Book contents
- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom
- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors’ Preface
- 1 The Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England (450–1066)
- 2 England after the Conquest
- 3 England in the Thirteenth Century
- 4 England in the Fourteenth Century
- 5 England in the Fifteenth Century
- 6 England in the Sixteenth Century
- 7 The English Constitution in the Seventeenth Century
- 8 A European Perspective
- 9 Wales before Annexation
- 10 The Scottish Constitution before 1707
- 11 The Eighteenth-Century Constitution
- 12 The Constitutional and Parliamentary History of Ireland till the Union
- 13 The United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century
- 14 The United Kingdom in the Twentieth Century
- 15 The Twenty-First-Century Constitution
- 16 Wales since the Annexation
- 17 Scotland in the Union
- 18 Ireland in the Union
- 19 The Making of Empire
- 20 Constitution and Empire
- Index
17 - Scotland in the Union
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2023
- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom
- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors’ Preface
- 1 The Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England (450–1066)
- 2 England after the Conquest
- 3 England in the Thirteenth Century
- 4 England in the Fourteenth Century
- 5 England in the Fifteenth Century
- 6 England in the Sixteenth Century
- 7 The English Constitution in the Seventeenth Century
- 8 A European Perspective
- 9 Wales before Annexation
- 10 The Scottish Constitution before 1707
- 11 The Eighteenth-Century Constitution
- 12 The Constitutional and Parliamentary History of Ireland till the Union
- 13 The United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century
- 14 The United Kingdom in the Twentieth Century
- 15 The Twenty-First-Century Constitution
- 16 Wales since the Annexation
- 17 Scotland in the Union
- 18 Ireland in the Union
- 19 The Making of Empire
- 20 Constitution and Empire
- Index
Summary
The constitutional union between England and Scotland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and is central to our understanding of the nature of the British state today. It was a union long in the making, unveiling itself in two significant moments one century apart: the union of crowns in 1603 and of parliaments in 1707. These moments of union, which were indeed constitutional rather than merely political in nature, both signalled and helped to maintain over the following centuries, albeit in subtle ways, plural patterns of nationhood beneath the veneer of unitary statehood. The United Kingdom, which also includes Northern Ireland, that troubled relic of the Acts of Union with Ireland of 1801, has in recent times been called plurinational;1 but this is no more than a recognition of the plural national fact that has characterised the social nature of the state from its inception, albeit that the political salience of its multinational character has only in recent times come to the fore.
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- The Cambridge Constitutional History of the United Kingdom , pp. 422 - 442Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023