Search results
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in Northwestern Europe that was established by the union in 1801 of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. The establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 led to the remainder later being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in ...
- Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the...
- Countries of the United Kingdom
Although the United Kingdom is a unitary sovereign country,...
- Ireland–United Kingdom relations
Since at least 1542, England and later Great Britain and...
- United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,...
- Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927. The United Kingdom was formed by the merger of the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a merger of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland) and the Kingdom of Ireland.
- Background
- Formation of The Union
- The "Disuniting" of The United Kingdom
- See Also
- References
England's conquest of Wales
Through internal struggles and dynastic marriage alliances, the Welsh became more united until Owain Gwynedd (1100–1170) became the first Welsh ruler to use the title princeps Wallensium (prince of the Welsh). After invading England, land-hungry Normans started pushing into the relatively weak Welsh Marches, setting up a number of lordships in the eastern part of the country and the border areas. In response, the usually fractious Welsh, who still retained control of the north and west of Wal...
English Conquest of Ireland
By the 12th century, Ireland was divided. Power was exercised by the heads of a few regional dynasties vying with each other for supremacy over the whole island. In 1155 Pope Adrian IV issued the papal bull Laudabiliter giving the Norman King Henry II of England lordship over Ireland. The bull granted Henry the right to invade Ireland in order to reform Church practices. When the King of Leinster Diarmuid MacMorroug was forcibly exiled from his kingdom by the new High King, Ruaidri mac Tairrd...
Personal Union: Union of the Crowns
In August 1503 James IV, King of Scots, married Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII of England. Almost 100 years later, when Elizabeth I was in the last decade of her reign, it was clear to all that James VI of Scotland, the great-grandson of James IV and Margaret Tudor, was the only generally acceptable heir to the English throne. From 1601, Elizabeth I's chief minister Sir Robert Cecilmaintained a secret correspondence with James in order to prepare in advance for a smooth succ...
Acts of Union 1707
Deeper political integration was a key policy of Queen Anne (1702–14), who succeeded to the throne in 1702 as the last Stuart monarch of England and Scotland (she was also the only Stuart monarch of Great Britain). The Queen appointed Commissioners for the union on the part of Scotland and England respectively, and in 1706 they began negotiations in earnest, with agreement reached on the terms of a Treaty of Union on 22 July 1706. The circumstances of Scotland's acceptance of the Bill are to...
Acts of Union 1800
After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics were barred from voting or attending the Irish Parliament. The new English Protestant ruling class was known as the Protestant Ascendancy. Towards the end of the 18th century the entirely Protestant Irish Parliament attained a greater degree of independence from the British Parliament than it had previously held. Under the Penal Laws no Irish Catholic could sit in the Parliament of Ireland, even though some 90% of Ireland's population was nat...
Table of historic merging of territories within the UK
See also Documents relevant to personal and legislative unions of the countries of the United Kingdom, and History of the formation of the United Kingdom (Background).
Irish alienation and independence
The 19th century saw the Great Famine of the 1840s, during which one million Irish people died and over a million emigrated. Aspects of the United Kingdom met with popularity in Ireland during the 122-year union. Hundreds of thousands flocked to Dublin for the visits of Queen Victoria in 1900, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1903 and 1907, and King George V and Queen Mary in 1911. About 210,000 Irishmen fought for the United Kingdom in World War I, at a time when Ireland was the only h...
Bibliography
1. Davies, Norman. The Isles: A History. (London: Macmillan, 1999. ISBN 0-333-69283-7).
