ENGLISH ADD SCOTTISH CROWNS COMBINED.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 69, 13 August 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

ENGLISH ADD SCOTTISH CROWNS COMBINED.

After a glorious reign which lia»l lasted through nearly forty-five years, Queen Elizabeth died on March 24, 1003, at the Rova 1 Palace of Richmond. in Surrey. She was then in her seventieth year. There is a common story to the ef. feet that when a«ked in her last moments who should be her successor, sho replied, " Who but our cousin the King of the Scots? " In truth, however, sh'; had become speechless, and therefore was obliged to use signs for stating her wishes to her Council. .lames IV. of Scotland had married Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII., King of England, r.nd this .lames VI. was her great-grandson. Invasions of one another bv England and Scotland had been carried or. .since the reign of Edward T. down to the fatal incursion of Mary Queen of Scots in the reign of Elizabeth herself; but by the succession of the Scottish Queen's son, .Tames VT., as James I. of England, Northern and Southern Britain have ever since been united. James was thirty-six years old, and had been King of' Scotland thirty-five years, when the news reached him that Elizabeth was dead, and that he had become King of England as well as of Scotland. He came io London in great state, stopping at several places on the way in order to receive the congratulations of his new subjects, and, anxious to seem grae : ous and to please everybody, gave titles right and left to those who were presented to h;m. The history of the Stuarts, of winch this King was the first, is well known. There were six sovereigns of the line, the last being Anne. The Period occupied 111 years. James I. was one of those monarchs who put forward the " Divine "Riprht " doctrine and considered himself above the law, and Parliament had great difficulty in keeping him "to the line." But on the whole the union of the crowns of Scotland and England has led only to good results.