over a century. With the Union in 1707 free trade was established along with a single parliament.

The Act contained a provision that it would be suspended if the Scots entered into negotiations regarding a proposed union of the parliaments of Scotland and England. The Act demanded that a settlement of succession or authorize union negotiation by December 25, 1705.[5] The Scots insisted that the Alien Act be repealed before entering into treaty negotiations.[6] In late December, news that both the Commons and the Lords had agreed to repeal the act reached the north.[7] Combined with English financial offers to refund Scottish losses on the Darien scheme, the Act achieved its aim, leading to the Acts of Union 1707 uniting the two countries as the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Parliament of England
Long title An Act for a Union of the Two Kingdoms of England and Scotland
Citation 1706 c. 11
Territorial extent Kingdom of England (inc. Wales); subsequently, United Kingdom
Dates
Commencement 1 May 1707
Status: Current legislation
Revised text of statute as amended
Union with England Act 1707
Act of Parliament

Parliament of Scotland
Long title Act Ratifying and Approving the Treaty of Union of the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England
Citation 1707 c. 7
Territorial extent Kingdom of Scotland; subsequently, United Kingdom
Dates
Commencement 1 May 1707
Status: Current legislation
Revised text of statute as amended
Constitutional documents of the UK
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
vte
The Acts of Union were two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706, following negotiation between commissioners representing the parliaments of the two countries. By the two Acts, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland—which at the time were separate states with separate legislatures, but with the same monarch—were, in the words of the Treaty, “United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain”.[2]

The two countries had shared a monarch since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne from his double first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth I. Although described as a Union of Crowns, until 1707 there were in fact two separate Crowns resting on the same head (as opposed to the implied creation of a single Crown and a single Kingdom, exemplified by the later Kingdom of Great Britain). Prior to the Acts of Union there had been three previous attempts (in 1606, 1667, and 1689) to unite the two countries by Acts of Parliament, but it was not until the early 18th century that both political establishments came to support the idea, albeit for different reasons.

The Acts took effect on 1 May 1707. On this date, the Scottish Parliament and the English Parliament united to form the Parliament of Great Britain, based in the Palace of Westminster in London, the home of the English Parliament.[3] Hence, the Acts are referred to as the Union of the Parliaments. On the Union, the historian Simon Schama said “What began as a hostile merger, would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world … it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history.”[4]

Contents
1 Historical background
1.1 Pre-1707 attempts at Union
1.1.1 1603–1639
1.1.2 1639–1670
1.1.3 1670–1707
1.2 Treaty and passage of the Acts of 1707
2 Political motivations
2.1 English perspective
2.2 Scottish perspective
3 Provisions of the Acts
3.1 Related Acts
4 Evaluations
5 300th anniversary
6 Scottish voting records
7 See also
8 Notes
9 Further reading
10 Other books
11 External links
Historical background

The first Union flag, created by James VI and I. A separate version was used in Scotland during the 17th century.
Pre-1707 attempts at Union
Despite attempts by Edward I to conquer Scotland in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the two countries were entirely separate. However, when Elizabeth I became Queen of England in 1558, a union became increasingly likely as she neither married nor had children. From 1558 onwards, her heir was her Catholic cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, who pledged herself to a peaceful union between the two kingdoms.[5] In 1567, Mary was forced to abdicate as Queen of Scots and replaced by her infant son James VI, who was brought up as a Protestant and became heir to the English throne. After Elizabeth died in 1603, the two Crowns were held in personal union by James, now also James I of England, and his Stuart successors, but England and Scotland remained separate kingdoms.

1603–1639
When James became King of England in 1603, the creation of a unified Church of Scotland and England governed by bishops was the first step in his vision of a centralised, Unionist state.[6] On his accession, he announced his intention to unite the two realms so he would not be “guilty of bigamy;” he used the royal prerogative to take the title “King of Great Britain”[7] and give a British character to his court and person.[8]

Scottish opposition to Stuart attempts to impose religious union led to the 1638 National Covenant
The 1603 Union of England and Scotland Act established a joint Commission to agree terms but the English Parliament was concerned this would lead to the imposition of an absolutist structure similar to that of Scotland.[9] James dropped his policy of a speedy union, the topic disappeared from the legislative agenda while attempts to revive it in 1610 were met with hostility.[10]

