The Acts of Union create the Kingdom of Great Britain
On this day · 1 May 1707
On a single spring day in 1707, two ancient rival crowns dissolved their separate parliaments to become one new kingdom.
On 1 May 1707, the Acts of Union came into force, merging the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland into one state named Great Britain. The very first article of the agreement was emphatic: the two realms “shall be united into one kingdom.”
The union was no sudden stroke. England and Scotland had shared a monarch since 1603, but kept separate parliaments. The Treaty of Union, settled in 1706, was ratified by the Parliament of Scotland in January 1707 and received royal assent in March. Scotland’s own parliament voted itself out of existence, swayed by trade access to England’s empire and the settlement of crushing public debts.
On 1 May 1707, the two kingdoms of Scotland and England shall be united into one kingdom.
The new realm shared a single Parliament at Westminster, a common flag combining the crosses of St Andrew and St George, and Queen Anne as sovereign. Scots law and the church were preserved. The framework forged that day still underpins the modern United Kingdom.
Sources & references
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