was signed and the documents were rushed south with a large military escort. The Kingdom of Great Britain was born on 1 May 1707, shortly after the parliaments of Scotland and England had ratified the Treaty of Union by each approving Acts of Union combining the two parliaments and the powers of the two crowns. Scotland's crown, sceptre, and sword of state remained at Edinburgh Castle. Queen Anne (already Queen of both England and Scotland) formally became the first occupant of the unified throne of Great Britain, with Scotland sending forty-five members to the new House of Commons of Great Britain, as well as representative peers to the House of Lords. Significant financial payoffs to Scottish parliamentarians were later referred to by Robert Burns when he wrote "We're bought and sold for English gold, Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation!" Some recent historians, however, have emphasized the legitimacy of the vote. The Articles of Union The Treaty consisted of twenty-five Articles. Article 1 provided that the kingdoms of Scotland and England would, from 1 May 1707, be united into one kingdom named Great Britain, with its own royal coat of arms and a flag combining the crosses of St Andrew and St George. Article 2 provided for the succession of the House of Hanover to the throne of Great Britain, and for a Protestant succession, as set out in the English Act of Settlement of 1701. Article 3 provided for the creation of one unified Parliament of Great Britain. Article 4 gave the subjects of Great Britain freedom of trade and navigation within the kingdom and the "Dominions and Plantations thereunto belonging". Articles 5 to 15, 17, and 18 dealt with a register of British trading ships, customs and duties on import and export, weights and measures, movement, taxes, regulation of trade, and other matters, to ensure equal treatment for all subjects of the new kingdom. Article 16 required the introduction of a common currency for Great Britain, subsequently effected through the Scottish recoinage of 1707–1710, and the continuation of a Scottish Mint. Article 19 provided for the continuation of the Court of Session, the High Court of Justiciary, and the separate Scottish legal system. Article 20 provided for the protection after the union of a number of heritable offices, superiorities, heritable jurisdictions, offices for life, and jurisdictions for life. Article 21 provided for the protection of the