Any debate about that could stoke existing sectarian tensions: Trains running between Glasgow and Edinburgh often have posters warning of prosecution for sectarianism, a phenomenon that successive Scottish governments have referred to as “Scotland’s shame.”
Bonnie Prince
The English insistence on a Protestant monarch led them in 1688 to depose James I’s grandson, James II of England and VII of Scotland, a Catholic.
Many Scots refused to accept this, and his son James, living in France, became known as “The King Over the Water.” He landed in Scotland in 1715, hoping to lead an army south and take the crown. Finding little support, he returned to France.
His son, Bonnie Prince Charlie, made an initially more successful attempt to take the crown in 1745. He successfully invaded England, before retreating and being defeated the following year at Culloden, the last battle on British soil.
“Scotland would go through a constitution exercise and it’s possible one question on the agenda would be do we want a monarchy or a republic?” said Hazell. “We can’t predict how Scotland would decide that.”