The Stuarts

Clare Jackson looks at James VI and I's attempts to unite Scotland and England under the umbrella of his crown and persuade his subjects to feel more 'British'.

Dr Clare Jackson reveals how the unprecedented religious violence of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms shaped the very DNA of British political culture and how the trauma suffered shaped subsequent constitutional crises in the years to come.

The final, dramatic act of the Stuart century saw the Stuarts fatally divided by religion: brother versus brother, and two daughters supporting the overthrow of their father. After Charles II's brother, the Catholic James VII and II, was deposed by protestant William of Orange in 1688, Britain became a constitutional monarchy. However, the so-called 1688 'Glorious Revolution' came at a price, as Scotland lost her sovereignty and became part of Great Britain in 1707, whilst Ireland had been reduced from a kingdom to a colony. The politics of resentment has continued to trouble Ireland until the present day.