The thrones of England and Scotland were united on this day in 1603. This took place at the moment when English queen Elizabeth I was succeeded by her cousin, Scottish king James I from the Stuart dynasty. The two thrones have remained under the same person to this day and it is very unlikely that they will be separated again in the future. Therefore, there have not been separate English and Scottish kings and queens for over 400 years.
Scottish king James I succeeded the English throne since he was a descendant of English king Henry VII (father of Henry VIII and grandfather of Elizabeth I) through the female line. He was also the first member of the Scottish Stuart dynasty to rule England. During the first 100 or so years of the union, Scotland and England had separate parliaments. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Scots lost their separate parliament because, from that moment on, there has existed only a single parliament for the entire Great Britain, in London. It was only in 1998 that the Scots received their parliament again. It meets in Holyrood near Edinburgh.
