Kingdom of Great Britain

Great Britain, officially the Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in Western Europe from 1707 to the end of 1800. It was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, which united the Kingdom of England, including Wales, and the Kingdom of Scotland. Together they formed one kingdom covering the whole island of Great Britain and its outlying islands, except the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The unitary state was governed by a single parliament at the Palace of Westminster. However, English law and Scots law stayed in use, and the Church of England and the Church of Scotland remained the national churches of England and Scotland.

The two kingdoms had been in personal union since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when James VI of Scotland became King of England and King of Ireland. James was the first to call himself "king of Great Britain." Since his time, both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland had repeatedly tried and failed to form a political union. Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, did not have a clear Protestant heir. This put the line of succession at risk, because the laws differed in the two kingdoms and could have allowed the Roman Catholic House of Stuart, who had been exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, to return to the throne of Scotland.

The new kingdom was in legislative and personal union with the Kingdom of Ireland from the start. However, the Parliament of Great Britain resisted early attempts to bring Ireland into the political union. The early years were marked by Jacobite risings, especially the Jacobite rising of 1715. The weakness or poor leadership of the Hanoverian kings allowed Parliament's powers to grow. A new role, that of "prime minister", emerged during the time of Robert Walpole. The Jacobitism campaigns ended in defeat for the Stuarts' cause in 1746. The Hanoverian monarchs gave their name to the Georgian era, and the word "Georgian" is typically used in social and political history and for Georgian architecture. The term "Augustan literature" is often used for Augustan drama, Augustan poetry and Augustan prose from 1700 to the 1740s. "Augustan" refers to the influence of classical Latin from the ancient Roman Empire.

Victory in the Seven Years' War led to the dominance of the British Empire, which was to become the foremost global power for over a century. Great Britain dominated the Indian subcontinent through the trading and military expansion of the East India Company in colonial India. In wars against France, it gained control of both Upper and Lower Canada. Until its defeat in the American Revolutionary War, it also ruled the Thirteen Colonies. From 1787, Britain began the colonisation of New South Wales with the departure of the First Fleet, as part of the process of penal transportation to Australia. Britain was a leading belligerent in the French Revolutionary Wars. On 1 January 1801, Great Britain was merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union 1800, which were enacted by Great Britain and Ireland under George III to merge the Kingdom of Ireland into it.

Etymology

Further information: Britain (place name)

The name Britain comes from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons. It came through Old French Bretaigne (which also gave Modern French Bretagne) and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474.

The word "Great" before "Britain" comes from French, which uses Bretagne for both Britain and Brittany. To tell them apart, French calls Britain la Grande Bretagne, and this distinction was carried into English. The Treaty of Union and the later Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain," so "Great Britain" became the official name of the state. The term had already been used in some official settings for a century, such as when Charles I was proclaimed "King of Great Britain" in 1625. The websites of the Scottish Parliament and the BBC refer to the state created on 1 May 1707 as the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Both the Acts and the Treaty describe the country as "One Kingdom" and a "United Kingdom," which led some publications to treat the state as the "United Kingdom." However, more correctly, that term refers to the kingdom including Ireland, which was created in 1801. Bamber Gascoigne has claimed that the term United Kingdom was sometimes used informally during the 18th century to describe the state.

Political structure

Further information: Parliament of Great Britain and History of monarchy in the United Kingdom

England and Scotland were separate kingdoms until 1707, but they came into a personal union in 1603, when James VI of Scotland became king of England as James I. This Union of the Crowns under the House of Stuart meant one monarch ruled the whole island of Great Britain and also the Kingdom of Ireland. Each kingdom kept its own parliament and laws, and smaller islands such as the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands were also under the king. The Acts of Union 1707 then created a single Crown of Great Britain and one parliament. Ireland stayed separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800 took effect. The Union provided for a Protestant-only succession under the English Act of Settlement 1701, rather than Scotland's Act of Security 1704 and the Peace and War Act 1703, which ceased to have effect under the Repeal of Certain Scotch Acts 1707. The heir had to be a descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover and not a Roman Catholic, which led to the Hanoverian succession of George I of Great Britain in 1714.

