Trafalgar Battle

Part of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15), the Battle of Trafalgar featured a clash of
Franco-Spanish and British fleets off the western mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar.
Commanded by Vice Admiral Nelson, the onslaught broke the allied line and exposed
its center and rear to overwhelming force, resulting in the capture of 19 of the 33
Franco-Spanish ships. Although Lord Nelson was killed in the battle, he was largely
credited for thwarting Napoleons plans to concentrate a fleet in the Channel for the
invasion of Britain.
War: Napoleonic
Date: 21st October 1805
Place: At Cape Trafalgar off the South Western coast of Spain, south of Cadiz.
Combatants: The British Royal Navy against the Fleets of France and Spain.
Admirals: Admiral Viscount Lord Nelson and Vice Admiral Collingwood against
Admiral Villeneuve of France and Admirals dAliva and Cisternas of Spain.
Size of the fleet: 32 British (25 ships of the line, 4 Frigates and smaller craft), 23 French
and 15 Spanish (33 ships of the line, 7 Frigates and smaller craft). 4,000 troops
including riflemen from the Tyrol were posted in small detachments through the French
and Spanish Fleets.
Winner: Memorably, the Royal Navy.
British Ships: Nelson's Division: HMS Victory (Flagship), Temeraire, Neptune,
Conqueror, Leviathan, Ajax, Orion, Agamemnon, Minotaur, Spartiate, Euryalus,
Britannia, Africa, Naiad, Phoebe, Entreprenante, Sirius and Pickle.
Collingwood's Division: HMS Royal Sovereign (Flagship), Belleisle, Mars, Tonnant,
Bellerophon, Colossus, Achilles, Polyphemus, Revenge, Swiftsure, Defiance,
Thunderer, Prince of Wales, Dreadnought and Defence.
French Ships: Bucentaure (Flagship), Formidable (Flagship), Scipion, Intrepide,
Cornelie, Duguay Truin, Mont Blanc, Heros, Furet, Hortense, Neptune, Redoubtable,
Indomitable, Fougueux, Pluton, Aigle, Swiftsure, Argonaute, Berwick, Hermione,
Themis, Achille and Argus.
Spanish Ships: Santa Anna (Flagship), Santissima Trinidad (Flagship), Neptuno, Rayo,
Santo Augustino, S. Francisco dAssisi, S. Leandro, S. Juste, Monarca, Algeciras,
Bahama, Montanes, S. Juan Nepomucano, Argonauta and Prince de Asturias.
Ships and Armaments:
Sailing warships of the 18th and 19th Century carried their main armaments in
broadside batteries along the sides. Ships were classified according to the number of
guns carried or the number of decks carrying batteries. Nelsons main force comprised 8

three decker battleships carrying more than 90 guns each. The enormous Spanish ship
Santissima Trinidad carried 120 guns and the Santa Anna 112 guns.
The size of gun on the line of battle ships was up to 24 pounder, firing heavy iron balls
or chain and link shot designed to wreck rigging. Trafalgar was a close fleet action.
Ships manoeuvred up to the enemy and delivered broadsides at a range of a few yards.
To take full advantage of the close range guns were double shotted with grape shot on
top of ball. It is said that the crews in some French ships were unable to face this
appalling ordeal, closing their gun ports and attempting to escape the fire.
Ships manoeuvred to deliver broadsides in the most destructive manner, the greatest
effect being achieved by firing into an enemys stern, so that the shot travelled the
length of the ship wreaking havoc and destruction. The first broadside, loaded before
action began, was always the most effective.
Collingwoods Royal Sovereign fired its first broadside at Trafalgar into the rear of the
Spanish ship Santa Anna causing massive damage.
Ships carried a variety of smaller weapons on the top deck and in the rigging, from
swivel guns firing grape shot or canister (bags of musket balls) to hand held muskets
and pistols. With these weapons each crew sought to annihilate the enemy officers and
sailors on deck.
Wounds in Eighteenth Century naval fighting were often terrible. Cannon balls ripped
off limbs or, striking wooden decks and bulwarks, drove splinter fragments across the
ship causing great injury. Falling masts and rigging inflicted crush injuries. Sailors
stationed aloft fell into the sea from collapsing masts and rigging and were drowned.
Heavy losses were caused when a ship finally succumbed and sank or blew up.
The discharge of guns at close range easily set fire to an opposing vessel. Fires were
difficult to control in battle and several ships were destroyed in this way, notably the
French ship Achille.
The ultimate aim in battle was to lock ships together and capture the enemy by
boarding. Savage hand to hand fighting took place at Trafalgar on several ships. The
crew of the French Redoubtable, living up to the name of their ship, boarded Victory but
were annihilated in the brutal struggle on Victorys top deck.
Ships crews of all nations were a tough bunch. The British with continual blockade
service against the French and Spanish were particularly well drilled. British gun crews
could fire three broadsides or more to every two fired by the French and Spanish. The
British officers were hard bitten and experienced.
A young officer joining the Royal Navy in 1789, when the French Wars began, would
have served for 16 years of warfare by the time of Trafalgar.
British captains were responsible for recruiting their ships crew. Men were taken
wherever they could be found, largely by means of the press gang. All nationalities

