The Treaty of Union is the name usually now given to the treaty which led to the creation of the new state of kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, stating that the Kingdom of England (which already included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland were to be "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain".

: Both Acts of Union and the Treaty state in Article I: ''That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon 1 May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN''. At the time it was more often referred to as the Articles of Union. The details of the Treaty were agreed on 22 July 1706, and separate Acts of Union 1707, Acts of Union were then passed by the parliaments of Parliament of England, England and Parliament of Scotland, Scotland to put the agreed Articles into effect. The political union took effect on 1 May 1707.

Background

Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, died without issue on 24 March 1603, and the throne fell at once (and uncontroversially) to her first cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, a member of the House of Stuart and the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots. By the Union of the Crowns in 1603 he assumed the throne of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland as King James I. This personal union lessened the constant English fears of Scottish cooperation with France in a feared French invasion of England. After this personal union, the new monarch, James I and VI, sought to unite the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England into a state which he referred to as "Great Britain". Nevertheless, Acts of Parliament attempting to unite the two countries failed in 1606, 1667, and 1689. Beginning in 1698, the Company of Scotland sponsored the Darien scheme, an ill-fated attempt to establish a Scottish trading colony in the Isthmus of Panama, collecting from Scots investments equal to one-quarter of all the money circulating in Scotland at the time. In the face of opposition by English commercial interests, the Company of Scotland also raised subscriptions in Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London for its scheme. For his part, King William III of England and II of Scotland had given only lukewarm support to the Scottish colonial endeavour. England was at war with France, and hence did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory as part of New Granada. England was also under pressure from the London-based East India Company, which was anxious to maintain its monopoly over English foreign trade. It therefore forced the English and Dutch investors to withdraw. Next, the East India Company threatened legal action, on the grounds that the Scots had no authority from the king to raise funds outside the king's realm, and obliged the promoters to refund subscriptions to the Hamburg investors. This left no source of finance but Scotland itself. The colonisation ended in a military confrontation with the Spanish in 1700, but most colonists died of tropical diseases. This was an economic disaster for the Scottish ruling class investors and diminished the resistance of the Scottish political establishment to the idea of political union with England. It ultimately supported the union, despite some popular opposition and anti-union riots in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and elsewhere. Deeper political integration had been a key policy of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Queen Anne ever since she had acceded to the thrones of the three kingdoms in 1702. Under the aegis of the Queen and her ministers in both kingdoms, in 1705 the parliaments of England and Scotland agreed to participate in fresh negotiations for a treaty of union.

Treaty negotiations

It was agreed that England and Scotland would each appoint thirty-one commissioners to conduct the negotiations. The Parliament of Scotland, Scottish Parliament then began to arrange an election of the commissioners to negotiate on behalf of Scotland, but in September 1705, the leader of the Country Party (Britain), Country Party, the James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Duke of Hamilton, who had previously attempted to obstruct the negotiation of a treaty, proposed that the Scottish commissioners should be nominated by the Queen, and this was agreed. In practice, the Scottish commissioners were nominated on the advice of the James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Duke of Queensberry and the John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Duke of Argyll. Of the Scottish commissioners who were subsequently appointed, twenty-nine were members of the governing Court Party, while one was a member of the Squadrone Volante (Scotland), Squadron Volante. At the head of the list was Queensberry himself, with the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, the James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater, Earl of Seafield.The commissioners
, UK Parliament website. George Lockhart (politician), George Lockhart of Carnwath, a member of the opposition Cavalier Party, was the only commissioner opposed to union. The thirty-one English commissioners included government ministers and officers of state, such as the Lord High Treasurer, the Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, Earl of Godolphin, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord Keeper, William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper, Lord Cowper, and a large number of Whigs who supported union. Most Tories in the Parliament of England were not in favour of a union, and only one was among the commissioners. Negotiations between the English and Scottish commissioners began on 16 April 1706 at the Cockpit-in-Court in London. The sessions opened with speeches from William Cowper, the English Lord Keeper, and from Lord Seafield, the Scottish Lord Chancellor, each describing the significance of the task. The commissioners did not carry out their negotiations face to face, but in separate rooms. They communicated their proposals and counter-proposals to each other in writing, and there was a blackout on news from the negotiations. Each side had its own particular concerns. Within a few days, England gained a guarantee that the House of Hanover, 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.The course of negotiations
, UK Parliament website. After the negotiations ended on 22 July 1706, acts of parliament were drafted by both parliaments to implement the agreed Articles of Union. The Scottish proponents of union believed that failure to agree to the Articles would result in the imposition of a union under less favourable terms, and English troops were stationed just south of the Scottish border and also in northern Ireland as an "encouragement". Months of fierce debate in both capital cities and throughout both kingdoms followed. In Scotland, the debate on occasion dissolved into civil disorder, most notably by the notorious 'Edinburgh Mob'. The prospect of a union of the kingdoms was deeply unpopular among the Scottish population at large, and talk of an uprising was widespread. However, the treaty was signed and the documents were rushed south with a large military escort. The Kingdom of Great Britain was born on 1 May 1707, shortly after the parliaments of Parliament of Scotland, Scotland and Parliament of England, England had ratified the Treaty of Union by each approving Acts of Union 1707, Acts of Union combining the two parliaments and the powers of the two crowns. Scotland's crown, sceptre, and sword of state remained at Edinburgh Castle. Queen Anne (already Queen of both England and Scotland) formally became the first occupant of the unified throne of Great Britain, with Scotland sending forty-five members to the new House of Commons of Great Britain, as well as representative peers to the House of Lords. Significant financial payoffs to Scottish parliamentarians were later referred to by Robert Burns when he wrote "We're bought and sold for English gold, Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation!" Some recent historians, however, have emphasized the legitimacy of the vote.

