The first Parliament of Great Britain

The Parliamentary session at Westminster closed on 24 April 1707, then on 30 April a small number of peers had gathered in the House of Lords. They summoned MPs from the House of Commons, to hear a proclamation read in the Queen's name declaring that the Parliament of Great Britain had come into being.

On 5 June a further proclamation was published declaring that the first Parliament of Great Britain would meet at Westminster on 23 October 1707.

Those who were chosen to represent Scotland in the new Parliament were almost all men who had strongly supported the Union in the old Scottish Parliament. Most of them were also supporters of the Court, with a third of the 45 MPs being followers of Queensberry. The 16 'representative' peers were headed by Queensberry himself, and the Dukes of Montrose and Roxburghe, whose support as leaders of the squadrone , had been critical.

Short honeymoon

When the new Parliamentary session began on 23 October, English parliamentarians warmly welcomed their new Scottish colleagues in the Lords and Commons. In the House of Commons, the privilege of seconding the choice of Speaker, John Smith, was given to a Scots MP, Francis Montgomerie, who also helped to escort Smith to the Speaker's Chair after he had been chosen. The honeymoon period was short, however. Scots MPs had to accustom themselves to a cut-and-thrust style of debate in the Commons which was very different from the slow formality they had been accustomed to in Edinburgh.

In her speech to parliament on 6 November, the Queen made no mention of the Union until she had given a long account of the state of the war against France, thus highlighting the main reason why Union had been wanted in England.