The Tender of Union was a declaration of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised ...

during the Interregnum following the

War of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities united in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 B ...

stating that

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

would cease to have an independent parliament and would join

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in its emerging Commonwealth republic. The English parliament passed the declaration on 28 October 1651 and after a number of interim steps an Act of Union was passed on 26 June 1657. The proclamation of the Tender of Union in Scotland on 4 February 1652 regularised the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' annexation of Scotland by England at the end of the

Third English Civil War Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * H ...

. Under the terms of the Tender of Union and the final enactment, the Scottish Parliament was permanently dissolved and Scotland was given 30 seats in the Westminster Parliament. This act like all the others passed during the Interregnum was repealed by both Scottish and English parliaments upon the Restoration of

monarchy A monarchy is a government#Forms, form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The legitimacy (political)#monarchy, political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restric ...

under Charles II.

Declaration and reaction

On 28 October 1651 the English Parliament issued the ''Declaration of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, concerning the Settlement of Scotland'', in which it was stated that "Scotland shall, and may be incorporated into, and become one Common-wealth with this England". Eight English commissioners were appointed,

Oliver St John Sir Oliver St John (; c. 1598 – 31 December 1673) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640-53. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War. Early life St John was the son of Oliver S ...

, Sir Henry Vane,

Richard Salwey Richard Salwey (1615 – 1685?) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1645 and 1659. He was a republican in politics and fought on the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War. Life Richard Salwey was t ...

, George Fenwick, John Lambert, Richard Deane, Robert Tichborne, and

George Monck George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle JP KG PC (6 December 1608 – 3 January 1670) was an English soldier, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent military figure under the Commonwealth, his support was cruc ...

, to further the matter. The English parliamentary commissioners travelled to Scotland and at Mercat Cross in Edinburgh on 4 February 1652, proclaimed that the Tender of Union was in force in Scotland. By 30 April 1652 the representatives of the shires and Royal burghs of Scotland had agreed to the terms which included an oath that Scotland and England be subsumed into one Commonwealth. On the 13 April 1652—between the proclamation and the last of the shires to agree to the terms—a bill for an ''Act for incorporating Scotland into one Commonwealth with England'' was given a first and a second reading in

Rump Parliament The Rump Parliament was the English Parliament after Colonel Thomas Pride commanded soldiers to purge the Long Parliament, on 6 December 1648, of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason. "Rump" ...

but it failed to return from its committee stage before the Rump was dissolved. A similar act was introduced into the

Barebones Parliament Barebone's Parliament, also known as the Little Parliament, the Nominated Assembly and the Parliament of Saints, came into being on 4 July 1653, and was the last attempt of the English Commonwealth to find a stable political form before the ins ...

but it too failed to be enacted before that parliament was dissolved.Sevaldsen, Jørgen; ''et al.'' (2007). ''Angles on the English-Speaking World, V.7: The State of the Union: Scotland, 1707-2007'', Museum Tusculanum Press, 2007 ,
p.39
/ref>Oleg Schultz (editor)
Scotland and the Commonwealth: 1651-1660Archontology.org
, Retrieved 2008-12-01

Approval by the Lord Protector and Parliament

On 12 April 1654, the ''Ordinance for uniting Scotland into one Commonwealth with England'' issued by the Lord Protector

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

and proclaimed in Scotland by the military governor of Scotland, General

. The Ordinance did not become an Act of Union until it was approved by the

Second Protectorate Parliament The Second Protectorate Parliament in England sat for two sessions from 17 September 1656 until 4 February 1658, with Thomas Widdrington as the Speaker of the House of Commons. In its first session, the House of Commons was its only chamber; in ...

on 26 June 1657 in an act that enabled several bills.{{cite book, editor-first=C.H. , editor-last=Firth , editor2-first=R.S. , editor2-last=Rait, year=1911 , chapter=June 1657: An Act touching several Acts and Ordinances made since the twentieth of April, 1653, and before the third of September, 1654, and other Acts , title=Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 (1911) , pages=1131–1142 , url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=56611.

Declaration and reaction

Approval by the Lord Protector and Parliament

See also

References

Further reading