The Articles of Union

The Treaty consisted of twenty-five Articles. Article 1 provided that the kingdoms of Scotland and England would, from 1 May 1707, be united into one kingdom named Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, with its own Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, royal coat of arms and a Flag of Great Britain, flag combining the crosses of Flag of Scotland, St Andrew and Saint George's Cross, St George. Article 2 provided for the succession of the House of Hanover to the throne of Great Britain, and for a Succession to the British throne, Protestant succession, as set out in the English Act of Settlement 1701, Act of Settlement of 1701. Article 3 provided for the creation of one unified Parliament of Great Britain. Article 4 gave the subjects of Great Britain freedom of trade and navigation within the kingdom and the English overseas possessions, "Dominions and Plantations thereunto belonging". Articles 5 to 15, 17, & 18 dealt with a register of British trading ships, customs and duties on import and export, weights and measures, movement, taxes, regulation of trade, and other matters, to ensure equal treatment for all British subject, subjects of the new kingdom. Article 16 required the introduction of a Economic and monetary union, common currency for Great Britain, subsequently effected through the Scottish coinage#1707–10 recoinage, Scottish recoinage of 1707–1710, and the continuation of a Mints of Scotland, Scottish Mint. Article 19 provided for the continuation of the Court of Session, the High Court of Justiciary, and the separate Scots law, Scottish legal system. Article 20 provided for the protection after the union of a number of heritable offices, superiorities, heritable jurisdictions, offices for life, and jurisdictions for life. Article 21 provided for the protection of the rights of the royal burghs. Article 22 provided for Scotland to be represented in the new Parliament of Great Britain by sixteen representative peers and forty-five List of members of the 1st Parliament of Great Britain, members of the House of Commons. Article 23 provided for Scotland's peers to have the same rights as English peers in any trial of peers. Article 24 provided for the creation of a new Great Seal of the Realm, Great Seal of Great Britain, different from those of Great Seal of England, England and Scotland, but it also provided that the Great Seal of England was to be used until this had been created; a Great Seal of Scotland for use in Scotland; and that the Honours of Scotland, the Records of the Parliament of Scotland and all other records, rolls and registers be kept and remain in Scotland. Article 25 provided that all laws of either kingdom that may be inconsistent with the Articles in the Treaty were declared void.

