History of the Constitution of the United Kingdom and applied it to their form of government. When Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603 without issue, she was succeeded by her cousin James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and he became King James I of England. This was a major step towards creating a single British state, although the Kingdom of Great Britain did not come about until a hundred years later. James VI faced a fractious religious England since it contained Anglicans (of the Church of England), Puritans, Separatists (who wanted to break from the Church of England), and also many Roman Catholics,
James I of Scotland was not the king's intention, James had resolved to use a degree of force to strengthen royal authority. He told the assembly: The leaders of the Gaelic kindreds in the north and west were summoned by James ostensibly to a sitting of parliament in Inverness. Of those assembled the king arrested around 50 of them including Alexander, the third Lord of the Isles, and his mother, Mariota, Countess of Ross, around 24 August. A few were executed but the remainder, with the exception of Alexander and his mother, quickly released. During Alexander's captivity James attempted to split Clann Dòmhnall—Alexander's uncle