served on British ships including French and Spanish. Loyalty for a crew lay primarily
with their ship. Once the heat of battle subsided there was little animosity against the
enemy. Great efforts were made by British crews to rescue the sailors of foundering
French and Spanish ships at the end of the battle.
Life on a warship, particularly the large ships of the line, was crowded and hard.
Discipline was enforced with extreme violence, small infractions punished with public
lashings. The food, far from good, deteriorated as ships spent time at sea. Drinking
water was in constant short supply and usually brackish. Shortage of citrus fruit and
fresh vegetables meant that scurvy easily and quickly set in. The great weight of guns
and equipment and the necessity to climb rigging in adverse weather conditions
frequently caused serious injury.

Above all a life primarily carrying out blockade duty was monotonous in the extreme.
The prospect of a decisive battle against the French and Spanish put the British Fleet in
a state of high excitement.
Account:
In July 1805 Napoleon Bonaparte secretly left Milan and hurried to Boulogne, where
his Grande Arme waited in camp to cross the Channel and invade England. Napoleon
only needed Admiral Villeneuve to bring the French and Spanish Fleets from South
Western Spain into the Channel to enable the invasion to take place.
The First Sea Lord appointed Admiral Lord Nelson Commander in Chief of the British
Fleet assembling to attack the French and Spanish ships. Nelson selected His Majestys
Ship Victory as his flagship and sailed south towards Gibraltar. As the British ships
intended for the Fleet were made ready they sailed south to join Nelson.
In October 1805 Villeneuve was still in harbour in Cadiz. He received a stinging rebuke
from Napoleon accusing him of cowardice and Villeneuve steeled himself to leave
harbour and make for the Channel. He was encouraged in his resolve by the belief that
there was no strong British Fleet nearby and that Nelson was still in England. Other
than picket frigates watching the harbour Nelson kept his main fleet well out to sea.
On 19th October 1805 at 9am HMS Mars relayed the signal received from the frigates
that the Franco-Spanish Fleet was leaving Cadiz in line of battle.
At dawn on 21st October 1805, with a light wind from the West, Nelson signalled his
fleet to begin the attack. The British captains understood fully what was required of
them. Nelson had explained his tactics over the previous weeks until every ship knew
her role.
At 6.40am the British Fleet beat to quarters and the ships cleared for action: cooking
fires thrown overboard, the movable bulkwarks removed, the decks sanded and
ammunition carried to each gun. The gun crews took their positions.

