Stuarts

When James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth as James I on the throne of England in 1603, the Stuarts became the first dynasty to rule Britain as a whole. While Charles II, restored after Cromwell's Interregnum, died on the throne, his brother James II quickly alienated much of the political nation and had to flee aboad after an invasion by his son-in-law, who became William III. The problems that James and his successors encountered in reconciling their kingdoms led to tensions and revolts in Scotland, Ireland and England itself, leading to the Civil War under Charles I between 1642 and 1646 and to the king's subsequent execution.

Her death without an heir in 1714 brought in the Hanoverians. Following William's death, James's daughter Anne presided over a period of victory on the Continent but bitter internal tension at home. In The Stuarts, John Miller looks at the