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t	3	The '''Union of the Crowns''' (March 1603) was the [[Coronation\|accession]] of [[James VI and I\|James VI]], [[List of Scottish monarchs\|King of Scots]], to the thrones of [[Kingdom of England\|England]] and [[Kingdom of Ireland\|Ireland]], and the consequential unification of Scotland with both [[realms]] under a single monarch. The Union of Crowns followed the death of [[Elizabeth I of England\|Queen Elizabeth I of England]]—the last monarch of the [[Tudor dynasty]],<ref>http://uotc.scran.ac.uk/</ref> who was James' unmarried and childless first [[cousin]] twice removed.	t	3	The '''Union of the Crowns''' (March 1603) was the [[Coronation\|accession]] of [[James VI and I\|James VI]], [[List of Scottish monarchs\|King of Scots]], to the thrones of [[Kingdom of England\|England]] and [[Kingdom of Ireland\|Ireland]], and the consequential unification of Scotland with both [[realms]] under a single monarch. The Union of Crowns followed the death of [[Elizabeth I of England\|Queen Elizabeth I of England]]—the last monarch of the [[Tudor dynasty]],<ref>{{cite web\|author=John Daniel McVey, design and development \|url=http://uotc.scran.ac.uk/ \|title=The Union of The Crowns 1603 - 2003 \|publisher=Uotc.scran.ac.uk \|date= \|accessdate=2013-05-21}}</ref> who was James' unmarried and childless first [[cousin]] twice removed.
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The '''Union of the Crowns''' (March 1603) was the [[Coronation|accession]] of [[James VI and I|James VI]], [[List of Scottish monarchs|King of Scots]], to the thrones of [[Kingdom of England|England]] and [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]], and the consequential unification of Scotland with both [[realms]] under a single monarch. The Union of Crowns followed the death of [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I of England]]—the last monarch of the [[Tudor dynasty]],<ref>{{cite web|author=John Daniel McVey, design and development |url=http://uotc.scran.ac.uk/ |title=The Union of The Crowns 1603 - 2003 |publisher=Uotc.scran.ac.uk |date= |accessdate=2013-05-21}}</ref> who was James' unmarried and childless first [[cousin]] twice removed.

The Union was a [[Personal union|personal]] or [[Dynastic union|dynastic]] union, with the [[The Crown|Crown]] of Scotland remaining both distinct and separate—despite James's best efforts to create a new "imperial" throne of "[[Great Britain]]". However, England and Scotland would only continue to be [[sovereign state]]s, sharing a [[monarch]], until the [[Acts of Union 1707|Acts of Union]] in 1707 during the reign of the last [[House of Stuart|Stuart monarch]], [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]].<ref>A History of the Modern British Isles, 1603-1707: The Double Crown. David Lawrence Smith. 1998. Chpt.2</ref>

==Early unification==
{{see also|Treaty of Greenwich}} 
[[Image:Margaret Tudor.jpg|thumb|right|[[Margaret Tudor]].]]

In August 1503, [[James IV of Scotland|James IV]], King of Scots, married [[Margaret Tudor]], eldest daughter of [[Henry VII of England]], and the spirit of the new age was celebrated by the poet [[William Dunbar]] in ''[[The Thistle and the Rose]]''.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/duntxt2.htm#P30|first=John (ed.)|last=Conlee|title=William Dunbar: The Complete Works|location=Kalamazoo, Michigan|year=2004|publisher=Medieval Institute Publications|accessdate=2007-08-26}}</ref> The marriage was the outcome of the [[Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1502)|Treaty of Perpetual Peace]], concluded the previous year, which, in theory, ended centuries of Anglo-Scottish rivalry. The marriage merged the [[House of Stuart|Stuarts]] with England's [[Tudor dynasty|Tudor]] [[line of succession]], despite the improbability of a Scottish prince acceding the English throne at the time. However, many on the English side were concerned by the dynastic implications of matrimony, including some [[Privy Council of England|Privy Councillors]]. In countering these fears Henry VII is reputed to have said:

