The story of modern Britain began 300 years ago, with the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland in 1707. In this fresh and challenging look at the origins of the United Kingdom, Michael Fry focuses on the years which led up to the Union, setting the political history of both countries against the backdrop of war in Europe and the emergence of imperialism.
In comparing the fate of Scotland with that of other small nations he reconstructs the human as well as the political story – in the voices of the people, in plots and conspiracies, in reports from battlefields and in the impassioned debates of the Scots Parliament. In doing so he rejects the long-held assumption that the economy was of overwhelming importance in the Scots’ acceptance of the terms of the Treaty, showing how they were in fact able to exploit English ignorance of and indifference to Scotland – as evident now as it was then – to steer the settlement in their own favour. Thus the future of Scotland, England and Britain remained open, not closed. The implications of this, Fry argues, have influenced the dynamics of the Union ever since, and are only being fully worked out in our own time.
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