Kingdom of Great Britain - Political Structure

Political Structure

The kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until the Acts of Union came into effect in 1707. However, they had come into personal union in 1603, when James VI of Scotland succeeded his cousin Elizabeth I as King of England (under the name of James I). This Union of the Crowns under the House of Stuart meant that the whole of the island of Great Britain was now ruled by a single monarch, who by virtue of the English crown also ruled over the Kingdom of Ireland. Each of the kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws (although there was a brief attempted union during the Interregnum in the mid-17th century).

This disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. (However, Ireland remained formally separate until the Acts of Union 1801.) The Treaty of Union provided that succession to the British throne (and that of Ireland) would be in accordance with the English Act of Settlement; rather than Scotland's Act of Security, which thus ceased to have effect. The Act of Settlement required that the heir to the English throne be a Protestant descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover; this brought about the Hanoverian succession only a few years after the Union.

Legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which formally replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. However, the new body was in practice a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the same location in Westminster, albeit expanded to include representation from Scotland.

As with the former Parliament of England and the modern-day Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Parliament of Great Britain was formally constituted of three elements: the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Crown. The right of the English peerage to sit in the House of Lords remained unchanged, while the disproportionately large Scottish peerage was only permitted to send sixteen representative peers, elected from amongst their number for the life of each parliament. Similarly, the members of the former English House of Commons continued as members of the British House of Commons, but (as a reflection of the relative tax bases of the two countries) the number of Scottish representatives was reduced to forty-five compared to their previous numbers at the Scottish parliament. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were also given an automatic right to sit in the Lords.

Despite the end of a separate parliament for Scotland, however, the country retained its own laws and system of courts after the Union.