| Treaty of Union | |
| Long Name: | An Act for an Union of the Two Kingdoms of England and Scotland |
| Type: | Union Treaty |
| Date Drafted: | 22 April–25 April 1706[1] |
| Location Signed: | Parliament House, Edinburgh, Scotland Palace of Westminster, London, England |
| Date Effective: | 1 May 1707 |
| Negotiators: | |
| Signatories: | |
The Treaty of Union is the name usually now given to the treaty which led to the creation of the new state of Great Britain. The treaty united the Kingdom of England (which already included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland to be "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain".[2] At the time it was more often referred to as the Articles of Union.
The details of the Treaty were agreed on 22 July 1706, and separate Acts of Union were then passed by the parliaments of England and Scotland to put the agreed Articles into effect. The Treaty of Union was eventually passed in the Parliament of Scotland following months of intense debate, with 110 voting in favour for the treaty to 67 against. The passing of the vote has been described as a vote "to end Scotland's independence".[3]
The political union took effect on 1 May 1707, with the Lord Chancellor of Scotland James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater, closing the Parliament of Scotland with the words "there’s ane end of ane auld sang" whilst the church bells of St Giles' Cathedral played the tune Why should I feel so sad on my wedding day?.[4]
Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, died without issue on 24 March 1603, and the throne fell at once (and uncontroversially) to her first cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, a member of the House of Stuart and the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots. By the Union of the Crowns in 1603 he assumed the throne of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland as King James I. This personal union lessened the constant English fears of Scottish cooperation with France in a feared French invasion of England. After this personal union, the new monarch, James I and VI, sought to unite the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England into a state which he referred to as "Great Britain". Nevertheless, Acts of Parliament attempting to unite the two countries failed in 1606, 1667, and 1689.
The 1688 Glorious Revolution angered many in Scotland as a result of the decision made by the Parliament of England to declare that James VII & II had "abandoned his kingdoms". There were feelings of discontent in Scotland, with many seeing the new monarchs William III Mary II as inheriting the Scottish throne without consent which lead to groups in the Scottish Highlands organising resistance, a group which would later become known as the Jacobites.[5]
Beginning in 1698, the Company of Scotland sponsored the Darien scheme, an ill-fated attempt to establish a Scottish trading colony in the Isthmus of Panama, collecting from Scots investments equal to one-quarter of all the money circulating in Scotland at the time.[6] In the face of opposition by English commercial interests, the Company of Scotland also raised subscriptions in Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London for its scheme. For his part, King William III of England and II of Scotland had given only lukewarm support to the Scottish colonial endeavour. England was at war with France, and hence did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory as part of New Granada.
England was also under pressure from the London-based East India Company, which was anxious to maintain its monopoly over English foreign trade. It therefore forced the English and Dutch investors to withdraw. Next, the East India Company threatened legal action, on the grounds that the Scots had no authority from the king to raise funds outside the king's realm, and obliged the promoters to refund subscriptions to the Hamburg investors. This left no source of finance but Scotland itself. The colonisation ended in a military confrontation with the Spanish in 1700, but most colonists died of tropical diseases. This was an economic disaster for the Scottish ruling class investors and diminished the resistance of the Scottish political establishment to the idea of political union with England. It ultimately supported the union, despite some popular opposition and anti-union riots in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and elsewhere.[7] [8] [9]
Deeper political integration had been a key policy of Queen Anne ever since she had acceded to the thrones of the three kingdoms in 1702. Following Anne's succession to the throne, the Parliament of Scotland passed the Act of Security 1704 which stipulated that the Parliament of Scotland had the right to select Anne's successor as monarch, and that Scotland would only agree with an English decision for her successor if Scotland were to be granted full access to English trading markers. This declaration by Scotland sparked uncertainty in England, as there was fear that Scotland would end the Union of Crowns, return the House of Stuart to the throne, and re–establish the "Auld Alliance" with the Kingdom of France. England feared for the vulnerability of its northern border if the Auld Alliance were to be re–established.[10]
Under the aegis of the queen and her ministers in both kingdoms, in 1705 the parliaments of England and Scotland agreed to participate in fresh negotiations for a treaty of union.
