The act concerned foreign policy and the royal prerogative: it provided that following the death of Queen Anne without direct heirs, no future monarch of Scotland and England could take Scotland to war without the explicit consent of the parliament.

[1] It was a response to the English Act of Settlement 1701 which had made members of the House of Hanover heirs to the throne of England.

The Scots, already unhappy with the War of the Spanish Succession, were concerned that rule by Hanoverians would lead to unwelcome Scottish involvement in German and continental wars.

The English parliament retaliated with the Alien Act 1705, removing Scottish trading privileges in England.

The conflict between the two parliaments was finally resolved by their merger under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707.