Union of the Crowns

House of Stuart

James VI of Scotland

1567 – 1603

36yrs

James I (James VI of Scotland) – son of Mary Queen of Scots. The Jacobean era.

24^th Mar 1603 – 27 Mar 1625

22yrs 4days

He was born on 19^th June 1566 and as eldest son and heir apparent automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Great Steward of Scotland. James was a first cousin twice removed of Elizabeth I – he was linked to the Tudors via his great grandmother Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry VII wife of James IV of Scotland. In 1604 he had the title King of Great Britain – this was the Union of the Crowns – the two parliaments remained separate till 1707 and the Acts of Union. In 1605.

He based himself in England returning to Scotland only once in 1617. During his reign colonisation of the Americas began with the establishment of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 and Cuper’s Cove, Newfoundland in 1610. He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but not so in England. He maintained peace with Spain throughout his reign. He married Anne of Denmark and had 3 children, Henry who died aged 18, Elizabeth who became queen of Bohemia and Charles who succeeded him.

James initially believed in witchcraft and personally supervised the torture of some women. He did become more sceptical.

The clans were often at loggerheads with each other and the people of the Hebrides were portrayed as lawless barbarians. The Statutes of Iona were enacted in 1609, which required clan chiefs to provide support for Protestant ministers to Highland parishes; to outlaw bards; to report regularly to Edinburgh to answer for their actions; and to send their heirs to Lowland Scotland, to be educated in English-speaking Protestant schools. This started the process to eradicate the Gaelic language and the destruction of its traditional culture. In the Northern Isles, James's cousin Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney, resisted the Statutes of Iona and was consequently imprisoned. His son Robert led an unsuccessful rebellion against James, and the Earl and his son were hanged. Their estates were forfeited, and the Orkney and Shetland islands were annexed to the Crown.

Despite the smoothness of his succession there were two conspiracies against him in the first year. Sir Walter Raleigh was implicated, tried, convicted and held in the Tower of London for 13 yrs. He was beheaded on 29^th October 1618. He was allowed to inspect the fateful axe and commented “This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases and miseries. One of the judges at his trial later said: "The justice of England has never been so degraded and injured as by the condemnation of the honourable Sir Walter Raleigh.

James was ambitious to build a single country under one monarch, one parliament and one law however both realms opposed the idea. A dissident catholic, Guy Fawkes, tried to blow up Parliament House on the state opening of the second session of James first English Parliament. Fawkes was discovered on the evening of 5^th November 1605 and this has become known as the Gunpower Plot. James often neglected the business of government for leisure pastimes; his later dependence on favourites at a scandal-ridden court undermined the respected image of monarchy so carefully constructed by Elizabeth I. James had close relationships with male courtiers which led some biographers to conclude that Esme Stewart, Duke of Lennox, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham were his lovers.

Historians have mixed views on James - the stability of James's government in Scotland and in the early part of his English reign, as well as his relatively enlightened views on religion and war, have earned him a re-evaluation from many historians.

Charles I

27^th Mar 1625 – 30^th Jan 1649

23yrs 310days

Charles married Henrietta Maria of France shortly after his succession in 1625. Charles quarrelled with the English Parliament, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. He believed in the divine right of kings, and was determined to govern according to his own conscience. He levied taxes without parliamentary consent which was perceived as actions of a tyrannical absolute monarch. His religious policies, coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic, generated mistrust from religious groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters. He failed to aid continental Protestant forces during the Thirty Years' War. His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops' Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments, and helped precipitate his own downfall.

Covenanters were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name is derived from covenant, a biblical term for a bond or agreement with God.

After the execution of Charles I in January 1649 England was ruled by Parliament for 4 yrs during which time it was known as the Commonwealth of England. In 1653 Oliver Cromwell forcibly took control and dissolved Parliament and took the title Lord Protector. He named his son Richard as his successor. Richard was forcibly removed in May 1659. After a year of anarchy Charles II returned from France to accept the throne.

Charles II

29^th May 1660 – 6^th Feb 1685

24yrs 254days

Charles promised to rule in cooperation with Parliament. In 1670 Charles entered into the Treaty of Dover, whereby Louis XIV of France would pay him £160,000 each year. In exchange, Charles agreed to supply Louis with troops and to announce his conversion to Catholicism "as soon as the welfare of his kingdom will permit". Louis was to provide him with 6,000 troops to suppress those who opposed the conversion. Charles endeavoured to ensure that the Treaty—especially the conversion clause—remained secret. It remains unclear if Charles ever seriously intended to convert. He attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. Two memorable events during his reign were the Great Plague of London in 1665/66 resulting in up to 7000 deaths per week and the Great Fire which started on 2^nd September 1666 in Pudding Lane destroying 13200 houses, 87 churches and St Paul’s Cathedral.

