The Union of the Crowns was the accession of James VI of Scotland to the thrones of England and Ireland as James I on 24 March 1603, and the consequent formation of a personal union between the Kingdo
Margaret Tudor
James in the year of his coronation in England, 1603
"England and Scotland with Minerva and Love" Allegorical work of the Union of the Crowns by Peter Paul Rubens
Arms of James VI and I in Edinburgh Castle, giving the Scottish elements precedence
The Acts of Union refer to two acts of Parliament, one by the Parliament of Scotland in March 1707, followed shortly thereafter by an equivalent act of the Parliament of England. They put into effect
Union of the Crowns
…Elizabeth I of England, the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. England, Scotland, and Ireland remained separate states with separate parliaments until the Acts of Union of 1707 united England and Scotland into a unitary Kingdom of Great Britain; Ireland retained a legally separate Crown and Parliament, albeit as a practical…
Cromwell at Dunbar by Andrew Carrick Gow. Scotland was incorporated into the Commonwealth after defeat in the 1650–1652 Anglo-Scots War.
18th-century French illustration of an opening of the Scottish Parliament
Portrait of John Smith by Godfrey Kneller, 1708. Smith was one of the commissioners who negotiated the union and was Speaker of the House of Commons in the new united parliament. He is shown by Kneller holding a copy of the Act of Union.