{{cquote|…our realme wald receive na damage thair thorow, for in that caise Ingland wald not accress unto Scotland, bot Scotland wald acress unto Ingland, as to the most noble heid of the hole yle...evin as quhan Normandy came in the power of Inglis men our forbearis.}}

The peace did not last in "perpetuity", it was disturbed in 1513 when [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], [[King of England]] and [[Lord of Ireland]], who had succeeded his father four years before, declared war on France. In response France invoked the terms of the [[Auld Alliance]], her ancient bond with Scotland. James duly invaded northern England leading to the [[Battle of Flodden]].

In the decades that followed, England's relations with Scotland were turbulent. By the middle of Henry's reign, the problems of the royal succession, which seemed so unimportant in 1503, acquired ever bigger dimensions, when the question of Tudor fertility — or the lack thereof — entered directly into the political arena. The line of Margaret Tudor was excluded from the English succession, though, during the reign of [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] concerns were once again raised. In the last decade of her reign it was clear to all that [[James VI and I|James VI of Scotland]], great-grandson of James IV and Margaret Tudor, was the only generally acceptable heir.

==Accession of James VI==
[[Image:JamesIofEngland.jpg|thumb|right|James VI of Scotland.]]

From 1601, in the last years of Elizabeth I's life, certain English politicians, notably her chief minister [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury|Sir Robert Cecil]],<ref>James described Cecil as "king there in effect". Croft, p 48.</ref> maintained a [[Secret correspondence of James VI|secret correspondence with James]] in order to prepare in advance for a smooth succession. Cecil advised James not to press the matter of the succession upon the queen but simply to treat her with kindness and respect.<ref>Cecil wrote that James should "secure the heart of the highest, to whose sex and quality nothing is so improper as either needless expostulations or over much curiosity in her own actions, the first showing unquietness in yourself, the second challenging some untimely interest in hers; both which are best forborne." Willson, pp 154–155.</ref> The approach proved effective: "I trust that you will not doubt," Elizabeth wrote to James, "but that your last letters are so acceptably taken as my thanks cannot be lacking for the same, but yield them you in grateful sort."<ref>Willson, p 155.</ref> In March 1603, with the queen clearly dying, Cecil sent James a draft proclamation of his accession to the English throne. Strategic fortresses were put on alert, and London placed under guard. Elizabeth died in the early hours of 24 March. Within eight hours, James was proclaimed king in London, the news received without protest or disturbance.<ref>Croft, p 49; Willson, p 158.</ref>

On 5 April 1603, James left Edinburgh for London, promising to return every three years (a promise he failed to keep, returning only once, in 1617, fourteen years after his initial departure),<ref>Croft, p 49</ref> and progressed slowly from town to town, in order to arrive in the capital after Elizabeth's funeral.<ref>Croft, p 49.</ref> Local lords received James with lavish hospitality along the route; and James's new subjects flocked to see him, relieved above all that the succession had triggered neither unrest nor invasion.<ref>Croft, p 50.</ref> As James entered London, he was mobbed. The crowds of people, one observer reported, were so great that "they covered the beauty of the fields; and so greedy were they to behold the King that they injured and hurt one another."<ref>Stewart, p 169.</ref> James's English coronation took place on 25 July, with elaborate allegories provided by dramatic poets such as [[Thomas Dekker (poet)|Thomas Dekker]] and [[Ben Jonson]], though the festivities had to be restricted because of an outbreak of the plague.<ref>Stewart, p 172.</ref> Nevertheless, all London turned out for the occasion: "The streets seemed paved with men," wrote Dekker. "Stalls instead of rich wares were set out with children, open casements filled up with women".<ref>Stewart, p 173.</ref>

Whatever residual fears many in England may have felt at the prospect of being ruled by a Scot, James's arrival aroused a mood of high expectation.  The twilight years of Elizabeth had been a disappointment; and for a nation troubled for so many years by the question of succession, the new king was a family man who already had male heirs in the wing.  But James's honeymoon was of very short duration; and his initial political actions were to do much to create the rather negative tone which was to turn a successful Scottish king into a disappointing English one.  The greatest and most obvious of these was the question of his exact status and title.  James intended to be King of [[Great Britain]] and Ireland.  His first obstacle along this imperial road was the attitude of the English Parliament.

