Three hundred years since the Act of Union
Three hundred years ago, on 16th January 1707, the Scottish Parliament voted in favour of ratification of the Treaty of Union with England. On 28th April the Scottish Parliament was dissolved by proclamation. Three days later, with the opening of the first session of the new British Parliament, the state of Great Britain formally came into existence. Stan Crooke examines the background and the immediate results of the Act of Union. Earlier proposals for some form of closer union between England and Scotland – in the immediate aftermath of the Union of the Crowns in 1603, and again in 1667,1670...