The French and Spanish Fleets were sailing in line ahead in an arc like formation. The
British Fleet attacked in two squadrons in line ahead; the Windward Squadron led by
Nelson and the Leeward (southern or right squadron) headed by Collingwood in Royal
Sovereign; the ships of the Fleet divided between the two squadrons.
Nelson aimed to cut the Franco-Spanish Fleet at a point one third along the line with
Collingwood attacking the rear section. In the light wind the van of the Franco-Spanish
Fleet would be unable to turn back and take part in the battle until too late to help their
comrades.
Nelson seems to have been entirely confident of success. He told his Flag Captain,
Hardy, he expected to take 20 of the enemys ships. He was also convinced of his
impending death in the battle. Nelson told his friend Blackwood, the captain of the
Euryalus, who came on board Victory, God bless you, Blackwood. I shall never see
you again. He wore dress uniform with his decorations, a conspicuous figure on the
deck of the Victory.
In his long and eventful naval career Nelson had lost an arm and an eye. Perhaps, like
Wolfe at Quebec, he preferred to die at the moment of supreme victory rather than live
on in a disabled state.
The two British squadrons, led by the Flagships, sailed towards the Franco-Spanish line,
Collingwoods Royal Sovereign significantly ahead of Victory. Anxious that the admiral
should not be excessively exposed to enemy fire, the captain of Temeraire attempted to
overtake Victory, but was ordered back into line by Nelson.
The first broadside was fired by the French ship Fougueux into Royal Sovereign as
Collingwood burst through the Franco-Spanish line. Royal Sovereign held her fire until
she sailed past the stern of the Spanish Flagship, Santa Anna. Royal Sovereign raked
Santa Anna with double shotted fire, a broadside that is said to have disabled 400 of her
crew and 14 guns.
Royal Sovereign swung round onto Santa Annas beam and the two ships exchanged
broadsides. The ships following in the Franco-Spanish line joined in attacking
Collingwood: Fougueux, San Leandro, San Justo and Indomptable, until driven off by
the rest of the Leeward Squadron as they came up. Royal Sovereign forced Santa Anna
to surrender when both ships were little more than wrecks.
Victory led the Windward Squadron towards a point in the line between Redoubtable
and Bucentaure. The Franco-Spanish Fleet at this point was too crowded for there to be
a way through and the Victory simply rammed the Redoubtable, firing one broadside
into her and others into the French Flagship Bucentaure and the Spanish Flagship
Santissima Trinidad. The British ship Temeraire flanked Redoubtable on the far side and
a further French ship linked to Temeraire, all firing broadsides at point blank range.

The following ships of Nelsons squadron, as they came up, engaged the other ships in
the centre of the line. The leading Franco-Spanish squadron continued on its course
away from the battle until peremptorily ordered to return by Villeneuve.
During the fight with Redoubtable the soldiers and sailors in the French rigging fired at
men exposed on the Victorys decks. A musket shot hit Nelson, knocking him to the
deck and breaking his back. The admiral was carried below to the midshipmens berth,
where he constantly asked after the progress of the battle. Eventually Hardy was able to
tell him before he died that the Fleet had taken 15 of the enemys ships. Nelson knew he
had won
The battle reached its climax in the hour after Nelsons injury. Neptune, Leviathan and
Conqueror, as they came up, battered Villeneuves Flagship Bucentaure into submission
and took the surrender of the French admiral. Temeraire while fighting the Redoubtable
fired a crippling broadside into the Fougueux. Leviathan engaged the San Augustino
bringing down her masts and boarding her.
All the French and Spanish ships of that part of the line were destroyed, captured or
fled: of the 19 ships, 11 were captured or burnt while 8 fled to leeward. Many of these
ships fought hard. Argonauta and Bahama lost 400 of their crews each. San Juan
Nepomuceno lost 350. When she blew up Achille had lost all of her officers other than a
single midshipman. The resistance of the French ship Redoutable was was quite in
keeping with her name.
The Franco-Spanish van commanded by Admiral Dumanoir passed the battle, firing
broadsides indiscriminately into comrade and enemy, and returned to Cadiz.
Casualties: British casualties were 1,587. The French and Spanish casualties were never
revealed but are thought to have been around 16,000.
Follow-up: Following the battle a storm blew up wrecking many of the ships damaged
in the action. Of those captured only 4 survived to be brought into Gibraltar.
The consequences of the battle were far reaching. Napoleons plan to invade Britain was
thwarted. He broke up the camp at Boulogne and marched to Austria where he won the
great victory of Austerlitz against the Austrians and Russians.
Trafalgar ensured that Britains dominance at sea remained unchallenged for the rest of
the 10 years of war against France and continued worldwide for a further 120 years.
Admiral Villeneuve was taken a prisoner to England. On his release he travelled back to
France but died violently on the journey to Paris.
Lord Nelsons body was brought to England and the admiral given a state funeral. His
body is entombed in St Pauls cathedral in London.
Anecdotes and traditions:

