Footnotes

• PARLIAMENT ENFORCES THE OATH OF LOYALTY TO THE PROTESTANT QUEEN ANNE AFTER THE ACT OF UNION BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. The act being enforced by this Privy Council is the Succession to the Crown Act of 1707, passed in the first session of the first parliament after the Union of England and Scotland on 1 May 1707 (An Act for the Security of Her Majesties Person and Government and of the Succession to the Crown of Great Britain in the Protestant Line, 6 Ann. c.14), opening: 'Whereas by the happy union of England and Scotland, it is become necessary to make divers alterations in relation to an act passed in the Parliament of England, in the fourth year of the reign of her present Majesty, whom God long preserve, intituled, An act for the better security of Her Majesty's person and government, and of the succession to the crown of England in the Protestant line, and to extend the provisions of the said act throughout the whole United Kingdom'. Its chief provision is that, in the event of the Queen's death, the next protestant in the line of succession should be proclaimed; the Act of Union between England and Scotland had come into force on 1 May 1707. Confusingly, our letter uses the title of the earlier act (4 Ann. c. 41), although the reference to its being "passed this present Sessions of Parliament" leaves no doubt that it is 6 Ann. c.14 that is being referred to.
  
  The signatories of this letter are all members of Anne's Whig administration soon after Harley and St John had been forced from office. Marlborough himself remained in England during February and March to counter threats of a French-supported Jacobite invasion, returning to the Hague at the end of the month to carry on campaigning. The first signatory of the letter, the Earl of Pembroke, was President of the Council. The Duke of Montrose was a keen supporter of the protestant succession, much to his family followers' disappointment, for which Anne had rewarded him with his dukedom the previous year. The Earl of Derby was a keen Whig, who had served as a major-general under Marlborough. The Earl of Sunderland, Secretary of the Southern Department, had been principal manager for the Act of Union in the Lords. Viscount Townshend, who had been sworn into the Council the previous December, and is best known today as champion of the turnip. Henry Boyle, the final signatory, was Chancellor of the Exchequer. The recipient, Wriothesley Russell, second Duke of Bedford, has served as Lord High Constable of England at Anne's coronation, this letter being addressed to him at Steatham in Surrey, an estate that came to him through his wife.