ABSTRACT
It is natural to begin an examination of the ‘federal idea’ in the United Kingdom with the seventeenth century. At the beginning of the century James VI of Scotland became James I of England. This resulted in a major debate over the nature of the union. It was clear the English, as the stronger ‘imperial’ power, preferred a complete union while the Scots wanted a union that reflected the equality of the two kingdoms. The questions surrounding the relationship of this new union to the kingdom of Ireland rarely arose, and the subservience of Wales to England was taken for granted. The multiple kingdoms of the British Isles had no ready examples to turn to nor any prevailing theories to assist them in their constitutional dilemma.