As the British Fleet bore down on the Franco-Spanish line Nelson directed Lieutenant
Pascoe, the signal officer of Victory, to send the signal to the Fleet Nelson confides
every man will do his duty. Captain Hardy and Pascoe suggested this be changed to
England expects every man will do his duty. Nelson agreed. As the signal ran up
Victorys halyard the Fleet burst into cheers. Nelson followed this with his standard
battle signal Engage the enemy more closely.
Nelson was a remarkable man. He combined a gentleness of character with an extreme
ruthless aggression in action. This combined with his technical brilliance at sea made
him an invincible enemy. Nelsons tactic at Trafalgar was simple but devastatingly
effective. Nelson was widely feared. If Villeneuve had known that the British admiral
was present outside Cadiz harbour it seems unlikely that even the scathing messages
from Napoleon would have enticed him to sea. An American captain sailing into Cadiz
assured the French admiral that Nelson was still in London.
Nelson default instruction to his officers was No captain can do wrong if he puts his
ship alongside the nearest enemy.
HMS Victory, Nelsons Flagship, lies in Portsmouth Harbour preserved as it was at the
time of the battle.
In his final letter Nelson asked that the Nation look after his mistress, Lady Emma
Hamilton, and their daughter, Horatia. Nelsons brother was ennobled and his wife
awarded a pension. Nothing was done for Lady Hamilton. She died in reduced
circumstances in Calais in 1815.
The naming of the warships: Many of the Spanish ships carried religious titles: Santa
Anna, Santissima Trinidad, Santo Juan Nepomuceno. Classical labels were popular with
the British and French: Mars, Ajax, Agamemnon, Minotaur (British); Scipion, Pluton,
Hermione, Argus, Neptune (French). There were Swiftsures and Achilles in the British
and French Fleets. The French had an Argonaute and the Spanish an Argonauta. Three
British ships held French names: Belleisle, Tonnant and Bellerophon, marking that these
ships or their predecessors had been captured from France. The French took names from
heroic characteristics: Redoutable, Indomitable, Intrepide. Two British names reflected
great size: Colossus, Leviathan.
All three navies had a ship named after the classical god Neptune

Uk democracy
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According to the uncodified constitution of the United Kingdom, the monarch has the
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Domestic Powers
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The power to commission officers in the Armed Forces
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The power to create corporations via Royal Charter

Foreign Powers
The power to ratify and make treaties
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The power to recognize states
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Executive[edit]
Executive power in the United Kingdom is exercised by the Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth
II, via Her Majesty's Government and the devolved national authorities - the Scottish
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The United Kingdom Government[edit]
The monarch appoints a Prime Minister as the head of Her Majesty's Government in the
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The Prime Minister and the Cabinet[edit]
The Prime Minister is the most senior minister in the Cabinet. They are responsible for
chairing Cabinet meetings, selecting Cabinet ministers (and all other positions in Her
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the de facto leader of the UK, he or she exercises executive functions that are nominally
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monarch was the sole source of executive powers in the government. However,

following the lead of the Hanoverian monarchs, an arrangement of a "Prime Minister"

chairing and leading the Cabinet began to emerge. Over time, this arrangement became
the effective executive branch of government, as it assumed the day-to-day functioning
of the British government away from the sovereign.
Theoretically, the Prime Minister is primus inter pares (,i.e. Latin for "first among
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the Duchy of Lancaster and Ministers without portfolio. Cabinet meetings are typically
held weekly, while Parliament is in session.
Government departments and the Civil Service[edit]
The Government of the United Kingdom contains a number of ministries known mainly,
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Implementation of the Minister's decisions is carried out by a permanent politically
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"Whitehall" is often used as a metonym for the central core of the Civil Service. This is
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Royal Palace Whitehall.
Scottish Government[edit]
Main article: Scottish Government
The Scottish Government is responsible for all issues that are not explicitly reserved to
the United Kingdom Parliament at Westminster, by the Scotland Act; including NHS
Scotland, education, justice, rural affairs, and transport. It manages an annual budget of
more than 25 billion.[5] The government is led by the First Minister, assisted by
various Ministers with individual portfolios and remits. The Scottish

