Union of The Crowns - British

British

James did not create a British Crown but he did, in one sense at least, create the British as a distinct group of people. In 1607 large tracts of land in Ulster fell to the crown. A new Plantation was started, made up of Protestant settlers from Scotland and England (and Wales), mostly from the Border country (the "middle shires" between the Firth of Clyde and the Mersey Estuary), with a minority from Bristol and London. Over the years the settlers, surrounded by the hostile Catholic Irish, gradually cast off their separate English/Welsh and Scottish roots, becoming British in the process, as a means of emphasising their 'otherness' from their Gaelic neighbours (Marshall, T., p. 31). It was the one corner of the United Kingdom where Britishness became truly meaningful as a political and cultural identity in its own right, as opposed to a gloss on older and deeper national associations.

Though, over time, Britishness also took some root in England (and Wales) and Scotland – especially in the days of Empire – by and large people were English/Welsh or Scottish first, and British second. In Northern Ireland the Protestant communities were to be British first, second and last. It was James's most enduring – and troublesome – legacy.