On the advice of her ministers, fearing that proposed armed force would be rebellious and side with the Jacobite Uprising supported by the French militarily, Queen Anne vetoed “An Act for Settling the Militia of that Part of Great Britain called Scotland” on this day in 1708 after its passage by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
The objective was to re-establish an armed force not provided for during the Restoration and the Acts of Union from the previous years, and was rejected by the monarch at the last moment upon the news that an invasion fleet was en route to Scotland. The ‘Enterprise d’รcosse’ as a branch skirmish of the War of the Spanish Succession to place James Stuart on the throne failed to materialise. With the exception of forbearance in the overseas colonies, this withholding of royal assent was the last time Britain’s king or queen stopped passage of a bill of Parliament.
