Q What happened in Scotland when James VI became king of England and departed for London?

Susan Cunningham, by email

In reality, not very much. The A

death of Elizabeth Tudor and the subsequent accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne (as James I) had long been anticipated. Although Elizabeth refused to name her successor, and there were other potential claimants, James’s descent from the marriage of his great-grandfather James IV to Henry VII’s daughter, Margaret, gave him the most convincing title. His trip from Edinburgh to London in 1603 became something of a triumphal procession, as English relief at an undisputed succession combined with James’s own delight at coming at last into his English inheritance.

As for his native kingdom, in the short term nothing changed. While James initially promoted ideas of a closer Anglo-Scottish union, adopting the title ‘ king of Great Britain’ and inventing a new union flag (the origins of today’s Union Jack), there was little appetite in either Scotland or England for this British agenda.

While there was no longer a royal court in Edinburgh, the Scottish privy council, parliament, church and legal system all remained wholly separate and distinct. From a Scottish perspective, therefore, 1603 marked a union of the crowns, but not the kingdoms. How James and his Stuart successors subsequently managed – or mismanaged – their ‘multiple monarchy’ is another question altogether!