Н.А. Зелинская ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES

Political structure
The kingdoms of England and Scotland were separate states from the 9th
century but came into personal union in 1603 when James VI of Scotland
succeeded his cousin Elizabeth I as James I of England. Though remaining
separate states, this Union of the Crowns meant that the whole of the island
of Great Britain was ruled by a single monarch with two titles (King of
England and King of Scots), and two parliaments, except during the
Interregnum and during the joint reign of William and Mary, who jointly
reigned over both Kingdoms. This changed with the Acts of Union 1707,
from when the monarch of Great Britain ruled by the power of a single
unified Crown of Great Britain and of a single unified parliament. The
succession to the throne of England, Ireland and Scotland was determined
by the English Act of Settlement, rather than the Scottish equivalent, the
Act of Security as this was part of the terms agreed in the 1706 Treaty of
Union and put into effect with the two Acts of Union the following year.
The adoption of the Act of Settlement required that the heir to the English
throne be a Protestant descendant of Sophia of Hanover, effecting the
future Hanoverian succession.
Legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which
replaced the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. As with
the modern Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Parliament of Great
Britain included three elements: the House of Commons, the House of
Lords, and the Crown-in-Parliament. England and Scotland were given
seats in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons of the new
parliament. Although Scotland's representation in both houses was smaller
than its population indicated it should have been, representation in
parliament was at that time based not on population but on taxation, and
Scotland was given a greater number of seats than its share of taxation
warranted. Under the terms of the union, Scotland sent 16 representative
peers to the Lords and elected 45 members to the Commons, with the rest
being sent from England and Wales.
Britain in the 18th century
England and the Netherlands entered the Nine Years' War as allies, but the
conflict – waged in Europe and overseas between France, Spain and the
Anglo-Dutch alliance – left the English a stronger colonial power than the
Dutch, who were forced to devote a larger proportion of their military
budget on the costly land war in Europe. The 18th century would see
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