This did not mean James abandoned the idea; 17th-century religion and politics were closely linked and he viewed a unified Church of Scotland and England as the first step towards a centralised, Unionist state.[6] The problem was that the two churches were very different in both structure and doctrine; Scottish bishops presided over Presbyterian structures but were doctrinal Calvinists who viewed many Church of England practices as little better than Catholicism.[11] The religious policies followed by James and his son Charles I were intended as precursors to political union; resistance to this concept led to the 1638 National Covenant in Scotland and the 1639-1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

1639–1670
Main article: Scotland under the Commonwealth

The 1643 Solemn League and Covenant between England and Scotland
The 1639–1640 Bishops’ Wars confirmed the primacy of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland or kirk and established a Covenanter government in Scotland. The Scots remained neutral when the First English Civil War began in 1642, but grew concerned as to the impact of Royalist victory on Scotland after Parliamentary defeats in the first year of the war.[12] Religious union with England was also seen as the best way to preserve a Presbyterian kirk.[13] The 1643 Solemn League and Covenant provided Scottish military support for the English Parliament in return for a religious union between the Church of England and the kirk. While it referred repeatedly to ‘union’ between England, Scotland, and Ireland, it did not explicitly commit to political union which had little support even among their English supporters.

Battle of Dunbar (1650); Scotland was incorporated into the Commonwealth after defeat in the Anglo-Scots War.
Even religious union was fiercely opposed by the Episcopalian majority in the Church of England and Independents like Oliver Cromwell. The Scots and English Presbyterians came to see the Independents who dominated the New Model Army as a bigger threat than the Royalists and when Charles I surrendered in 1646, they agreed to restore him to the English throne. Both Royalists and Covenanters agreed the institution of monarchy was divinely ordered but disagreed on the nature and extent of Royal authority versus that of the church.[14]

Commonwealth-era flag depicting the union between England and Scotland
After defeat in the 1647–1648 Second English Civil War, Scotland was occupied by English troops which were withdrawn once the so-called Engagers whom Cromwell held responsible for the war had been replaced by the Kirk Party. In December 1648, Pride’s Purge confirmed Cromwell’s political control in England by removing Presbyterian MPs from Parliament and executing Charles in January 1649. Despite this, in February, the Kirk Party proclaimed Charles II King of Scotland and Great Britain; and agreed to restore him to the English throne.

Defeat in the 1649–1651 Third English Civil War or Anglo-Scottish War resulted in Scotland’s incorporation into the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, largely driven by Cromwell’s determination to break the power of the kirk, which he held responsible for the Anglo-Scottish War.[15] The 1652 Tender of Union was followed on 12 April 1654 by An Ordinance by the Protector for the Union of England and Scotland, creating the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.[16] It was ratified by the Second Protectorate Parliament on 26 June 1657, creating a single Parliament in Westminster, with 30 representatives each from Scotland and Ireland added to the existing English members.[17]

While it established free trade within the Commonwealth, the economic benefits were diminished by the heavy taxation needed to fund the army.[18] In Scotland, Union was associated with military occupation, in England with heavy taxes and had little popular support in either country. It was dissolved by the 1660 Restoration of Charles II despite a petition by Scottish members of the Commonwealth Parliament for its continuance.

The Scottish economy was badly damaged by the English Navigation Acts of 1660 and 1663 and wars with the Dutch Republic, its major export market. An Anglo-Scots Trade Commission was set up in January 1668 but the English had no interest in making concessions, as the Scots had little to offer in return. In 1669, Charles II revived talks on political union; his motives were to weaken Scotland’s commercial and political links with the Dutch, still seen as an enemy and complete the work of his grandfather James I.[19] Continued opposition in both England and Scotland meant that by the end of 1669, negotiations between Commissioners ground to a halt.[20]

1670–1707
Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, a Scottish Convention met in Edinburgh in April 1689 to agree a new constitutional settlement; during which the Scottish Bishops backed a proposed union in an attempt to preserve Episcopalian control of the kirk. William and Mary were supportive of the idea but it was opposed both by the Presbyterian majority in Scotland and the English Parliament.[21] Episcopacy in Scotland was abolished in 1690, alienating a significant part of the political class; it was this element that later formed the bedrock of opposition to Union.[22]

The 1690s were a time of economic hardship in Europe as a whole and Scotland in particular, a period now known as the Seven ill years which led to strained relations with England.[23] In 1698, the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies received a charter to raise capital through public subscription.[24] The Company invested in the Darién scheme, an ambitious plan funded almost entirely by Scottish investors to build a colony on the Isthmus of Panama for trade with East Asia.[25] The scheme was a disaster; the losses of over £150,000 severely impacted the Scottish commercial system.[26] The financial losses incurred have often been suggested as one of the drivers behind Union.