In his first speech to his southern assembly in March 1603 James gave a clear statement of the royal manifesto;

{{cquote|What God hath conjoined let no man separate.  I am the husband and the whole isle is my lawful wife; I am the head and it is my body; I am the shepherd and it is my flock.  I hope therefore that no man will think that I, a Christian King under the Gospel, should be a polygamist and husband to two wives; that I being the head should have a divided or monstrous body or that being the shepherd to so fair a flock should have my flock parted in two.}}

Parliament may very well have rejected polygamy; but the marriage, if marriage it was, between the realms of England and Scotland was to be at best morganatic. James's ambitions were greeted with very little enthusiasm, as one by one MPs rushed to defend the ancient name and realm of England. All sorts of legal objections were raised: all laws would have to be renewed and all treaties renegotiated. For James, whose experience of parliaments was limited to the stage-managed and semi-feudal Scottish variety, the self-assurance — and obduracy — of the English version, which had long experience of upsetting monarchs, was an obvious shock. He decided to side-step the whole issue by unilaterally assuming the title of King of [[Great Britain]] by a ''Proclamation concerning the Kings Majesties Stile'' on 20 October 1604 announcing that he did "assume to Our selfe by the cleerenesse of our Right, The Name and Stile of KING OF GREAT BRITTAINE, FRANCE, AND IRELAND, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, &c." .<ref>[http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/britstyles.htm#1604 Proclamation styling James I King of Great Britain] on 20 October 1604</ref> This only deepened the offence. Even in Scotland there was little real enthusiasm for the project, though the two parliaments were eventually prodded into taking the whole matter 'under consideration'. Consider it they did for several years, never drawing the desired conclusion.

==Opposition to the union==
In Scotland the incorporating union desired by James met with the same lack of zeal that it did in England, but for different reasons.  Whatever pleasure there was in seeing a Scottish king succeeding to the crown of England, rather than the danger for centuries past of an English king seizing the crown of Scotland, there were early signs that many saw the risk of the 'lesser being drawn by the greater', as Henry VII once predicted.  The obvious example before Scottish eyes was the case of [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]], a kingdom in name, but — since 1601 — a subject nation in practice.  John Russell, lawyer and writer, an initial enthusiast for 'the happie and blissed Unioun betuixt the tua ancienne realmes of Scotland and Ingland' was later to warn James:

{{cquote|Lett it not begyne vith ane comedie, and end in ane tragedie; to be ane verball unioun in disparitie nor reall in conformity…thairby, to advance the ane kingdome, to great honor and beccome forȝetfull of the uther, sua to mak the samyn altogidder solitat and desoltat qhilk cannot stand vith your Majestie's honor.  As god hes heichlie advanceit your Majestie lett Scotland qhilk is ȝour auldest impyir be partakeris of ȝour blissings.}}

These fears were echoed by the Scottish Parliament, learning from its English cousin that the King's word was not law after all.  MPs, in much the same way as those in England, were telling the king that they were 'confident' that his plans for an incorporating union would not prejudice the ancient [[laws and liberties of Scotland]]; for any such hurt would mean that 'it culd no more be a frie monarchie.'

