Great Britain

Neither William nor Anne (Mary's sister, and William's successor) produced an heir to the throne, so on June 12, 1701, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement which expressly stated that the crown of England would pass to Sophia of Hanover, the granddaughter of James I (and daughter of Frederick V the “Winter King”), or any Protestant children she might have, and not to ex-king James or his children. Thus on William's death in 1702, Anne became Queen of England and Scotland (Mary predeceased her husband).

Anne knighted Newton in 1705 (the first scientist to be honored for his scientific work), and became the first monarch of Great Britain after Parliament passed the Act of Union on May 1, 1707, formally recognizing the unification of Scotland and England. A new nation needed a new flag, and the St. Andrew's cross (a white ×, symbol of Scotland) combined with the St. George's cross (a red +, symbol of England) to form the “Union Flag”, a precursor to the modern British flag.

In addition to a new flag, England received a new symbol. In 1712, Anne's personal physician JOHN ARBUTHNOT (April 29, 1667–February 27, 1735) published The Law is a Bottomless Pit, usually known by its subtitle, The History of John Bull. Published as a series of five pamphlets, the satire told the tale of how an honest clothier, John Bull, and a linen-draper, Nicholas Frog, spent all their money in a lawsuit against Louis Baboon. The personifications were transparent to anyone: John Bull was England, Nicholas Frog the Netherlands, and Louis Baboon was France.