The Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707

Two hundred and sixty-two years ago, the people of Scotland had just passed through a period of debate and uncertainty closely comparable at many points to the doubts that at present beset the people of Great Britain as they try to make up their minds for or against entering the Common Market and embarking on the closer political union with the Six that lies beyond. The question that faced the Scots in an acute form after 1689, when they deposed their King, James VII (James II of England), was whether they should keep (or rather, try to regain) their independence, if need be under a monarchy different from England’s, or merge their independence and destiny in some sort of union, either federal or complete and unqualified, with their rich and powerful neighbour. In the end, after a Parliamentary vote which was carried, on the admission of a pro-Union contemporary, ‘contrary to the inclinations of at least three-fourths of the kingdom’, a complete ‘incorporating’ union, with only a very few qualifications, was agreed upon. In conjunction with similar votes in the English Parliament, this union passed into law on May 1st, 1707.