It was agreed that England and Scotland would each appoint thirty-one commissioners to conduct the negotiations. The Scottish Parliament then began to arrange an election of the commissioners to negotiate on behalf of Scotland, but in September 1705, the leader of the Country Party, the Duke of Hamilton, who had previously attempted to obstruct the negotiation of a treaty, proposed that the Scottish commissioners should be nominated by the Queen, and this was agreed. In practice, the Scottish commissioners were nominated on the advice of the Duke of Queensberry and the Duke of Argyll.
Of the Scottish commissioners who were subsequently appointed, twenty-nine were members of the governing Court Party, while one was a member of the Squadron Volante. At the head of the list was Queensberry himself, with the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, the Earl of Seafield.[11] George Lockhart of Carnwath, a member of the opposition Cavalier Party, was the only commissioner opposed to union. The thirty-one English commissioners included government ministers and officers of state, such as the Lord High Treasurer, the Earl of Godolphin, the Lord Keeper, Lord Cowper, and a large number of Whigs who supported union. Most Tories in the Parliament of England were not in favour of a union, and only one was among the commissioners.
Negotiations between the English and Scottish commissioners began on 16 April 1706 at the Cockpit-in-Court in London. The sessions opened with speeches from William Cowper, the English Lord Keeper, and from Lord Seafield, the Scottish Lord Chancellor, each describing the significance of the task. The commissioners did not carry out their negotiations face to face, but in separate rooms. They communicated their proposals and counter-proposals to each other in writing, and there was a blackout on news from the negotiations. Each side had its own particular concerns. Within a few days, England gained a guarantee that the Hanoverian dynasty would succeed Queen Anne to the Scottish crown, and Scotland received a guarantee of access to colonial markets, in the hope that they would be placed on an equal footing in terms of trade.[12]
After the negotiations ended on 22 July 1706, acts of parliament were drafted by both parliaments to implement the agreed Articles of Union. The Scottish proponents of union believed that failure to agree to the Articles would result in the imposition of a union under less favourable terms, and English troops were stationed just south of the Scottish border and also in northern Ireland as an "encouragement". Months of fierce debate in both capital cities and throughout both kingdoms followed. In Scotland, the debate on occasion dissolved into civil disorder, most notably involving the notorious "Edinburgh Mob",[13] which threatened "Destruction to all the Promoters of the Union".[14]
As the Scottish Parliament was deliberating on 22 October 1706, the session had to be suspended "because the mob was threatening to break in";[15] although this did not ultimately occur, they subsequently "attacked the house of Sir Patrick Johnston, a commissioner for union and former Lord Provost of Edinburgh."[15] "Troops were brought into the city with orders to shoot if necessary, and several regiments were placed at Queensberry's disposal on the Scottish border and in Ireland in the event of trouble."[16] The prospect of a union of the kingdoms was deeply unpopular among the Scottish population at large, and talk of an uprising was widespread.[17] However, the treaty was signed and the documents were rushed south with a large military escort. Andrew Fletcher, a prominent Scottish patriot, argued that the ratification of the treaty would see Scotland "more like a conquered province".[18]
The Kingdom of Great Britain was established on 1 May 1707, shortly after the parliaments of Scotland and England had ratified the Treaty of Union by each approving Acts of Union combining the two parliaments and the powers of the two crowns. Scotland's crown, sceptre, and sword of state remained at Edinburgh Castle. Queen Anne (already Queen of both England and Scotland) formally became the first occupant of the unified throne of Great Britain, with Scotland sending forty-five members to the new House of Commons of Great Britain, as well as Scottish representative peers to the House of Lords.