Parliament nominates a Member to be appointed as First Minister by the Queen. The

First Minister then appoints their Ministers (now known as Cabinet Secretaries) and
junior Ministers, subject to approval by the Parliament. The First Minister, the Ministers
(but not junior ministers), the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General are the Members of
the 'Scottish Executive', as set out in the Scotland Act 1998. They are collectively
known as "the Scottish Ministers".
Welsh Government[edit]
Main article: Welsh Government
The Welsh Government and the National Assembly for Wales have more limited powers
than those devolved to Scotland,[6] although following the passing of the Government
of Wales Act 2006 and the Welsh devolution referendum, 2011, the Assembly can now
legislate in some areas through an Act of the National Assembly for Wales. Following
the 2011 election, Welsh Labour held exactly half of the seats in the Assembly, falling
just short of an overall majority. A Welsh Labour Government was subsequently formed
headed by Carwyn Jones.
Northern Ireland Executive[edit]
Main article: Northern Ireland Executive
The Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly have powers closer to those already
devolved to Scotland. The Northern Ireland Executive is led by a diarchy,
currently First Minister Arlene Foster (Democratic Unionist Party) and deputy First
Minister Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fin).[7]
Legislatures[edit]
The UK Parliament is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom (i.e., there
is parliamentary sovereignty), and Government is drawn from and answerable to it.
Parliament is bicameral, consisting of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
There is also a devolved Scottish Parliament and devolved Assemblies in Wales and
Northern Ireland, with varying degrees of legislative authority.
UK Parliament[edit]
Parliament meets at the Palace of Westminster
Main article: British House of Commons
The Countries of the United Kingdom are divided into parliamentary constituencies of
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a Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons at General Elections and, if
required, at by-elections. As of 2010 there are 650 constituencies (there were 646 before
that year's general election). Of the 650 MPs, all but one - Lady Sylvia Hermon - belong
to a political party.

In modern times, all Prime Ministers and Leaders of the Opposition have been drawn
from the Commons, not the Lords. Alec Douglas-Home resigned from his peerages days
after becoming Prime Minister in 1963, and the last Prime Minister before him from the
Lords left in 1902 (the Marquess of Salisbury).
One party usually has a majority in Parliament, because of the use of the First Past the
Post electoral system, which has been conducive in creating the current two party
system. The monarch normally asks a person commissioned to form a government
simply whether it can survive in the House of Commons, something which majority
governments are expected to be able to do. In exceptional circumstances the monarch
asks someone to 'form a government' with a parliamentary minority[8] which in the
event of no party having a majority requires the formation of a coalition government.
This option is only ever taken at a time of national emergency, such as war-time. It was
given in 1916 to Andrew Bonar Law, and when he declined, to David Lloyd George and
in 1940 to Winston Churchill. A government is not formed by a vote of the House of
Commons, it is a commission from the monarch. The House of Commons gets its first
chance to indicate confidence in the new government when it votes on the Speech from
the Throne (the legislative programme proposed by the new government).
House of Lords[edit]
Main article: House of Lords
The House of Lords was previously a largely hereditary aristocratic chamber, although
including life peers, and Lords Spiritual. It is currently midway through extensive
reforms, the most recent of these being enacted in the House of Lords Act 1999. The
house consists of two very different types of member, the Lords Temporal and Lords
Spiritual. Lords Temporal include appointed members (life peers with no hereditary
right for their descendants to sit in the house) and ninety-two remaining hereditary
peers, elected from among, and by, the holders of titles which previously gave a seat in
the House of Lords. The Lords Spiritual represent the established Church of
England and number twenty-six: the Five Ancient Sees (Canterbury, York, London,
Winchester and Durham), and the 21 next-most senior bishops.
The House of Lords currently acts to review legislation initiated by the House of
Commons, with the power to propose amendments, and can exercise a suspensive veto.
This allows it to delay legislation if it does not approve it for twelve months. However,
the use of vetoes is limited by convention and by the operation of the Parliament Acts
1911 and 1949: the Lords may not veto the "money bills" or major manifesto promises
(see Salisbury convention). Persistent use of the veto can also be overturned by the
Commons, under a provision of the Parliament Act 1911. Often governments will accept
changes in legislation in order to avoid both the time delay, and the negative publicity of
being seen to clash with the Lords. However the Lords still retain a full veto in acts
which would extend the life of Parliament beyond the 5-year term limit introduced by
the Parliament Act 1911.