Treaty and passage of the Acts of 1707

“Articles of Union otherwise known as Treaty of Union”, 1707
Deeper political integration had been a key policy of Queen Anne from the time she acceded to the throne in 1702. Under the aegis of the Queen and her ministers in both kingdoms, the parliaments of England and Scotland agreed to participate in fresh negotiations for a union treaty in 1705.

Both countries appointed 31 commissioners to conduct the negotiations. Most of the Scottish commissioners favoured union, and about half were government ministers and other officials. At the head of the list was Queensberry, and the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, the Earl of Seafield.[27] The English commissioners included the Lord High Treasurer, the Earl of Godolphin, the Lord Keeper, Baron Cowper, and a large number of Whigs who supported union. Tories were not in favour of union and only one was represented among the commissioners.[27]

Negotiations between the English and Scottish commissioners took place between 16 April and 22 July 1706 at the Cockpit in London. Each side had its own particular concerns. Within a few days, England gained a guarantee that the Hanoverian dynasty would succeed Queen Anne to the Scottish crown, and Scotland received a guarantee of access to colonial markets, in the hope that they would be placed on an equal footing in terms of trade.[28]

After negotiations ended in July 1706, the acts had to be ratified by both Parliaments. In Scotland, about 100 of the 227 members of the Parliament of Scotland were supportive of the Court Party. For extra votes the pro-court side could rely on about 25 members of the Squadrone Volante, led by the Marquess of Montrose and the Duke of Roxburghe. Opponents of the court were generally known as the Country party, and included various factions and individuals such as the Duke of Hamilton, Lord Belhaven and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, who spoke forcefully and passionately against the union. The Court party enjoyed significant funding from England and the Treasury and included many who had accumulated debts following the Darien Disaster.[29]

In Scotland, the Duke of Queensberry was largely responsible for the successful passage of the Union act by the Scottish Parliament. In Scotland, he received much criticism from local residents, but in England he was cheered for his action. He had received around half of the funding awarded by the Westminster treasury for himself. In April 1707, he travelled to London to attend celebrations at the royal court, and was greeted by groups of noblemen and gentry lined along the road. From Barnet, the route was lined with crowds of cheering people, and once he reached London a huge crowd had formed. On 17 April, the Duke was gratefully received by the Queen at Kensington Palace.[30]

Political motivations

Queen Anne in 1702, the year she became queen, from the school of John Closterman
The Acts of Union should be seen within a wider European context of increasing state centralisation during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. This included the monarchies of France, Sweden, Denmark and Spain. While there were exceptions such as the Dutch Republic or the Republic of Venice, the trend was clear.[31]

However, this can be disputed by pointing out the simple fact that an essential part of the Act of Union was restatement of the Act of Settlement 1701 and the ban on Roman Catholics from taking the throne. It is impossible to ignore or dismiss the importance of sectarianism.

The dangers of the monarch using one Parliament against the other became apparent in the wars of 1647 and 1651 and resurfaced during the Exclusion Crisis. English resistance to the Catholic James succeeding his brother Charles resulted in his being sent to Edinburgh in 1681 as Lord High Commissioner. In August, the Scottish Parliament passed the Succession Act, confirming the divine right of kings, the rights of the natural heir ‘regardless of religion,’ the duty of all to swear allegiance to that king and the independence of the Scottish Crown. It then went beyond ensuring James’s succession to the Scottish throne by explicitly stating the aim was to make his exclusion from the English throne impossible without ‘…the fatall and dreadfull consequences of a civil war.'[32]

The issue reappeared during the 1688 Glorious Revolution. Contrary to what is often assumed, the English Parliament generally supported the replacement of James with his Protestant daughter Mary II but strongly resisted making her Dutch husband William III & II joint ruler. They only gave way when he threatened to return to the Netherlands and Mary refused to rule without him.[33]

