The 24th of March, 2003 marked the 400th anniversary of an amazing diplomatic occurence, the union of the crowns of

England and Scotland. This was an event that had its roots in the end of the English War of the Roses and it brought to an

end hundreds of years of raids, attacks and open warfare and led to the creation of the modern nation of Britain.

Open Warfare

England and Scotland were first united under one crown when Edward the First of England invaded at the end of the

thirteenth century. However this did not last long due to the Scots not being terribly impressed and Edward's son (Edward II) was driven out after 1314 and the Battle of Bannockburn. From then on the two nations

sniped at each other through out the centuries, with the Scots making a treaty with the French to try and contain England.



In 1485 Henry Tudor became Henry VII of England at the end of the Civil War known as the War of the Roses. He fancied

himself as a bit of a foreign policy master and negotiated peace treaties with both France and Scotland which included

marriages of his children, His son (the future Henry VIII) married the French Catherine of Aragon and his daughter

Margaret married James IV of Scotland as part of the "Treaty of Perpetual Peace". Within ten years England and France had

gone to war again and Scotland, honouring the Auld Alliance with France, invaded England, shattering the peace once more.

This invasion was ill fated and James IV died at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. However, by this point he had had a son,

James V.

Rough Wooing

Scotland, for the rest of the century was a pretty turbulent place, as James V was only a child when he came to the throne

and, when he died in 1542 his daughter, now Mary Queen of Scots had just been born. Henry VIII of England took this

opportunity to try and force Scotland to follow his lead and break from the Church of Rome by forcing the young Queen to

marry his son (the later Edward VI) and so unite the two crowns under English terms. However the Scots refused and Henry

replied with border raids, known as "The Rough Wooing". This didn't work though and Mary eventually married the French

Dauphin. She moved to France and all was set for a union of France and Scotland. However the Dauphin died young and Mary

returned to Scotland, Queen of only Scotland. At this time the Reformation was taking hold in Scotland and Mary, a

Catholic, was distrusted. Eventually, after giving birth to a son, James, she was forced to abdicate and she eventually

escaped to England and her cousin, Elizabeth I, Henry VIII's daughter and the niece of the Princess Margaret who had been

married to James IV.*

Elizabeth was Queen of England for forty five years, yet never married or had children. There were many reasons for this,

including her attempting to stear a course through international diplomacy and her wish to narow down the number of

possible claimants who might try to depose her. As it was, there was Mary, Queen of scots, through her aunt and two Grey

sisters, sisters of Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Day Queen. However, all of them pre-deceased

Elizabeth, leaving only one heir if things continued as they were.

James VI

James was declared King of Scotland in 1567 when only thirteen months of age and was brought up by his mothers enemies as

a commited Protestant. This led to one of his first acts, when taking over the day to day running of the country, being to

agree a treaty with England* and to him keeping quiet when

Elizabeth signed Mary's death warrant.
As Elizabeth had never married, and so still had no heir James VI became that heir apparent, although nothing was ever

officially stated. So James kept his head down, was a good Protestant and produced some heir's of his own. And, in 1603,

Queen Elizabeth Tudor of England died and James became King.
The Union of the Crown's of England and Scotland had come about, with no fighting. James left Scotland, promising to

return every three years, and travelled south, hailed by many, distrusted by a few and was crowned as James I of England,

Ireland and France* at Westminster Abbey on 25th of July,

1603, while sitting on the Stone of Destiny. And so was the United Kingdom of Great Britain

created, at least as regards the monarchy, the two countries still had seperate parliaments.

And After

James' reign saw a consolidation of the Protestant religion, he commisioned the King James translation of the Bible into

English, and the final end of any hope for a Catholic revival, the Gunpowder Plot happened in

1605. It also saw a movement of the rule of Scotland to London, James only returned north of the border once, which

culminated in the Union of the Parliaments in 1707. However, James' theories on the Divine Right of Kings also directly

led to Charles I's quarrel with the English parliament and the Civil Wars of the seventeenth

century.