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The Treaty of Union is the name given to the agreement that led to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the political union
Political union

A political union is a type of state which is composed of or created out of smaller states. Unlike a personal union, the individual states share a common government and the union is recognized internationally as a single political entity....
 of England (including Wales) and Scotland, that took effect on 1 May 1707. The details of the Treaty were agreed on 22 July 1706, leading to Acts of Union
Acts of Union 1707

The Acts of Union were a pair of Act of Parliament passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England to put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706, following negotiation between commissioners representing the parliaments of the two countries....
 being passed by the separate parliaments of England
Parliament of England

The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. Its roots can be traced back to the early medieval period. In a series of developments, it came increasingly to constrain the power of the King of England, and went on after the Act of Union 1707 to merge with the Parliament of Scotland and form the main basis of the Pa...
 and Scotland
Parliament of Scotland

The Parliament of Scotland, officially the Estates of Parliament, was the legislature of the Independence Kingdom of Scotland.The unicameral parliament of Scotland is first found on record during the early thirteenth century, and the first meeting for which reliable evidence survives was at Kirkliston in 1235, during the reign of A...
.

The idea of uniting the two sovereign states had been around since the Union of the Crowns
Union of the Crowns

The Union of the Crowns was the accession of James VI, King of Scots, to the throne of Kingdom of England, thus uniting Scotland and England under one monarch....
 in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne from his aunt, Queen Elizabeth I.






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The Treaty of Union is the name given to the agreement that led to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the political union
Political union

A political union is a type of state which is composed of or created out of smaller states. Unlike a personal union, the individual states share a common government and the union is recognized internationally as a single political entity....
 of England (including Wales) and Scotland, that took effect on 1 May 1707. The details of the Treaty were agreed on 22 July 1706, leading to Acts of Union
Acts of Union 1707

The Acts of Union were a pair of Act of Parliament passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England to put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706, following negotiation between commissioners representing the parliaments of the two countries....
 being passed by the separate parliaments of England
Parliament of England

The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. Its roots can be traced back to the early medieval period. In a series of developments, it came increasingly to constrain the power of the King of England, and went on after the Act of Union 1707 to merge with the Parliament of Scotland and form the main basis of the Pa...
 and Scotland
Parliament of Scotland

The Parliament of Scotland, officially the Estates of Parliament, was the legislature of the Independence Kingdom of Scotland.The unicameral parliament of Scotland is first found on record during the early thirteenth century, and the first meeting for which reliable evidence survives was at Kirkliston in 1235, during the reign of A...
.

The idea of uniting the two sovereign states had been around since the Union of the Crowns
Union of the Crowns

The Union of the Crowns was the accession of James VI, King of Scots, to the throne of Kingdom of England, thus uniting Scotland and England under one monarch....
 in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne from his aunt, Queen Elizabeth I. Three previous attempts to unite the two countries by Acts of Parliament, in 1606, 1667, and 1689 were unsuccessful, though the political and economic circumstances at the start of the 18th century were such that the political establishments supported the idea, though it was deeply unpopular among the Scottish population at large.

Details of the Treaty

The Treaty consisted of 25 articles.

Article 1 provided for the new united Kingdom to be named Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain

The Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a country in North-West Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801....
.

Article 2 provided for the succession of the House of Hanover
House of Hanover

The House of Hanover is a Germanic peoples Royal family dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-L?neburg , the Kingdom of Hanover and the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland....
, and for Protestant succession
Succession to the British Throne

Succession to the British monarchy is governed both by common law and statute. Under common law the crown is passed on by primogeniture. In other words, an individual's male children are preferred over his or her female children, and an older child is preferred over a younger child of the same gender, with children representing their deceas...
 as set out in the English Act of Settlement
Act of Settlement 1701

The Act of Settlement is an act of the Parliament of England, originally filed in 1700, and passed in 1701, to settle the Order of succession to the List of English monarchs on the Electress Sophia of Hanover a granddaughter of James I of England and her Protestantism heirs....
.

Article 3 provide for the creation of the one, unified, parliament of Great Britain
Parliament of Great Britain

The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Act of Union 1707 by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland....
.

Articles 4–18 dealt with aspects of trade, movement, taxes, regulation etc to ensure equal treatment for all subjects
British subject

In British nationality law, the term British subject has at different times had different meanings. The current definition of the term British subject is contained in the British Nationality Act 1981....
 of the new United Kingdom.

Article 19 provided for the continuation of Scotland's separate legal system
Scots law

Scots law is a unique Legal systems of the world with an ancient basis in Roman law. Grounded in Codification Civil law dating back to the Corpus Juris Civilis, it also features elements of common law with Legal institutions of Scotland in the High Middle Ages sources....
.

Article 20 provided for the protection of heritable offices, superiorities, heritable jurisdictions, offices for life, and jurisdictions for life after the union.

Article 21 provided for the protection of the rights of royal burgh
Royal burgh

A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used in many of the former burghs....
s.

Article 22 provided for Scotland representation in the Parliament of Great Britain to be 16 Lords
Representative peer

In the United Kingdom, representative peers were individuals elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to represent them in the British House of Lords....
 and 45 MPs
List of members of the 1st Parliament of Great Britain

This is a list of members of the First Parliament of Great Britain. No election was held for the 1st Parliament of Great Britain, its members being appointed from the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland....
.

Article 23 provided for Scotland's peers to have the same rights as English peers in any trials of peers.

Article 24 provided for the creation of a new Great Seal
Great Seal

The Great Seal might mean:...
 for the United Kingdom, different for the Great Seal of England (but that the English one could be used until it was created.)

Article 25 provides that all laws of either Kingdom that may be inconsistent with the Articles in the Treaty are to be declared void.

External links

  • , the Scottish Parliament
    Scottish Parliament

    The Scottish Parliament is the Devolution national, Unicameralism legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh area of the capital Edinburgh....
  • at the Parliamentary Archives
    Parliamentary Archives

    The Parliamentary Archives of the United Kingdom preserves and makes available to public the records of the House of Lords and House of Commons of the United Kingdom back to 1497, as well as some 200 other collections of Parliamentary interest....
  • courtesy of the National archives of Scotland
    National Archives of Scotland

    Based in Edinburgh, the National Archives of Scotland are the national archives of Scotland. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe....
    , published by the Scottish Council on Archives