In Scotland, conflict over control of the kirk between Presbyterians and Episcopalians and William’s position as a fellow Calvinist put him in a much stronger position. Originally, William insisted on retaining Episcopacy in the kirk and the Committee of the Articles, an unelected body that controlled what legislation Parliament could debate. Both of these would have given the Crown far greater control than in England but he withdrew his demands due to the 1689-1692 Jacobite Rising.[34]

English perspective

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The English purpose was to ensure that Scotland would not choose a monarch different from the one on the English throne. The two countries had shared a king for much of the previous century, but the English were concerned that an independent Scotland with a different king, even if he were a Protestant, might make alliances against England. The English succession was provided for by the English Act of Settlement 1701, which ensured that the monarch of England would be a Protestant member of the House of Hanover. Until the Union of Parliaments, the Scottish throne might be inherited by a different successor after Queen Anne: the Scottish Act of Security 1704 granted parliament the right to choose a successor and explicitly required a choice different from the English monarch unless the English were to grant free trade and navigation. Many people in England were unhappy about the prospect, however. English overseas possessions made England wealthy in comparison to Scotland and had many times the number of Members of Parliament than Scotland, thus able to pass any legislation over Scottish objections. This made unification a markedly unequal relationship, much to England’s advantage.

Scottish perspective
In Scotland, some claimed that union would enable Scotland to recover from the financial disaster wrought by the Darien scheme through English assistance and the lifting of measures put in place through the Alien Act to force the Scottish Parliament into compliance with the Act of Settlement.[35]

The combined votes of the Court party with a majority of the Squadrone Volante were sufficient to ensure the final passage of the treaty through the House.

Personal financial interests were also allegedly involved. Many Commissioners had invested heavily in the Darien scheme and they believed that they would receive compensation for their losses; Article 15 granted £398,085 10s sterling to Scotland, a sum known as The Equivalent, to offset future liability towards the English national debt. In essence it was also used as a means of compensation for investors in the Company of Scotland’s Darien scheme, as 58.6% was allocated to its shareholders and creditors.[36]

18th-century French illustration of an opening of the Scottish Parliament
Even more direct bribery was a factor.[37] £20,000 (£240,000 Scots) was dispatched to Scotland for distribution by the Earl of Glasgow. James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, the Queen’s Commissioner in Parliament, received £12,325, more than 60% of the funding. Robert Burns referred to this:

We’re bought and sold for English Gold,
Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation.

Some of the money was used to hire spies, such as Daniel Defoe; his first reports were of vivid descriptions of violent demonstrations against the Union. “A Scots rabble is the worst of its kind,” he reported, “for every Scot in favour there is 99 against”. Years later, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, originally a leading Unionist, wrote in his memoirs that Defoe “was a spy among us, but not known as such, otherwise the Mob of Edinburgh would pull him to pieces.”

The Treaty was hated in Scotland at the time. Riots occurred in Edinburgh, as well as substantial riots in Glasgow. The people of Edinburgh demonstrated against the treaty, and their apparent leader in opposition to the Unionists was James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton. However, Hamilton was actually on the side of the English Government. Demonstrators in Edinburgh were opposed to the Union for many reasons: they feared the Kirk would be Anglicised; that Anglicisation would remove democracy from the only really elementally democratic part of the Kingdom; and they feared that tax rises would come.[38]

Sir George Lockhart of Carnwath, the only member of the Scottish negotiating team against union, noted that “The whole nation appears against the Union”[39] and even Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, an ardent pro-unionist and Union negotiator, observed that the treaty was “contrary to the inclinations of at least three-fourths of the Kingdom”.[39] Public opinion against the Treaty as it passed through the Scottish Parliament was voiced through petitions from shires, burghs, presbyteries and parishes. The Convention of Royal Burghs also petitioned against the Union as proposed:
That it is our indispensable duty to signify to your grace that, as we are not against an honourable and safe union with England far less can we expect to have the condition of the people of Scotland, with relation to these great concerns, made better and improved without a Scots Parliament.[40]

Not one petition in favour of an incorporating union was received by Parliament. On the day the treaty was signed, the carilloner in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, rang the bells in the tune Why should I be so sad on my wedding day?[41] Threats of widespread civil unrest resulted in Parliament imposing martial law.

