| Greetings from a wet and windy Falkirk
I hope that you are well and apologies for the gap between blogs on the ‘Life and Times of the 18th Century and Robert Burns.’
This week has been particularly busy for my ‘day job!’ I own and run Gemini Walks Ltd., an accommodation booking service for long distance walks in Scotland. The walks I cover include the West Highland Way and Great Glen Way. I work with some of the best operators on the Scottish Walking scene and provide them with administrative support. It’s great fun putting together holidays for visitors to Scotland!!
Anyway, continuing my history of the 18th Century.
The Act of Union 1707
The passing of Acts of Union by both the English and Scottish Parliaments led to the creation on 1 May 1707 of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The Parliament of the United Kingdom met for the first time in October 1707.
Queen Anne addressed the House of Lords on 6 March 1707, upon the passage of the Act of Union:
"I desire and expect from all my subjects of both nations that from henceforth they act with all possible respect and kindness to one another, that so it may appear to all the world they have hearts disposed to become one people."
The two countries had shared a monarch for about 100 years (since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne from his aunt, Queen Elizabeth I). Although described as a Union of Crowns, until 1707 there were in fact two separate Crowns resting on the same head.
Suspicion and mistrust between the two countries had prevented the union throughout the 17th century. The Scots feared that they would simply become another region of England, as had happened to Wales between 1536 and 1543. For England the fear that the Scots would take sides with France and rekindle the 'Auld Alliance' was pervasive. England depended on Scottish soldiers and to have them join ranks with the French would have been a threat to the security of the country.
There had been three 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 the idea had the will of both political establishments behind them, albeit for rather different reasons.
By the beginning of the 18th century on the English side the main motivation for the Union was to ensure that the Monarch of England would be a Protestant. Whist from a Scottish perspective the Union was essential to help the country recover from the disastrous Darien Scheme (see my last Blog).
Many dithering, yet influential, Scots received financial incentives to back the Union and later in the century this led Burns to write:
“We were bought and sold for English Gold,
Sic a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation.”
Despite all the mistrust and deceit looking back on the Union the English 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."
The Union in fact led to the creation of an Empire and the scattering of Scots to all corners of the globe!
Steve
11th January 2009
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