Sir John Elliott, Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History at Oxford University, speaks with me in Edinburgh about composite monarchies and personal unions, the similarities between Scotland and Catalonia, the challenges that James will face as he travels south to take up his new crown, and how his and his son’s actions will echo throughout the century and beyond.

The recommended books, available from all good retailers, are:

- Scots and Catalans: Union and Disunion (2018)

- Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 (2006)

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