Anglo-Scottish Union and the War of the Spanish Succession

Abstract

At first reading, there is a clear diplomatic symmetry between the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707 and the War of the Spanish Succession. Initial talks for Union under Queen Anne commenced after her accession and the out-break of the War in 1702. The Union was accomplished in the midst of the War. Scottish peers and MPs commenced proceedings in the British Parliament to terminate the Union as peace was being negotiated at Utrecht in 1713. The War of the Spanish Succession, just as its predecessor the Nine Years’ War of 1688–1697, placed England in direct opposition to France under Louis XIV. Scotland yet again appeared to offer a backdoor for a French invasion of England, especially as Louis XIV favoured the restoration of the exiled house of Stuart. James VII and II had been relieved of the common monarchy of Scotland, England, and Ireland at the Revolution of 1688— 1691 for his professed Roman Catholicism and his authoritarian reliance on the prerogative powers of the crown rather than working with or through parliaments. His son-in-law, William of Orange and his daughter Mary had succeeded him. On his death in 1701, his son James VIII and III was recognised by Louis XIV as the legitimate Jacobite claimant to the three kingdoms. However, the English Parliament had that same year already determined unilaterally on the succession. On the death of William’s designated heir, his sister-in-law Anne, the common monarchy would be settled on the German house of Hanover as her nearest Protestant heirs.