Our British History Index

A Force For Good at our "Bruce to Elizabeth: Our Great British Monarchy" Rally in Stirling on 25 June 2022.

The following Index brings together, in chronological order, all the articles and speeches on British History which we've published (so far) on this website.

Where noted, it also links to some of the articles which are published on our Legacy Site. Our Legacy site is our original site which ends ".org.uk". It was launched on 21 March 2012 and ran until 30 April 2018. We no longer publish on it but it remains online as a vital resources for authentic unionism and a valuable record of this period in British history.

Some of the history articles on our Legacy Site are scheduled to be re-published on this site. They are listed without a working link. Those links will be active when we re-publish them on this site.

To be kept up to date with our new articles, please follow our social media accounts, and please sign-up to our fortnightly email update.

We have plenty of ideas for new articles. If there are any areas you would like us to research, then please contact us with your suggestions.

The main take-aways from many of these sections include the extent to which:

1. British unionism is disproportionately a Scottish innovation.

2. The idea of Britain as one nation, the idea of being a Briton, the identity of British, and a culture of Britishness, existed long before the Parliamentary Union of 1 May 1707, and even prior to the Union of the Crowns on 24 March 1603. Those who advocate union have always been keen to point to this fact.

3. There were – and are – many reasons to support union.

4. The story of Britain is the story of union.

EARLY HISTORY

The 5,000 Year Old Union (Legacy Site)

1215: The Magna Carta: A Thoroughly British Affair (Legacy Site)

BALLIOL, WALLACE, BRUCE PERIOD (1290-1329)

Bruce to Elizabeth Part 1: A Brief History of the Bruce

Bruce to Elizabeth Part 2: Ancestry of our Great British Monarchy

Declaration of Arbroath, Great British Constitutional Document

SCOTTISH ORIGINS of BRITISH UNIONISM: RENAISSANCE and REFORMATION 1521-1572

This refers to the period after the catastrophic Battle of Flodden (1513), when Scots began to question the point of an alliance with France as opposed to England. It also encompasses the Reformation period when Scottish Protestants in particular were looking at the benefits of a Britain-wide alliance.

The articles are published chronologically, and represent either the publication date of the subject's most relevant work, or the year of his death.

1521: John Mair and his History of Greater Britain

1542: John Elder's Highland Unionism

1547 and 1548: James Henrisoun: A Positive Visionary for Union

d. 1572: John Knox's Unionism of Monarchy and Faith

SCOTTISH ORIGINS of BRITISH UNIONISM: THE JACOBEAN UNION and its DEBATE (1603 onwards)

This period encompasses the moment when the Scots King, James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots, became also the King of England, and declared himself "King of Great Britain".

1603: The Union of the Crowns 24th March 1603

1603: "The Happy Connection of Two so Mighty Nations" (Letter from James VI)

What stands out in the following 4 articles is the belief that the nation of Britain existed as a unity prior to "Scotland" and "England"; and the desire to call the whole Island by the name of Great Britain, and its inhabitants as British.

1604: The Happy and Blessed Union of John Russell

1604: 'Of the Union of Britayne': Robert Pont and the Unionism of a Scottish Reformer

1604: A Plan for Amity and Equity

1605: Thomas Craig's Radical Vision of British Union

1605: David Hume's The Union of the British Isles

Prophetic Unionism, and the 1603 Union of the Crowns

CIVIL WAR, RESTORATION and UNION NEGOTIATIONS (1638-1660, and onto 1670)

We emphasise the British Isles-wide nature of concerns, as we look at the often violent events in the mid to late 1600s, which joined Scots and English together on the same sides, and which were creating a shared sense of British national purpose and identity.

The British Civil War 1638-1660

The Covenanter Movement for British Religious and Royal Unification

Scottish Royalists and the British Civil War

The 1668 and 1670 Union Negotiations

SCOTTISH DESIRE FOR UNION: THE UNION of PARLIAMENTS

Few topics have been as popularly mis-represented through the years as the Parliamentary Union of Scotland and England! We give voice to those Scots who were for the Union and we correct some inaccuracies.

Great British Union Day Celebration, Speech 1: Reasons Why the 1707 Union Came About (1-5-21)

Great British Union Day, Speech 2: Reasons Why we Love the Union (1-5-21)

1700: William Seton of Pitmedden and The Interest of Scotland in Three Essays

1706: George Mackenzie, British Union and the Dangers of Federalism

1707: Union of Parliaments: No Parcel of Rogues

1707: Union of Parliaments: Dynastic, Religious and Britishly Patriotic Reasons

1698-1707: Opposition with a Unionist Flavour

1724-1730: John Clerk's History of the Union of Scotland and England

THE JACOBITES and BRITAIN (1715-1746)

We dispel some of the myths related around this period.

These were not Scottish v English Conflicts

The Extent of English Jacobitism

Neither Highland v Lowland, nor Catholic v Protestant

The '45 Jacobite Army was a Modern Army

The Alleged Rebellious Scots National Anthem "Verse" De-bunked (Legacy Site)

The British National Anthem (A concise summary of our original research article above.)

THE AGE OF ACHIEVEMENT (1746 onwards)

In these articles, and speeches, we are often addressing the attempts by some to attack "the age of achievement which characterised much of the three centuries of parliamentary union" (which is a phrase we credit to Prof Tom Gallagher at tinyurl.com/yxxj2uj3 ).

'Julian', the Tank which Glasgow Welcomed! (in January 1918) (Legacy Site)

Destroying the Present by Attacking the Past (published 30-1-19)

Stand by our Ancestors (10-6-20)

Defending Dundas Against the Hateful Mob (12-6-20)

The Dundas Declaration: A Speech by Alistair McConnachie (22-6-20)

Who was Henry Dundas? A Speech by Alistair McConnachie (22-6-20)

Britain's War Against the Slave Trade: A Speech by Alistair McConnachie (22-6-20)

Dundas is a Hero (9-9-20)

Defending the Queen and John A Macdonald in Canada

(from our Good Morning UK broadcast on 7-7-21)>