Provisions of the Acts

Heraldic badge of Queen Anne, depicting the Tudor rose and the Scottish thistle growing from the same stem.
Main article: Treaty of Union
The Treaty of Union, agreed between representatives of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1706, consisted of 25 articles, 15 of which were economic in nature. In Scotland, each article was voted on separately and several clauses in articles were delegated to specialised subcommittees. Article 1 of the treaty was based on the political principle of an incorporating union and this was secured by a majority of 116 votes to 83 on 4 November 1706. To minimise the opposition of the Church of Scotland, an Act was also passed to secure the Presbyterian establishment of the Church, after which the Church stopped its open opposition, although hostility remained at lower levels of the clergy. The treaty as a whole was finally ratified on 16 January 1707 by a majority of 110 votes to 69.[42]

The two Acts incorporated provisions for Scotland to send representative peers from the Peerage of Scotland to sit in the House of Lords. It guaranteed that the Church of Scotland would remain the established church in Scotland, that the Court of Session would “remain in all time coming within Scotland”, and that Scots law would “remain in the same force as before”. Other provisions included the restatement of the Act of Settlement 1701 and the ban on Roman Catholics from taking the throne. It also created a customs union and monetary union.

The Act provided that any “laws and statutes” that were “contrary to or inconsistent with the terms” of the Act would “cease and become void”.

Related Acts
The Scottish Parliament also passed the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act 1707 guaranteeing the status of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The English Parliament passed a similar Act, 6 Anne c.8.

Soon after the Union, the Act 6 Anne c.40—later named the Union with Scotland (Amendment) Act 1707—united the English and Scottish Privy Councils and decentralised Scottish administration by appointing justices of the peace in each shire to carry out administration. In effect it took the day-to-day government of Scotland out of the hands of politicians and into those of the College of Justice.

In the year following the Union, the Treason Act 1708 abolished the Scottish law of treason and extended the corresponding English law across Great Britain.

Evaluations
Scotland benefited, says historian G.N. Clark, gaining “freedom of trade with England and the colonies” as well as “a great expansion of markets”. The agreement guaranteed the permanent status of the Presbyterian church in Scotland, and the separate system of laws and courts in Scotland. Clark argued that in exchange for the financial benefits and bribes that England bestowed, what it gained was

of inestimable value. Scotland accepted the Hanoverian succession and gave up her power of threatening England’s military security and complicating her commercial relations … The sweeping successes of the eighteenth-century wars owed much to the new unity of the two nations.[43]

By the time Samuel Johnson and James Boswell made their tour in 1773, recorded in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, Johnson noted that Scotland was “a nation of which the commerce is hourly extending, and the wealth increasing” and in particular that Glasgow had become one of the greatest cities of Britain.[44]

300th anniversary

The £2 coin issued in the United Kingdom in 2007 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Acts of Union
A commemorative two-pound coin was issued to mark the tercentennial—300th anniversary—of the Union, which occurred two days before the Scottish Parliament general election on 3 May 2007.[45]

The Scottish Government held a number of commemorative events through the year including an education project led by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, an exhibition of Union-related objects and documents at the National Museums of Scotland and an exhibition of portraits of people associated with the Union at the National Galleries of Scotland.[46]

Parliament of England
Long title An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject
Citation 12 and 13 Will 3 c. 2
Territorial extent
England and Ireland initially
Dates
Royal assent 1701
Commencement 1701
Other legislation
Amended by
Various
Relates to Bill of Rights 1689
Status: Amended
Revised text of statute as amended
Part of a series on the
Constitution
of Canada

Constitutional history
Bill of Rights (1689)
Act of Settlement (1701)
Treaty of Paris (1763)
Royal Proclamation (1763)
Quebec Act (1774)
Constitutional Act (1791)
Act of Union (1840)
Constitution Act (1867)
Supreme Court Act (1875)
Constitution Act, 1886
British North America Acts (1867–1975)
Statute of Westminster (1931)
Succession to the Throne Act (1937)
Letters Patent (1947)
Canada Act (1982)
Constitution Act (1982)
Document list
Amendments
Unsuccessful amendments
Constitutional law
Constitutional debate
Patriation
Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian federalism
Law of Canada
Canadian Bill of Rights
Implied Bill of Rights
Canadian Human Rights Act
Flag of Canada.svg Canada portal A coloured voting box.svg Politics portal
vte
The Act of Settlement is an Act of the Parliament of England that was passed in 1701[5] to settle the succession to the English and Irish crowns on Protestants only. The next Protestant in line to the throne was the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James VI of Scotland, I of England and Ireland. After her the crowns would descend only to her non-Roman Catholic heirs.

