England's power and prestige were growing under the Tudors, who ran out of heirs and were compelled to accept personal union with the Scottish Stuart rulers in 1603. Scotland had been twice humiliated by the English on the battlefield in the previous century, at Flodden and Solway Moss, and after their alliance with France proved less useful than they'd hoped had much to gain by the union and Anglo-Scottish relations were further troubled by the beheading of Queen Mary in 1587. However, it was Mary's son James VI who took the English throne as James I following Queen Elizabeth's demise in 1603. England and Scotland had the same king, but for a century to come would still be separate polities with their own laws, currency, Parliament, foreign relations, and armed forces.
The integration of the other polities proved less smooth. Wales was shired by Henry VIII and accepted union with England without complaint, but Ireland proved a barrel of dynamite. The distraction of the English civil wars in the 15th century had allowed Irish chieftains to reassert independence. But beginning in 1541, Henry VIII decided on the reconquest of the Emerald Isle. Although Irish chiefs were granted titles of nobility by London, it meant little when forced Anglicization was still imposed. The Protestant Reformation further aggravated tensions and Ireland erupted in the Nine Years War of 1592-1601. English troops under Lord Mountjoy brutally suppressed the revolt, removing the separation between the Pale of Settlement and Irish lands, abolished Irish law, and began settling English and Scottish colonists on the island. A peaceful 1630s when Anglo-Irish relations were amicable and Ireland enjoyed economic prosperity was horrifically reversed in the following decade when the Irish took advantage of the English civil war to rise in revolt. The revolt was once again brutally crushed in 1649-51 and around 30% of Ireland's population was killed.During the 17th century, England's international prestige further grew as she began to colonize North America beginning with the Jamestown colony in 1607. Jamaica was taken from Spain in 1655 and New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664. After the Navigation Act of 1651, Dutch ships were expected to salute English ones. It was a sign of growing English hubris.
Scotland was embroiled in major political and religious strife. John Knox had founded the Presbyterian Kirk as a harsh Old Testament-style theocracy but the Scottish court chafed at this idea and tried to clip the Kirk's wings. After Knox died in 1572 the Kirk was forced to accept bishops, resulting in continued extremely bad relations between church and state, and in 1610 James I was forced to have three Scottish bishops consecrated by their English counterparts so as to safeguard the apostolic succession. In 1618 he imposed his Five Articles which insisted on several practices such as kneeling at communion. He suspended the Kirk's General Assembly until they agreed to the changes, causing considerable resentment.In 1637 Charles I imposed a modified version of the Anglican liturgy and prayer book by fiat and without mentioning the General Assembly. The liturgy was unveiled that July 23 in Edinburgh and caused a riot. In due course it led to the formation of the Tables, a revolutionary committee of all estates, and in early 1638 to the signing of the Covenant. The members recruited an armed league which vowed to defend its statutes to the bitter end, to protect the Kirk from the King and bishops and Scotland from England. They set up a parliament without royal permission and sent an army across the border into England in August 1640.
And so the brouhaha in Scotland became enmeshed with the long-running feud in England between king and Parliament. The Tudors had been staunch autocrats who reduced Parliament to little more than a body that existed to rubber stamp the crown's edicts, and it was not until the House of Commons won political initiative under James I that Parliament reasserted itself. During the 1630s, when Charles I ruled by fiat, nobody could oppose him but in April 1640, the Scottish civil war forced the king to summon Parliament to ask for money. Charles's attempts to invoke the divine right of kings was countered by Parliamentarians citing the Magna Carta. A Grand Remonstrance charged the king with numerous grievances and abuses of power. His chief minister the Earl of Strafford was impeached by Parliament and Charles had to accept his removal.Ireland now became a factor. Strafford had brutalized the Ulster Protestants almost as severely as his predecessors did to Irish Catholics. He'd begun raising an army in Ireland to use against the rebels in England and Scotland but after leaving the island in June 1641 and leaving unpaid troops behind, a mass uprising started. A Scottish army landed in Ireland to protect their Protestant co-religionists and multi-sided war raged unchecked. Charles then decided to emulate Henry VIII by having troublemaking members of the House of Commons arrested but could not do so; he was forced to go to London and raise a call to arms. The king decided on war, a war that would ultimately result in his death. Not for another 47 years would an acceptable compromise between the crown and Parliament be reached.
fuck the Scots, man