Scottish fears can scarcely have been allayed when the king, now aware of the depths of English hostility, attempted to reassure his new subjects that the new union would be much like that between England and [[Wales]], and that if Scotland should refuse 'he would compel their assents, having a stronger party there than the opposite party of the mutineers'.  In June 1604 the two national parliaments, with obvious lack of enthusiasm, passed acts appointing commissioners to explore the possibility of 'a more perfect union'.  One cannot but sympathise with these men whose remit was to achieve the impossible — a new state that would still preserve the laws, honours, dignities, offices and liberties of each of the component kingdoms.  James, in a more sober and wiser mood, closed the final session of his first parliament with a rebuke to his opponents in the House of Commons — 'Here all things suspected...He merits to be buried in the bottom of the sea that shall but think of separation, where God had made such a Union.'

==National animosity==

James, of course, was moving too quickly for both nations, attempting to conjure away centuries of mutual hostility virtually overnight.  He scarcely improved his position as large numbers of impoverished Scottish aristocrats and other place seekers made their way to London, ready to compete for the very highest positions at the heart of government.  Several years later Sir Anthony Weldon was to write that 'Scotland was too guid for those that inhabit it, and too bad for others to be at the charge of conquering it.  The ayre might be wholesome, but for the stinking people that inhabit it...Thair beastis be generallie small (women excepted) of which sort there are no greater in the world.'  But the most immediately wounding observation came in the comedy ''Eastward Ho,'' a collaboration between [[Ben Jonson]], [[George Chapman]] and [[John Marston (poet)|John Marston]].  In enthusing over the good life to be had in the colony of [[Virginia]] it is observed;

{{cquote|And then you shal live freely there, without Sergeants, or Courtiers, or Lawyers, or Intelligencers &ndash; onely a few industrious Scots perhaps, who indeed are disperst over the face of the whole earth.  But as for them, there are no greater friends of Englishmen and England, when they are out an't, in the world, then they are.  And for my part, I would a hundred thousand of them were there, for wee are all one Countrymen now, yee know; and wee shoulde finde ten times more comfort of them there, then wee do here.}}

But the Scots were too happy to pay out these libels, with interest.  The age-old French slander that the English had tails like monkeys was once again in circulation, joining many more original anti-English satires, so much so that in 1609 the king had an act passed, promising the direst penalties against the writers of ''"pasquillis, libellis, rymis, cockalanis, comedies and sicklyk occasiones whereby they slander and maligne and revile the estait and countrey of England..."''

Against this cultural and political background the gentlemen of the parliamentary commission had little real prospect of making any progress along the road to a close and intimate union.  As early as October 1605, well before the commissioners reported, the [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] ambassador noted 'the question of the Union will, I am assured, be dropped; for His Majesty is now well aware that nothing can be effected, both sides displaying such obstinacy that an accommodation is impossible; and so his Majesty is resolved to abandon the question for the present, in hope that time may consume the ill-humours.'  It did, but over a far longer period than James can ever have imagined.

==Citizens and subjects==

By 1606 James's dream of an Imperial British Crown was looking sickly. The Union Commission made some limited progress, but only by setting the big picture to one side, concentrating instead on the seemingly more manageable issues like hostile border laws, trade and citizenship.  The borders were to become the 'middle shires', as if history could be sidestepped by semantics.  But the issues of free trade proved highly contentious, threatening powerful economic interest groups, as did the issue of equal rights before the law.  It was to be, in essence, the immigration debate of the day.  Fears were openly expressed in Parliament that English jobs would be threatened by all the poor people of the realm of Scotland, who will 'draw near to the Sonn, and flocking hither in such Multitudes, that death and dearth is very probable to ensue.' The exact status of the ''post nati'', those born after the Union of March 1603, was never to be decided by Parliament.  In the end the deadlock had to be broken by the courts in 1608 in ''[[Calvin's Case]]'', involving the baby Robert Calvin, which extended property rights to the King's subjects (i.e. the Scots) in [[English common law]].

