Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:55:16.662Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - From the Anglo-Scottish Union to the Union with Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

W. A. Speck
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Get access

Summary

The Union of England with Scotland in 1707 which brought Great Britain into constitutional existence was more of a shotgun marriage than the consummation of a long-standing love affair. On the eve of the Act as it was called in the southern kingdom, or Treaty as it was known in the northern, relations between the two were in fact deteriorating. Although both rejected James VII and II in 1689, and accepted William and Mary, the consequences of the Glorious Revolution caused friction between them. The main problem as far as most Scots were concerned was that they were caught up in the wars against France to which William committed his new realms. Scotland became one of the cockpits of conflict, for the Stuarts retained much more active support there than they could command in England. The Jacobites, as the supporters of the exiled James and his son James Edward were known, defeated Williamite troops at the battle of Killiecrankie in August 1689, but their leader, James Graham of Claverhouse, died in the action. Though government forces won at Dunkeld later the same year, their victory only obtained a sullen and uneasy peace in Scotland. The massacre of the Macdonalds at Glencoe for tardiness in taking the oaths of allegiance was intended to teach Scots inclined to follow them in their defiance that the government would not tolerate even token resistance.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×