Plausibility Check: Personal union of Scotland and England without Stuarts

With a point of divergence after the failure of the Rough Wooing, what would be most plausible way for a personal union between Scotland and England without having to resort to the Stuarts?

It seems to me that the easy way in terms of succession law would be for Elizabeth I to marry James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran. If Mary I of Scotland dropped dead before having children (disease is a convenient excuse), then the child of the Arran-Tudor union (or would that be Hamilton-Tudor) would be in line for the succession to both the English and Scottish thrones. However, I don't think Elizabeth entertained this notion, so I'm not sure how it could come about. Are there any other ideas?

The goal is to have this union to occur peacefully through established laws of succession, so please don't just say "England conquers Scotland" or vice versa.
 
With a point of divergence after the failure of the Rough Wooing, what would be most plausible way for a personal union between Scotland and England without having to resort to the Stuarts?

It seems to me that the easy way in terms of succession law would be for Elizabeth I to marry James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran. If Mary I of Scotland dropped dead before having children (disease is a convenient excuse), then the child of the Arran-Tudor union (or would that be Hamilton-Tudor) would be in line for the succession to both the English and Scottish thrones. However, I don't think Elizabeth entertained this notion, so I'm not sure how it could come about. Are there any other ideas?

The goal is to have this union to occur peacefully through established laws of succession, so please don't just say "England conquers Scotland" or vice versa.

You could have Mary Stuart married to a Habsburg while Elisabeth marries to the earl of Arran, Mary Stuart would end up disinherited just like what happened to the Jacobites.
 
I think after the rough wooing the OTL route is really the only option. Elizabeth wasn't going to get married because of the political implications and she certainly wasn't going to get married to a Scottish noble.
 
Maybe James VI is born a girl. Then, Arbella Stuart us born a boy. The two then marry and become King and Queen of England&Scotland.
 
I think after the rough wooing the OTL route is really the only option. Elizabeth wasn't going to get married because of the political implications and she certainly wasn't going to get married to a Scottish noble.
Would a non-Stuart successor have the same compunction? For the sake of argument, let's say Mary I of Scotland and James VI of Scotland die earlier. There are other potential heirs, right? Would one of them provide the option for a personal union?
 
With a point of divergence after the failure of the Rough Wooing, what would be most plausible way for a personal union between Scotland and England without having to resort to the Stuarts?

Much of it depends on the later English dynasty.

The OTL union happened because a Tudor princess (Margaret) married James IV of Scotland.

With the deaths without children of her brother Henry's chlidren, the crown reverted to Margaret's descendants, who also held the crown of Scotland.

It's also hard to get away from Stuarts (or Stewarts), as they were the ruling house in Scotland. However, they had had a bad run -

  • James III had three sons, but two were childless
  • James IV had one child
  • James V had one child
Thus James Hamilton, Earl of Arran was heir presumptive (after Mary Queen of Scots and James VI) as the senior descendant of James II by his eldest daughter.

He was Mary's second cousin once removed. Unfortunately his son James went mad in 1562. There's a younger brother John who was sane.

So down the road, a marriage between a granddaughter of John by his eldest son, and a scion of the Greys. Then have everyone else on the Scots side die without heirs.
 
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