Kingdom of Great Britain

The Kingdom of Great Britain comes into being

Great Britain existed in law before its new Parliament ever met. The legislators did not assemble for nearly six months.

1 May 1707: one kingdom, on schedule

Article I of the Union settlement took effect on 1 May 1707: the previously separate Kingdoms of England and Scotland became one state named Great Britain. Queen Anne, until then queen separately of each, became the single monarch of the new state.

British records and almost all historical accounts use 1 May, the Julian date then in force. Its Gregorian equivalent was 12 May — the same physical day under a different calendar.

A Parliament that did not sit

The settlement provided that Great Britain would be represented by one Parliament of Great Britain, replacing the separate English and Scottish legislatures. It existed legally from 1 May, and did not assemble.

A proclamation of 5 June called it to meet at Westminster on 23 October. Scotland's share of it was 45 members of the Commons and 16 representative peers.

Celebrated in one capital

London marked the Union with Queen Anne's procession and a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral. No official celebration was imposed in Edinburgh.

Nor did the day erase institutional distinctions: Scottish private law, courts and the Presbyterian establishment were specifically preserved. The old Scottish Parliament had last met on 25 March and was formally dissolved before 1 May arrived.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes Date corrected

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date corrected. The research places this at 1707-05-01.

What the sources leave uncertain

British records and almost all historical accounts call the date 1 May 1707, using the Julian calendar then in force. Its Gregorian equivalent was 12 May because eleven days must be added after February 1700.
The ISO date here follows the date used in the act and in British historiography. A database systematically converting pre-1752 British dates to Gregorian could instead label the same physical day 1707-05-12.