otland would have continued their separate development into modern nation-states. Indeed, after his death in 1625, the union started to fall apart. James never visited Ireland, Wales, the Highlands or islands of Scotland, and the »British Isles« never became culturally united as he had hoped., rebellion and 1707 - in fact, the removal of the Scottish king from his country was a major cause of the 17th-century civil wars, in which Scotland rebelled against King Charles I. James »s union gave England a royal family it distrusted and left Scotland without the key symbol of national independence. At the end of the 17th century, the House of Stuart was expelled from Britain, and despite the various Jacobite attempts, never restored. As a result, the Union of the English and Scottish Parliaments was accomplished in 1707 against the wishes of James «s descendants. James certainly did not expect his union to turn out like this [10, p. 83 - 84]. Today - four hundred years after the Union of the Crowns, devolution has reversed some of the effects of 1707, but Scotland and England still share a monarch and have London as the Government »s centre of power. If James were to return to Edinburgh in the 21st century, there is much he would recognise - both parts of the skyline and aspects of the culture and politics of a country that has many of the qualities of nationhood, but which lacks full independence.
4. Political and cultural life after merger of Scotland and England. The Jacobite Rebellions
James VI of Scotland ascended the throne of England in 1603 as James I, King of Great Britain. For the first time the fiery and independent Scotland was united with its southern neighbour via the monarchy, yet they remained independent kingdoms with their own parliaments, legal and religious systems. In 1707 the Union of Scotland and England occurred. Through the terms of the Act of Union the Scottish parliament was abolished and England and Scotland were joined as the one kingdom of Great Britain, yet as before Scotland retained its religious and legal independence. The last Jacobite uprising occurred in 1745 and with the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie an end was put to the movement to try to return the Stuarts - the one time kings of Scotland - to the throne. Almost all Scots were now firmly under the Hanoverian banner and they gradually became active citizens of Great Britain [11, p. 161 - 336]. Scots of the 17th and 18th Centuries can roughly be divided into two groups - the highlanders and lowlanders. The highlanders of northern Scotland were composed of the clans - powerful aristocratic landowners and their families and peasants such as the Macdonalds and Campbells, who practically ruled their respective territories from large houses and manors and who had great influence in the towns which they oversaw. They were the chief supporters of the Stuarts and had their own (although as we shall see it was later augmented) distinctive culture. The southerly lowlanders were much more like their English neighbours - living relatively freely in towns and cities and on the land with their own lords and earls and knowing little of the highland culture or politics. Prior to 1745 most of the highlanders viewed the Union with contempt, while the lowlanders had mixed feelings. Some of the bourgeoisie supported the increased opportunities for trade and advancement, while others resented...