==Symbols of the union==
In the end James never got his 'imperial crown', and of political necessity was obliged to accept the reality of polygamy. Denied the substance he played with the symbols, devising new coats of arms, a uniform coinage and the like. But the creation of a national flag proved just as contentious as a national crown. Various designs were tried, that which proved acceptable to one side almost inevitably offended the other. James finally proclaimed the new Union Flag on 12 April 1606, but it was greeted without a great deal of enthusiasm, especially by the Scots, who seeing a [[Flag of England|St. George's Cross]] superimposed upon a [[Flag of Scotland|St. Andrew's Saltire]] sought to create their own 'Scotch' design which saw the reverse superimposition take place. (This design was used in Scotland until 1707.) For years afterwards vessels of both nations continued to fly their respective 'flags', the royal proclamation notwithstanding. Ironically, the [[Union Flag]] only entered into common use under Cromwell's [[The Protectorate|Protectorate]].
<center>
<gallery perrow="5"> 
File:Royal Arms of the Kingdom of Scotland.svg|[[Royal coat of arms of Scotland|Arms]] of the [[Kingdom of Scotland]], 1565-1603.
File:Royal Arms of England (1399-1603).svg|[[Coat of arms of England|Arms]] of the [[Kingdom of England]], 1558-1603.
File:Arms of Ireland (Historical).svg|[[Coat of arms of Ireland|Arms]] of the [[Kingdom of Ireland]], 1541-1603.
File:Royal Arms of the Kingdom of Scotland (1603-1707).svg|Arms of the Kingdom of Scotland, 1603-1707.
File:Royal Arms of England (1603-1707).svg|Arms of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland, 1603-1707.
File:Flag of Scotland.svg|The [[Flag of Scotland|flag]] of the Kingdom of Scotland.
File:Flag of England.svg|The [[Flag of England|flag]] of the Kingdom of England.
File:Union Jack 1606 Scotland.svg|[[Scottish Union Flag|Union Flag]] used in the Kingdom of Scotland from the early 17th century to 1707.
File:Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg|[[Union Flag]] used in the Kingdom of England from 1606-1707.
File:Union of the Crowns Royal Badge.svg|The [[Tudor rose]] [[Dimidiation|dimidiated]] with the [[Scottish thistle]], James used this device as a [[Heraldic badge]].
</gallery>
</center>

==British==
{{main|Britishness}}
James did not create a [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British Crown]] but he did, in one sense at least, create the British as a distinct group of people. In 1607 large tracts of land in [[Ulster]] fell to the crown.  A new [[Plantation (settlement or colony)|plantation]] was started, made up of Protestant settlers from Scotland and England (and Wales), mostly from the [[Border country]] (the “middle shires” between the [[Firth of Clyde]] and the [[Mersey Estuary]]), with a minority from [[Bristol]] and [[London]].  Over the years the settlers, surrounded by the hostile Catholic Irish, gradually cast off their separate English/Welsh and Scottish roots, becoming [[Great Britain|British]] in the process, as a means of emphasising their ‘otherness’ from their Gaelic neighbours (Marshall, T., p.&nbsp;31). It was the one corner of the United Kingdom where Britishness became truly meaningful as a political and cultural identity in its own right, as opposed to a gloss on older and deeper national associations.

Though, over time, Britishness also took some root in England (and Wales) and Scotland – especially in the days of [[British Empire|Empire]] – by and large people were English/Welsh or Scottish first, and British second.  In Northern Ireland the Protestant communities were to be British first, second and last.  It was James's most enduring – and troublesome – legacy.