The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 outlined plans for a Supreme Court of the United
Kingdom to replace the role of the Law Lords.
The House of Lords was replaced as the final court of appeal on civil cases within the
United Kingdom on 1 October 2009, by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
Devolved national legislatures[edit]
Main article: Devolution in the United Kingdom
Though the UK parliament remains the sovereign parliament, Scotland has a parliament
and Wales and Northern Ireland have assemblies. De jure, each could have its powers
broadened, narrowed or changed by an Act of the UK Parliament. The UK is a unitary
state with a devolved system of government. This contrasts with a federal system, in
which sub-parliaments or state parliaments and assemblies have a clearly defined
constitutional right to exist and a right to exercise certain constitutionally guaranteed
and defined functions and cannot be unilaterally abolished by Acts of the central
parliament.
All three devolved institutions are elected by proportional representation: the Additional
Member System is used in Scotland and Wales, and Single Transferable Vote is used in
Northern Ireland.
England, therefore, is the only country in the UK not to have its own devolved
parliament. However, senior politicians of all main parties have voiced concerns in
regard to the West Lothian Question,[9][10] which is raised where certain policies for
England are set by MPs from all four constituent nations whereas similar policies for
Scotland or Wales might be decided in the devolved assemblies by legislators from
those countries alone. Alternative proposals for English regional government have
stalled, following a poorly received referendum on devolved government for the North
East of England, which had hitherto been considered the region most in favour of the
idea, with the exception of Cornwall, where there is widespread support for a Cornish
Assembly, including all five Cornish MPs.[11][12] England is therefore governed
according to the balance of parties across the whole of the United Kingdom.
The government has no plans to establish an English parliament or assembly although
several pressure groups[13] are calling for one. One of their main arguments is that MPs
(and thus voters) from different parts of the UK have inconsistent powers. Currently an
MP from Scotland can vote on legislation which affects only England but MPs from
England (or indeed Scotland) cannot vote on matters devolved to the Scottish
parliament. Indeed, the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is an MP for a
Scottish constituency, introduced some laws that only affect England and not his own
constituency. This anomaly is known as the West Lothian question.
The policy of the UK Government in England was to establish elected regional
assemblies with no legislative powers. The London Assembly was the first of these,
established in 2000, following a referendum in 1998, but further plans were abandoned

following rejection of a proposal for an elected assembly in North East England in