Charles was very interested in science and in 1660 granted a Royal Charter for the creation of the Royal Society to conduct experiments in physics and mathematics. In a series of five charters, Charles granted the East India Company the rights to autonomous government of its territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops, to form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over its possessions in the Indies. In 1670, Charles granted control of the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin to the Hudson's Bay Company and named the territory Rupert's Land, after his cousin Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the company's first governor.

As Charles was childless the heir presumptive was his Catholic brother James. Charles agreed that James’s daughter Mary should marry the Protestant William of Orange. In 1679 the Exclusion Bill was introduced which sought to exclude James, Duke of York, from the line of succession. Charles's opposition to the Exclusion Bill angered some Protestants and led to a plot have him and his brother James assassinated. James died on 6^th February 1685 possibly due to kidney damage induced by experimenting with mercury. He had a dozen illegitimate children by seven mistresses (one of whom was Nell Gwyn). His nickname was "Old Rowley", the name of his favourite racehorse, notable as a stallion. Charles's subjects resented paying taxes that were spent on his mistresses and their children, many of whom received dukedoms or earldoms. Charles's eldest illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, led a rebellion against James II, but was defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, captured and executed. James was eventually dethroned in 1688, in the course of the Glorious Revolution.

James II King of England and Ireland and James VII King of Scotland

6^th Feb 1685 – 23^rd Dec 1688

3yrs 321days

He was the last Catholic monarch. His reign was bedevilled by conflicts over religious tolerance, principles of absolutism and the divine right of Kings. His deposition confirmed the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown. James was ousted by Parliament and his daughter Mary and her husband William were elected co-regents in the Glorious Revolution.

He ascended the throne with widespread support in all three countries, largely because the principles of eligibility based on divine right and birth were widely accepted. Tolerance of his personal Catholicism did not extend to tolerance of Catholicism in general. The birth of James's son and heir James Francis Edward Stuart raised the prospect of establishing a Catholic dynasty excluding his Anglican daughter Mary and her Protestant husband William III, Prince of Orange, from the line of succession. The prosecution of the Seven Bishops for was viewed as further evidence of an assault on the Church of England, and their acquittal destroyed his political authority in England. The ensuing anti-Catholic riots in England and Scotland led to a general feeling that only James's removal from the throne could prevent a civil war. William and Mary were invited to take the throne and when he landed in England James’s army deserted and he went into exile in France 23^rd December 1688. William had arrived with a fleet of 463 ships and 40,000 men. This is the last successful invasion of England by force of arms.

A special Convention Parliament decided that James had "vacated" the English throne and installed William and Mary as joint monarchs. This established the principle that sovereignty derived from Parliament, not birth. James landed in Ireland on 14 March 1689 in an attempt to recover his kingdoms, but, despite a simultaneous rising in Scotland, a Scottish Convention also found that James had "forfeited" the throne and offered it to William and Mary. After his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, James returned to France, where he spent the rest of his life in exile at Saint-Germain, protected by Louis XIV. 

Houses of Stuart and Orange

Mary II & William III – William of Orange

13^th Feb 1689 – 8^th Mar 1702

13yrs 24days

Mary was the protestant daughter of James II son of Charles I. William’s mother was Mary, Princess Royal, the daughter of Charles I. This made William III and Mary II cousins. Mary II died in 1694 of smallpox. William ruled alone until his death in 1702. They had no children so Mary’s younger sister Anne became Queen of England, Ireland and Scotland. Anne had 17 pregnancies, only 5 were live births and none survived till adulthood the last one dying in 1700 aged 11. As Anne was unlikely to have an heir this could lead to a restoration of James II line. Anne was last person remaining in the line of succession established in the 1689 Bill of Rights. The English Parliament passed the Act of Settlement in 1701 which provided a distant relative, Sophia, Electress of Hanover (a granddaughter of James I) and her Protestant heirs to ascend to the throne and also disbarred Catholics. Sophia died 2 months before Queen Anne who died childless. Sophia’s son George became George I and began the Hanoverian dynasty.

A significant minority refused to accept William and Mary’s claim to the throne, instead maintaining belief in the divine right of Kings and it was not delegated by Parliament. Over the next 57 years Jacobite’s press for the restoration of James and his heirs.

Anne

8^th Mar 1702 – 1^st Aug 1714

12yrs 147days

Anne was the daughter of James II. She was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 8^th March 1702 till 1^st May 1707. Under the Acts of Union in 1707 the Kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain. She continued as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland till her death in 1714.