==Success of the union==
In many ways the problems of the dynastic union between England and Scotland were little different from those engendered by similar experiments elsewhere in Europe: the case of [[Kingdom of Aragon|Aragon]] and [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]] might be compared, as does the temporary union of [[Sweden]] and [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Poland]] (see [[Polish-Swedish union]]).  Unions of this kind can be made to work, but they take time to bed down.  In the end the union of Scotland and England was to be successful but it was never a marriage of equals.  James promised that he would return to his ancient kingdom every three years. In the end he came back only once &mdash; in 1617 &mdash; and even then his English councillors pleaded with him to remain in London.  Scotland, up to the full parliamentary Union of 1707, may have retained its institutional independence, but it lost control of vital areas of policy, most notably foreign relations, which remained the prerogative of the crown.  This meant, in practice, that policy matters were inevitably tied to English rather than Scottish interests.  A case in point was the Dutch Wars of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]], which took Scotland to war with its strongest trading partner, though no Scottish interest was served and none threatened.  The failure of Scotland's attempts to establish overseas trading colonies, firstly in [[Nova Scotia]] then later in the [[Isthmus of Panama]], (under the ill-fated [[Darien scheme]]), were also in part due to the priority given to English interests over those of Scotland by the sovereign. James's imperial crown over time diminished in size and scope, so much so that in 1616 he was to admit openly in the [[Star Chamber]] that his intention 'was always to effect union by uniting Scotland to England, and not England to Scotland.'  Years later [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]], the first true British monarch, was to describe the Scots as 'a strange people' and told her first parliament that she knew her heart 'to be entirely English.'  It was to be [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]] &mdash; a scion of the German [[House of Hanover]] &mdash; who recaptured something of the old spirit of King James of 1603 when he declared his pride 'in the name of Briton.'

==See also==
*[[Jacobean debate on the Union]]

==Notes==
{{Cleanup-bare URLs|date=May 2012}}
{{Reflist}}

==References and further reading==
*{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Keith M.|title=Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603|editor=in Roger A. Mason (ed.),|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=0-521-42034-2|chapter=The vanishing emperor: British kingship and its decline, 1603-1707}}
*Croft, Pauline (2003). ''King James.'' Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-61395-3.
*{{cite book|last=Ferguson|first=William|title=Scotland's Relations with England: A Survey to 1707|year=1977|publisher=J. Donald|location=Edinburgh|isbn=0-85976-022-7}}
*{{cite book|last=Galloway|first=Bruce|title=The Union of England and Scotland, 1603-1608|year=1986|publisher=J. Donald|location=Edinburgh|isbn=0-85976-143-6}}
*Galloway, Bruce, & Levack, Brian, ed., (1985) ''The Jacobean Union, Six tracts of 1604'', Edinburgh, Scottish History Society. ISBN 0-906245-06-0
*{{cite book|last=Lee|first=Maurice, Jr.|title=The "Inevitable" Union and Other Essays on Early Modern Scotland|year=2003|publisher=Tuckwell Press|location=East Linton, East Lothian|isbn=1-86232-107-8}}
*{{cite journal|last=Marshall|first=T.|title=United We Stand?|journal=BBC History magazine|year=2005|month=July}}
*{{cite book|last=Mason|first=Roger A. (ed.)|title=Scotland and England, 1286-1815|year=1987|publisher=J. Donald|location=Edinburgh|isbn=0-85976-177-0}}
*{{cite book|last=Stewart|first=Alan|title=The Cradle King: A Life of James VI and I|year=2003|publisher=Chatto & Windus|location=London|isbn=0-7011-6984-2}}
*Willson, David Harris ([1956] 1963 ed). ''King James VI & 1.'' London: Jonathan Cape Ltd. ISBN 0-224-60572-0.
*Wormald, Jenny (1994). "The Union of 1603", in ''Scots and Britons'', op cit.

==External links==
*[http://uotc.scran.ac.uk/ Union of the Crowns 400th anniversary educational website]
*[http://www.ulsterscotsagency.com/sitefiles/resources/1603.doc Ulster-Scots Agency: 1603 — The Union of the Crowns] (.doc format)

[[Category:British monarchy]]
[[Category:History of Great Britain]]
[[Category:1603 in England]]
[[Category:1603 in Scotland]]
[[Category:Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:England–Scotland relations]]
[[Category:British unionism]]

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