Significant financial payoffs to Scottish parliamentarians were later referred to by Robert Burns when he wrote "We're bought and sold for English gold, Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation!"[19] Some recent historians, however, have emphasized the legitimacy of the vote.[20]
Even before the ratification of the treaty, there were feelings of unrest and discontent in Scotland over the proposed union with England, with many in Scotland viewing England as their long–standing enemy.[21] As the details of the treaty began to become known in Scotland, official addresses and outcry began in Scotland with such official addresses being read at the commencement of each session of the Parliament of Scotland, however, had little effect and parliamentary business continued as normal.[22] Many Scots were angered at the apparent ignorance towards Scotland's military engagement with England in order to maintain its independence and status as an "admirably ancient and unconquered kingdom". Opponents to the treaty with England argued that Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland who were negotiating the terms of treaty should respect Scotland's independence and military campaigns to protect it, and reject the treaty.[23]
Many travelled to Parliament House, Edinburgh, the seat of the Parliament of Scotland, to hear the terms of the Treaty of Union, and on 23 October 1706, riots erupted in response to the proposal for higher English customs and excise rates to be imposed on Scotland following the ratification of the treaty. Subsequent riots occurred in Glasgow, and between November and December 1706, crowds gathered in both Dumfries and Stirling to publicly burn copies of the proposed treaty. The Presbyterians who organised the burning of the treaty in Dumfries published a manifesto outlining opposition to a union with England.[24] Over 20,000 Scots signed petitions against the treaty, and thought it had little implications, it did lead to increased tensions in Edinburgh. Those opposing the treaty in the Parliament of Scotland hoped that it would encourage the Government of Scotland to abandon negotiations with Kingdom of England for a political union.[25]
Additionally, many in Scotland feared how Scottish interests, economy, trade and business could be promoted in a parliament which would have an overwhelming majority of MPs representing England. There was also a feeling amongst Scots that English interference in the Company of Scotland lead to the failure of the Darien Scheme, Scotland's attempt to establish a colony.[26] A number of producers and consumers in Scotland were fearful of the economic consequences in Scotland as a result of a union with the Kingdom of England, fearing lack of competition with cheaper English imports and pressure on the Scottish economy as a result of higher levels of English customs and excise rates.[27]
By 1713, the former Lord Chancellor of Scotland, James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater, who was a prominent supporter for the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England had changed his position on the treaty, and unsuccessfully advocated for the treaty to be reversed.[28]
Little is known about the public view in the Kingdom of England either for or against a union with the Kingdom of Scotland, however, it has been speculated that the proposed union was viewed more favourably in England than in Scotland.[29]
It is speculated, however, that the Kingdom of England secured what they had sought from the treaty – a security and guarantee that the House of Hanover dynasty would succeed Queen Anne to the Scottish crown following her reign.[30]
The status of the Treaty or Articles of Union as an international treaty is challenged by T. B. Smith. He argued that the Treaty is better described as a 'record of negotiations' between commissioners and that the Acts of Union 1707 constitute the actual treaty. The Scottish parliamentary debate subsequently amended the document when producing their Act of Union, which can itself be described as an offer of treaty terms.[31]
Smith argues further that this debate is redundant because the obligants under the treaty 'disappeared in 1707' and replaced by a new state, which was not party to a treaty, or combined into a successor state to the Kingdom of England. A treaty requires at least two parties, so it ceased to exist with the Kingdom of Scotland.
This position is rejected by David Walker, who argues that its treaty status is 'amply evidenced' by previous legislation, that the Articles and other legislation refer to it as a "treaty" although in the same article he does agree with Smith that the Kingdom of Scotland ceased to exist after the Acts of Union "ratified by the parliaments of the two uniting states under their domestic laws, so as to put themselves out of existence and create a new sovereign state in lieu".[32]
The Treaty consisted of twenty-five Articles.[33]
The following commissioners were appointed to negotiate the Treaty of Union:[34]
Kingdom of England
Kingdom of Scotland
Both Acts of Union and the Treaty state in Article I: That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon 1 May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN.