Kingdom of Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1707–1800 | |||||||||||
.svg) Flag
.svg) Royal coat of arms
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Anthem: God Save the King/Queen | |||||||||||
.svg) Map of the kingdom's lands | |||||||||||
| Capital | London | ||||||||||
| Common languages | English (throughout) Welsh (Wales) Scots (Scotland) Scottish Gaelic (Scotland) | ||||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Briton, British | ||||||||||
| Government | Constitutional monarchy | ||||||||||
| Monarch | |||||||||||
• 1707–1714 | Anne | ||||||||||
• 1714–1727 | George I | ||||||||||
• 1727–1760 | George II | ||||||||||
• 1760–1801 | George III | ||||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||||
• 1721–1742 | Robert Walpole | ||||||||||
• 1783–1801 | William Pitt the Younger | ||||||||||
| Legislature | Parliament | ||||||||||
| House of Lords | |||||||||||
| House of Commons | |||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| 1 May 1707 | |||||||||||
| 31 December 1800 | |||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||
| 1801 | 230,977 km2 (89,181 sq mi) | ||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||
• 1801 | 10942646 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Pound sterling | ||||||||||
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1 The royal motto used in Scotland was Latin: Nemo me impune lacessit, lit. 'no-one provokes me with impunity' | |||||||||||
The United Kingdom of Great Britain[1] was a state in the British Isles.[2] The kingdom came into existence because of the Acts of Union 1707.[3] These acts of parliament joined together (unified) the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England.[4] The kingdom's lands were Great Britain (an island in the Atlantic Ocean near Continental Europe) and some other islands in the British Isles. Throughout its existence, the kingdom was in a personal union (sharing the same monarchy) with the Kingdom of Ireland. Outside the British Isles, Great Britain governed other lands and started colonies: the British Empire.
When the kingdom began, the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England joined into one legislature, the Parliament of Great Britain. The parliament met in the old Palace of Westminster in London. London was the capital city and the British government was there. The two earlier kingdoms of Scotland and England had been in a personal union (sharing the same monarchy) since the reign of James VI and I. King James was a King of Scots who became King of England and King of Ireland in 1603 because he inherited the kingdoms of Elizabeth I.
In 1801, by the Act of Union 1800, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland joined together into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the putting down of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
Monarchs[change | change source]
Anne became Queen of England, Queen of Scotland, and Queen of Ireland in 1702. She became Queen of Great Britain when the new kingdom started in 1707. (Ireland was a separate kingdom, so Anne was Queen of Ireland and the later kings of Great Britain were each themselves King of Ireland.) From the start of 1801, during the reign of George III, the two kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
House of Stuart[change | change source]
- Anne (1707–1714)
House of Hanover[change | change source]
- George I (1714–1727)
- George II (1727–1760)
- George III (1760–1801), continued as King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1820.
References[change | change source]
- ↑ Union with England Act 1707 (Scotland), Article 2 ff.
- ↑ Murdoch, Alexander (2007). "England, Scotland, and the Acts of Union (1707)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-96282. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
On 1 May 1707 England and Scotland (since 1603 a union of crowns) became the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain'. The new united kingdom was to be represented by a 'union' flag and governed by a British parliament at Westminster and a shared head of state (with the contentious issue of monarchical succession now settled in favour of the protestant house of Hanover).
- ↑ "Act of Union 1707". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2021-05-01.
The Acts of Union, passed by the English and Scottish Parliaments in 1707, led to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 May of that year. The UK Parliament met for the first time in October 1707.
- ↑ "Act of Union 1707: Key dates". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2021-05-01.
| Preceded by: Kingdom of England c 927–30 April 1707 Kingdom of Scotland c 843–30 April 1707 |
United Kingdom of Great Britain 1 May 1707 – 31 December 1800 |
Succeeded by: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1 January 1801–5 December 1922 |