The concept of "British history" began to emerge in the 1600s, largely thanks to the attempts of King James II to assert that the Union of the Crowns of 1603 had created a Kingdom of Great Britain, which in fact did not come into existence until a century later. The governance of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland remained separate until 1707, and until then in most ways the Scots were excluded from sharing in the English overseas possessions. This page presents a timeline of events in English and Scottish history from 1600 until 1699.