Scottish independence: Voting under way in referendum

[muriel_volestrangler]

68. Mary Queen of Scots was executed by QE1, but she had been in a plot to overthrow her

Mary was Elizabeth's cousin, and her heir; Mary was Catholic (though over half of the Scots had turned Protestant by that time), and Elizabeth Protestant. There was a rebellion in Scotland against Mary, and she fled to England, where she was a problem - the heir, but Catholic, and Elizabeth didn't want a Catholic successor. So she was locked up; some English Catholics involved her in a plot to overthrow Elizabeth in her favour, which was discovered, and Mary was executed. Her son, James VI, who had been left in Scotland, was brought up Protestant, and was now the heir to Elizabeth in England, and that ended up being acceptable; so he became James I of England (in 1603), and that made the same person monarch of each country; kings and queens of Scotland/England/Great Britain/the UK have all been descended from him. They still had different parliaments, and were separate countries (like, say, Canada and Australia).

Scotland and England had civil wars in the middle of the 17th century, and that at times put the parties in control of each at war with the other country, due to alliances. But after that, there hasn't been an official Scotland v. England war. The parliaments united in 1707, after a Scottish financial disaster (which England did everything to help bring about, admittedly), and then it was one country.

The direct male line from James VI/I, the Stuarts, was denied the crown (that was actually in 1688 - really an English decision, which the Scots went along with, perhaps grudgingly), again, because James VII/II was Catholic, and bringing his son up Catholic. The Protestant Hanoverian royal family, descended from a daughter of James VI/I, were brought in in 1714, and this annoyed some Scots enough to rebel in 1715 - a form of civil war, I suppose (it failed, quickly), but it wasn't Scotland in general - it was only either die-hard supporters of a Stuart monarchy, or Catholics. The same group rebelled in 1745, and the last battle of that rebellion was Culloden in 1746. Again, it was only a section of the Scots - it's often pointed out there were more Scots in the Hanoverian army at the battle than in the Stuart one. That was the last battle on British soil, so before America got independence.

So QE2 really comes from a line that has been monarchs of Scotland for longer than they've been monarchs of England. By default, she'd stay monarch of Scotland. There are some in Scotland who want a republic (more than in England), but trying to combine that with independence would have sunk independence for sure - the middle ground contains a lot of pro-monarchy people (especially pro-QE2 - she has a sky-high personal 'approval rating'; Charles not so much).