A Scottish king inherits England
Elizabeth I of England died at Richmond Palace on 15 March 1603, ending the Tudor dynasty. She had never married and had no children. The English crown passed to her nearest living relative: James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Queen of Scots — the very woman Elizabeth had executed sixteen years earlier.
The irony was extraordinary. Mary had spent nineteen years as Elizabeth's prisoner, and was beheaded on Elizabeth's orders. Now Mary's son would sit on the English throne. James himself was keenly aware of the irony and the opportunity. He had been king of Scotland since the age of thirteen months, when his mother was forced to abdicate. Now, at 36, he was king of both Scotland and England.
Riders galloped north to Edinburgh carrying the news. James left for London within weeks, promising the Scots that he would return every three years. He came back once, in 1617. Scotland, which had expected the Union of Crowns to bring equal partnership, found itself increasingly sidelined. The Scottish court, which had been the centre of patronage and power, emptied as nobles followed the king south.
The Union of Crowns in 1603 was not a union of parliaments — that would not come until 1707. Scotland and England remained separate kingdoms with separate laws, separate churches, and separate parliaments. But they now shared a monarch, and that monarch lived in London. The gravitational pull of the English court began to reshape Scottish politics, culture, and society in ways that would unfold over the next century.