a referendum in 2004. Unelected regional assemblies remain in place in eight regions of
England.
Scottish Parliament[edit]
The Scottish Parliament is the national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in
the Holyrood area of the capital Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as
"Holyrood"[14] (cf. "Westminster"), is a democratically elected body comprising 129
members who are known as Members of the Scottish Parliament, or MSPs. Members
are elected for four-year terms under the mixed member proportional
representation system. As a result, 73 MSPs represent individual
geographical constituencies elected by the plurality ("first past the post") system, with a
further 56 returned from eight additional member regions, each electing seven MSPs.
[15]
The current Scottish Parliament was established by the Scotland Act 1998 and its first
meeting as a devolved legislature was on 12 May 1999. The parliament has the power to
pass laws and has limited tax-varying capability. Another of its roles is to hold
the Scottish Government to account. The "devolved matters" over which it has
responsibility include education, health, agriculture, and justice. A degree of domestic
authority, and all foreign policy, remains with the UK Parliament in Westminster.
The public take part in Parliament in a way that is not the case at Westminster through
Cross-Party Groups on policy topics which the interested public join and attend
meetings of alongside Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs).
The resurgence in Celtic language and identity, as well as 'regional' politics and
development, has contributed to forces pulling against the unity of the state.[16] This
was clearly demonstrated when - although some argue it was influenced by general
public dillusionment with Labour - the Scottish National Party (SNP) became the largest
party in the Scottish Parliament by one seat.
Alex Salmond (leader of SNP) has since made history by becoming the first First
Minister of Scotland from a party other than Labour. The SNP governed as a minority
administration at Holyrood following the 2007 Scottish Parliament election.
Nationalism (support for breaking up the UK) has experienced a dramatic rise in
popularity in recent years, with a pivotal moment coming at the 2011 Scottish
Parliament election where the SNP capitalised on the collapse of the Liberal Democrat
support to improve on their 2007 performance to win the first ever outright majority at
Holyrood (despite the voting system being specifically designed to prevent majorities),
with Labour remaining the largest opposition party.
This election result prompted the leader of the three main opposition parties to resign.
Iain Gray was succeeded as Scottish Labour leader by Johann Lamont, Scottish
Conservative and Unionist leader, Annabel Goldie was replaced by Ruth Davidson, and
Tavish Scott, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats was replaced by Willie Rennie.

A major SNP manifesto pledge was to hold a referendum on Scottish Independence,

which was duly granted by the UK Government and held on the 18th September 2014.
When the nationalists came to power in 2011, opinion polls placed support for
independence at around 31%, but in 2014, 45% voted to leave the union. In the wake of
the referendum defeat, membership of the SNP surged to over 100,000, overtaking the
Liberal Democrats as the third largest political party in the UK by membership, and in
the general election of May 2015 the SNP swept the board and took 56 of the 59
Westminster constituencies in Scotland (far surpassing their previous best of 11 seats in
the late 1970s) and winning more than 50% of the Scottish vote.
Alex Salmond resigned as First Minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP following
the country's rejection of independence in September 2014, and was succeeded in both
roles by the deputy First Minister and deputy leader of the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon. Also
in the wake of the referendum, Scottish Labour leader, Johann Lamont, stood down and
Jim Murphy was elected to replace her. As Mr. Murphy is not currently an MSP, the
Labour group in the Scottish Parliament is led by their deputy leader in Scotland, Kezia
Dugdale.
Judiciary[edit]
See also: Courts of the United Kingdom and Law of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system due to it being created by the
political union of previously independent countries with the terms of the Treaty of
Union guaranteeing the continued existence of Scotland's separate legal system. Today
the UK has three distinct systems of law: English law, Northern Ireland law and Scots
law. Recent constitutional changes saw a new Supreme Court of the United
Kingdom come into being in October 2009 that took on the appeal functions of the
Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.[18] The Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council, comprising the same members as the Supreme Court, is the highest court of
appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the UK overseas territories,
and the British crown dependencies.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland[edit]
Main articles: English law and Northern Ireland law
Both English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law are
based on common-law principles. The essence of common-law is that law is made
by judges sitting in courts, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal
precedent (stare decisis) to the facts before them. The Courts of England and Wales are
headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal,
the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases).
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the highest court in the land for both
criminal and civil cases in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and any decision it
makes is binding on every other court in the hierarchy.

Scotland[edit]
Main article: Scots law
Scots law, a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles, applies
in Scotland. The chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High
Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
serves as the highest court of appeal for civil cases under Scots law. Sheriff courts deal
with most civil and criminal cases including conducting criminal trials with a jury,
known that as Sheriff solemn Court, or with a Sheriff and no jury, known as (Sheriff
summary Court). The Sheriff courts provide a local court service with 49 Sheriff courts
organised across six Sheriffdoms.