The act was prompted by the failure of King William III & II and Queen Mary II, as well as of Mary’s sister Queen Anne, to produce any surviving children, and the Roman Catholic religion of all other members of the House of Stuart. The line of Sophia of Hanover was the most junior among the Stuarts, but consisted of convinced Protestants. Sophia died on 8 June 1714, before the death of Queen Anne on 1 August 1714. On Queen Anne’s death, Sophia’s son duly became King George I and started the Hanoverian dynasty in Britain.

The act played a key role in the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain. England and Scotland had shared a monarch since 1603, but had remained separately governed countries. The Scottish parliament was more reluctant than the English to abandon the House of Stuart, members of which had been Scottish monarchs long before they became English ones. English pressure on Scotland to accept the Act of Settlement was one factor leading to the parliamentary union of the two countries in 1707.

Under the Act of Settlement anyone who became a Roman Catholic, or who married one, became disqualified to inherit the throne. The act also placed limits on both the role of foreigners in the British government and the power of the monarch with respect to the Parliament of England. Some of those provisions have been altered by subsequent legislation.

Along with the Bill of Rights 1689, the Act of Settlement remains today one of the main constitutional laws governing the succession not only to the throne of the United Kingdom, but to those of the other Commonwealth realms, whether by assumption or by patriation.[6] The Act of Settlement cannot be altered in any realm except by that realm’s own parliament and, by convention, only with the consent of all the other realms, as it touches on the succession to the shared crown.[7]

Following the Perth Agreement in 2011, legislation amending the act came into effect across the Commonwealth realms on 26 March 2015, and removed the disqualification arising from marriage to a Roman Catholic.

Contents
1 Original context
2 Provisions
3 Opposition
4 Effects
4.1 Kingdom of Great Britain
4.2 Succession to the Crown
4.3 Removal from the succession due to Catholicism
5 Present status
6 Amendment proposals
6.1 Australia
6.2 Canada
6.3 United Kingdom
6.4 Across the realms
7 See also
8 Notes
9 Sources
10 External links

Parliament of England
Long title An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown.
Citation 1 William & Mary Sess 2 c 2
Dates
Royal assent 16 December 1689
Commencement 1689
Status: Amended
Revised text of statute as amended
The Bill of Rights
English Bill of Rights of 1689.jpg
Created 1689
Location Parliamentary Archives
Author(s) Parliament of England
Purpose Assert the rights of Parliament and the individual, and ensure a Protestant political supremacy
The Bill of Rights 1689 is a landmark Act in the constitutional law of England that sets out certain basic civil rights and clarifies who would be next to inherit the Crown. It received the Royal Assent on 16 December 1689 and is a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William III and Mary II in February 1689, inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. The Bill of Rights lays down limits on the powers of the monarch and sets out the rights of Parliament, including the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, and freedom of speech in Parliament.[2] It sets out certain rights of individuals including the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and reestablished the right of Protestants to have arms for their defence within the rule of law. It also includes no right of taxation without Parliament’s agreement. Furthermore, the Bill of Rights described and condemned several misdeeds of James II of England.[3]

These ideas reflected those of the political thinker John Locke and they quickly became popular in England.[4] It also sets out – or, in the view of its drafters, restates – certain constitutional requirements of the Crown to seek the consent of the people, as represented in Parliament.[3][5]

In the United Kingdom, the Bill of Rights is further accompanied by Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 and the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 as some of the basic documents of the uncodified British constitution. A separate but similar document, the Claim of Right Act 1689, applies in Scotland. The Bill of Rights 1689 was one of the models for the United States Bill of Rights of 1789, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950.[2]

Along with the Act of Settlement 1701, the Bill of Rights is still in effect in all Commonwealth realms. Following the Perth Agreement in 2011, legislation amending both of them came into effect across the Commonwealth realms on 26 March 2015.

