In AD 1603, James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I on the English throne as James I. He was the Protestant son of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. The peaceful accession of the new king was welcomed. The fact that he had two sons meant that there would be none of the uncertainty about the succession generated by Elizabeth’s refusal to marry.

James hoped that the ‘Union of the Crowns’ would lead to a real union of governments. He suggested the name ‘Great Britain’ for the united nation. Unfortunately the proposal met with hostility from his first English parliament of 1604. However, James went ahead and in October proclaimed himself ‘King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith’. Coins were issued bearing the name Great Britain.

Plans for a union of law and government were never accepted by the English parliament. Some mutually hostile laws were repealed in 1607, and a Union flag, created by the College of Arms, was flown by all English ships until 1634. But James had underestimated the resistance to his policy in both of his kingdoms. The full union of the two nations was not to be achieved for another hundred years.