Historical and Commemorative
Medals
Collection of Benjamin Weiss
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UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
CROKER, John: England, 1707, Silver, 70 mm Although van Loon suggests this medal relates to Anne’s
accession to the throne in 1702, and Thoyras writes that it refers
to Anne, as Queen of Great Britain, serving as a protector of the Dutch, the device on the reverse indicates that
it commemorates the Union of England and Scotland in 1707. Anne is
depicted as a palladium (a sacred object having the power to preserve a
city or state, in this case England and Scotland). She is considered to be
like the statue of Pallas, which protected Troy so long as it remained
within its walls (M.I.). Uniting the kingdoms of Scotland and England
had been proposed for centuries, but the Scots feared that if joined to
England it would suffer that same fate that Wales had some four hundred
years earlier, in that it would lose much of its independence. However,
England continued to press the issue as they were afraid that the Scots might side
with France in wars between France and England. After offering financial incentives and a degree of
independence, wherein Scotland kept its legal and religious systems but
lost much of its sovereignty, the Scottish members of parliament finally
voted for the Union. As a result, their parliament was dissolved, and in
1707 England and Scotland became one country with one flag. This unpopular
decision among many Scots was recorded in verse by Robert Burns who wrote
that they (the Scottish MP's) were "bought and sold for English gold". LINK to Acts of Union 1707 (from wikipedia) LINK to text of Article of Union between Scotland and England (from Parliament.uk) LINK to painting England, Scotland and Minerva by Peter Paul Rubens (from Museum of the Goddess Athena)
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