Kingdom of Great Britain

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Kingdom of Great Britain


Flag Royal coat of arms
Dieu et mon droit
(French: "God and my right")1
God Save the King/Queen
Territory of the Kingdom of Great Britain
Capital London
Language(s) English (throughout)
Welsh (Wales)
Scots (Scotland)
Scottish Gaelic (Scotland)
Government Constitutional monarchy
 - 1707–1714 Anne
 - 1714–1727 George I
 - 1727–1760 George II
 - 1760–1801 George III
Prime Minister
 - 1721–1742 Robert Walpole
 - 1783–1801 William Pitt the Younger
Legislature Parliament
 - Upper house House of Lords
 - Lower house House of Commons
 - 1707 Union 1 May 1707
 - 1801 Union 31 December 1800
 - 1801 230,977 km2 (89,181 sq mi)
 - 1801 est. 10,942,646 
     Density 47.4 /km2  (122.7 /sq mi)
Currency Pound sterling
1 The Royal motto used in Scotland was Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (Latin for "No-one provokes me with impunity").

The Kingdom of Great Britain, named in the Acts of Union 1707 as Great Britain and described as the "United Kingdom of Great Britain" and "One Kingdom",[1] was a state in the British Isles in Western Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1800. It was created by joining the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, under the Acts of Union, to create a single kingdom that took in the whole of the island of Great Britain and many islands around it. A new single parliament and government, based in Westminster in London, controlled the new country. The two earlier kingdoms of Scotland and England had been in a personal union, sharing the same head of state since James VI, King of Scots, became King of England in 1603 following the death of Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1801, by the Act of Union 1800, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland were joined together into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the putting down of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Kings and queens[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. Act of Union 1707, Article 2.
Preceded by:
Kingdom of England
c 927–30 April 1707
Kingdom of Scotland
c 843–30 April 1707
Kingdom of Great Britain
1 May 1707 – 31 December 1800
Succeeded by:
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
1 January 1801–5 December 1922