We tend to take today’s modern United Kingdom for granted, but there was nothing inevitable about its creation. During the 17th century, the Stuarts grappled with the chaos of three separate kingdoms, multiple religions and civil war. Britain has not known a century like it and some of the questions this dynasty faced have not gone away. Clare Jackson looks at James VI and I’s attempts to unite Scotland and England under the umbrella of their crowns and persuade their subjects to feel more ‘British.’