Lawmaking power belonged to the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice, it continued the English parliament at Westminster, now with Scottish members. Like the modern Parliament of the United Kingdom, it had the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Crown. English peers kept their right to sit in the Lords, while Scottish peers could send only sixteen Scottish representative peers, chosen from among themselves for each parliament. Scotland had 45 seats in the Commons, and newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain could also sit in the Lords. Scotland kept its own laws, courts, established Presbyterian Church, and schools. Its universities and its thinkers in Edinburgh helped create the Scottish Enlightenment, which had a major impact on British, American, and European thinking.

Role of Ireland

Under Poynings' Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was placed under the Parliament of England, and after 1707 under the Parliament of Great Britain. The Declaratory Act 1719 said that the Irish House of Lords had recently taken power to examine and change decisions of Irish courts. It also said that the Kingdom of Ireland depended on the British crown, so the King, through the Parliament of Great Britain, could make laws for Ireland. This Act was later repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782.

In the same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 brought a time of greater freedom to make its own laws. However, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 sought to end Ireland's dependence on the British crown and create a republic. It was one of the factors that led to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.

History

The Kingdom of Great Britain grew out of a plan to bring the kingdoms of England and Scotland closer together under Queen Anne. A Treaty of Union was agreed in 1706, and the Acts of Union took effect on 1 May 1707. Scotland and England each sent members to the new House of Commons of Great Britain. Each country kept its own laws, schools, and Church, but the two countries now formed a larger economy. During the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain worked with the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Empire against King Louis XIV of France. The Treaty of Utrecht gave Britain Newfoundland, Acadia, Gibraltar, and Menorca. After Anne's death, the Whigs came to power under Robert Walpole, who was the first "prime minister." Walpole tried to avoid war and keep taxes low, but he faced criticism. Walpole also led Britain through the South Sea Bubble, a financial crisis in which many people lost fortunes.

Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War left it as the strongest colonial power in the world, and France lost much of its power in North America. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 marked the high point of the First British Empire. Britain's rule over the Thirteen Colonies ended in 1783, after the American Revolutionary War, which began in 1775. Britain then turned its attention to Asia, the Pacific, and later Africa, starting the "second" empire. In 1770, James Cook discovered the eastern coast of Australia, and the First Fleet arrived at the new colony in January 1788. In India, the East India Company gained control of large areas. When the French Revolution began, Britain fought long wars with France, including the Napoleonic Wars. In 1798, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 took place, and the British government under William Pitt the Younger decided that Great Britain and Ireland should be united. The Act of Union 1800 set this up, and Great Britain and Ireland were formally united on 1 January 1801.

Parliament of Great Britain

Main articles: Parliament of Great Britain and Elections in Great Britain

Under the Treaty of Union, the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland were ended and joined into one new Parliament of Great Britain, which was to meet in London. In 1708, the Privy Council of England and the Privy Council of Scotland, which had advised the monarch in each kingdom, were also ended and joined into a new Privy Council of Great Britain.

The Parliament had two parts. The House of Lords was the upper house, and its members were not elected. It included the Lords Spiritual and Temporal. The House of Commons was the lower house and was elected from time to time. In England and Wales, the parliamentary constituencies stayed the same for as long as the Parliament existed.

Monarchs

Further information: History of the monarchy of the United Kingdom

Anne was from the House of Stuart, and the Georges were from the House of Hanover. Before the kingdom was formed, Anne had been Queen of England, Queen of Scots, and Queen of Ireland since 1702.

• Anne, Queen of Great Britain (1707–1714)
• George I of Great Britain (1714–1727)
• George II of Great Britain (1727–1760)
• George III of Great Britain (1760–1800)

George III continued as King of the United Kingdom until his death in 1820.