Commissioners

The following commissioners were appointed to negotiate the Treaty of Union:Daniel Defoe, George Chalmers, ''The History of the Union Between England and Scotland'', 1923, p. 112 Kingdom of England *William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper, William Cowper, 1st Baron Cowper, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal *Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, Lord High Treasurer *Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke, Lord President of the Council *John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, Lord Privy Seal *Henry Boyle, 1st Baron Carleton, Henry Boyle, Chancellor of the Exchequer *Charles Hedges, Sir Charles Hedges, Secretary of State for the Southern Department *Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, Robert Harley, Secretary of State for the Northern Department *Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton *Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury *Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle *John Cooke (lawyer), Sir John Cooke, King's Advocate, Advocate-General *John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland, John Manners, Marquess of Granby *Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt, Sir Simon Harcourt, Solicitor General for England and Wales, Solicitor General *Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, Charles Montagu, 1st Baron Halifax *William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington *Sir John Holt, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Chief Justice *Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, Evelyn Pierrepont, 5th Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull *Edward Northey (barrister), Sir Edward Northey, Attorney General for England and Wales, Attorney General *Ralph Grey, 4th Baron Grey of Werke *Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford *Lord William Powlett, Member of Parliament for Winchester (UK Parliament constituency), Winchester *John Smith (Chancellor of the Exchequer), John Smith, Speaker of the House of Commons of England, House of Commons *John Somers, 1st Baron Somers *Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset *Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland *Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend *Thomas Trevor, 1st Baron Trevor, Sir Thomas Trevor, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas *Dr. Stephen Waller, Doctor of Law *Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton, Thomas Wharton, 5th Baron Wharton *Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton, Charles Powlett, Marquess of Winchester *John Sharp (bishop), John Sharp, Archbishop of York Kingdom of Scotland *James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater, James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Seafield, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, Lord Chancellor *James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, Lord Privy Seal *John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675–1732), John Erskine, Earl of Mar, Secretary of State, Scotland, Secretary of State *Hugh Campbell, 3rd Earl of Loudoun, Secretary of State, Scotland, Secretary of State *David Boyle, 1st Earl of Glasgow, Treasurer-depute *Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, Lord Archibald Campbell *Daniel Campbell (died 1753), Daniel Campbell of Shawfield, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Inveraray (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Inveraray *Sir John Clerk, 2nd Baronet, John Clerk of Penicuik, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Whithorn (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Whithorn *Adam Cockburn, Lord Ormiston, Lord Justice Clerk *Sir David Dalrymple, 1st Baronet, Sir David Dalrymple of Hailes, 1st Baronet, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Culross (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Culross *Hew Dalrymple, Lord North Berwick, Lord President of the Court of Session and Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for North Berwick (Parliament of Scotland constituency), North Berwick *Robert Dundas, Lord Arniston, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Edinburghshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Edinburghshire *Thomas Hay, Viscount Dupplin *Alexander Grant of that Ilk, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Inverness-shire (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Inverness-shire *Sir Patrick Johnston, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Edinburgh (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Edinburgh *David Melville, 3rd Earl of Leven *George Lockhart (politician), George Lockhart of Carnwath, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Lanarkshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Lanarkshire *Francis Montgomerie, Francis Montgomerie of Giffen, Treasurer of Scotland, Commissioner for the Treasury and Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Ayrshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Ayrshire *Hugh Montgomerie of Busbie, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Glasgow (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Glasgow *William Morrison of Prestongrange, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Peeblesshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Peeblesshire *James Douglas, 11th Earl of Morton *Sir Alexander Ogilvy of Forglen, 1st Baronet, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Banff (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Banff *Archibald Primrose, 1st Earl of Rosebery *William Ross, 12th Lord Ross, Treasurer of Scotland, Commissioner for the Treasury *William Seton of Pittmedden, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Aberdeenshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Aberdeenshire *Sir James Smollett of Stainflett and Bonhill, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Dumbarton (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Dumbarton *John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair *Dougald Stewart of Blairhill, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Rothesay (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Rothesay *Robert Stewart of Tillicoultry, Commissioner (Scottish Parliament), Commissioner for Buteshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Bute *John Gordon, 16th Earl of Sutherland *David Wemyss, 4th Earl of Wemyss

References

{{reflist

External links

the Scottish Parliament
Text of Union with England ActText of Union with Scotland Act
* From Daniel Defoe's ''Collection of Original Papers and Material Transactions Concerning the late Great Affair of the Union between England and Scotland'' (1711): *
Text of the "Articles of Union"
(the Treaty) *
Text of the Scottish Ratifying Act
*
Text of the English Ratifying Act
1706 treaties 1706 in England 1706 in Scotland Treaties of England Treaties of Scotland 1707 treaties England–Scotland relations History of Great Britain

Background

Treaty negotiations

The Articles of Union

Commissioners

References

Further reading

External links