Both the Conservative and Unionist and Scottish Unionist parties were formed by the merger of Conservatives and Liberal Unionists in 1912. The union referred to is the 1800 Act of Union (between Great Britain and Ireland), not the Acts of Union 1707 (between England and Scotland). The term may also be used to suggest an affinity with Northern Irish unionism. The former Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore, has written that he does not call himself a Unionist, despite being a supporter of the union. This he ascribes to the Liberal Democrat position in regard to Home Rule and decentralisation within the United Kingdom, noting that: "for me the concept of 'Unionism' does not capture the devolution journey on which we have travelled in recent years." He suggests the connotations behind Unionism are of adherence to a constitutional status quo. History of the Union Kingdom of Scotland Scotland emerged as an independent polity during the Early Middle Ages, with some historians dating its foundation from the reign of Kenneth MacAlpin in 843. The independence of the Kingdom of Scotland was fought over between Scottish kings and by the Norman and Angevin rulers of England. A key period in the Kingdom of Scotland's history was a succession crisis that started in 1290, when Edward I of England claimed the Scottish throne. The resulting wars of Scottish Independence which led to Scotland securing its independent status, with Robert the Bruce (crowned in 1306) winning a major confrontation at Bannockburn in 1314. England, Ireland and Scotland shared the same monarch in a personal union from 1603, when King James VI of Scotland also became King James I of England and Ireland, resulting in the "Union of the Crowns". A political union between the Kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland was temporarily formed when the crowns were overthrown as a result of the English Civil War, with Oliver Cromwell ruling over the whole of Great Britain and Ireland as Lord Protector. This period was known as the Protectorate, or to monarchists as the interregnum. The monarchies were subsequently restored in 1660, with Scotland reverting to an independent kingdom sharing the same monarch as England and Ireland. Union between England and Scotland (1707) The political union between the Kingdoms of Scotland and England (also including Wales) was created by the Acts of Union, passed in the parliaments of both kingdoms in 1707 and 1706