Contents
1 Background
1.1 Glorious Revolution
1.2 Declaration of Right
2 Provisions of the Act
3 Date and title
4 Augmentation and effect
5 Legal status
5.1 United Kingdom
5.2 Australia
5.3 Canada
5.4 New Zealand
5.5 Republic of Ireland
6 Modern recognition
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 Bibliography
11 External links

John Hampden, c. 1690

Arms of Hampden: Argent, a saltire gules between four eagles displayed azure
John Hampden (21 March 1653 – 12 December 1696), the second son of Richard Hampden, and grandson of Ship money tax protester John Hampden, returned to England after residing for about two years in France, and joined himself to William Russell and Algernon Sidney and the party opposed to the arbitrary government of Charles II. With Russell and Sidney he was arrested in 1683 for alleged complicity in the Rye House Plot, but more fortunate than his colleagues his life was spared, although as he was unable to pay the fine of £40,000 which was imposed upon him he remained in prison. Then in 1685, after the failure of Monmouth’s rising, Hampden was again brought to trial, and on a charge of high treason was condemned to death. But the sentence was not carried out, and having paid £6000 he was set at liberty. In the Convention Parliament of 1689 he represented Wendover, but in the subsequent parliaments he failed to secure a seat. It was Hampden who in 1689 coined the phrase “Glorious Revolution”.[1] He died by his own hand on 12 December 1696. Hampden wrote numerous pamphlets, and Bishop Burnet described him as “one of the learnedest gentlemen I ever knew”.

He married Sarah Foley (died 1687), and had two children:

Richard Hampden (aft. 1674 – 27 July 1728), an MP and Privy Counsellor
Letitia Hampden, who married John Birch MP as his second wife
After her death, he married Anne Cornwallis and had two children:

John Hampden (c. 1696 – 4 February 1754), an MP
Ann Hampden (died September 1723), married Thomas Kempthorne

Execution of King Charles I
Exile of Charles II
Defeat of the Irish Confederates
Defeat of the Scottish Covenanters
English Parliament reduced to a Rump
Establishment of the republican Commonwealth
Belligerents
English, Scottish and Irish Royalists Scottish Covenanters Irish Confederates Irish Protestants English Parliamentarians
Commanders and leaders
Charles I Executed
Prince Rupert
Charles II
Marquis of Montrose (in Scotland)
Marquis of Argyll
David Leslie
Confederate Supreme Council
Owen Roe O’Neill (in Ulster)
Thomas Preston (in Leinster)
Garret Barry (in Munster)
John Burke (in Connacht)
Edmund O’Dwyer (in Munster)
Earl of Inchiquin
Duke of Ormonde
Earl of Essex
Earl of Manchester
Thomas Fairfax
Oliver Cromwell
George Monck (in Scotland)
Michael Jones (in Ireland)
Henry Ireton (in Ireland)
Casualties and losses
50,000 English and Welsh[1] 34,000[1]
127,000 noncombat English and Welsh deaths (including some 40,000 civilians)[a]
vte
Wars of the
Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms,[b] sometimes known as the British Civil Wars,[c][d] formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland between 1639 and 1651. The English Civil War proper has become the best-known of these conflicts; it included the abolition of the monarchy and the execution of the kingdoms’ monarch, Charles I, by the English Parliament in 1649.

The history of these wars is often extended to include the uprisings and conflicts that continued through the 1650s until the English Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and sometimes to include Venner’s uprising the following year. The wars were the outcome of broadly set tensions over religious and civil issues. Religious disputes centred on whether religion was to be dictated by the monarch or by choice, the conscience of the individual, with many people feeling that they ought to have freedom of religion (freedom of conscience). The related civil question was settling the extent to which the king’s rule was to be constrained by Parliament—in particular the right to raise taxes and armed forces without consent of the Parliament.

The wars also had elements of national conflict, as Ireland and Scotland rebelled against England’s primacy within the Three Kingdoms. The broad and durable victory of the English Parliament—ultimately (under Oliver Cromwell and the Army) overcoming the king, the Irish and the Scots, and then outlasting the Cromwellian Protectorate itself—helped establish the future of Great Britain and Ireland as a constitutional monarchy with political power centred on the Parliament in London.

These wars included the Bishops’ Wars of 1639 and 1640; the Irish Rebellion of 1641; Confederate Ireland, 1642–1649; the Scottish Civil War of 1644–1645; and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649 (collectively the Eleven Years War or Irish Confederate Wars); and the First, Second and Third English Civil Wars of 1642–1646, 1648–1649 and 1650–1651.