² the name "great britain" (then spelt "great brittaine") was first used by james vi/i in october 1604, who indicated that henceforth he and his successors would be viewed as kings of great britain, not kings of england and scotland. however the name was not applied to the "state" as a unit; both england and scotland continued to be governed independently. its validity as a name of the crown is also questioned, given that monarchs continued using separate ordinals (e.g., james vi/i, james vii/ii) in england and scotland. to avoid confusion, historians generally avoid using the term "king of great britain" until 1707 and instead to match the ordinal usage call the monarchs kings or queens of england and scotland. separate ordinals were abandoned when the two states merged with the act of union 1707, with subsequent monarchs using ordinals apparently based on english not scottish history (it might be argued that the monarchs have simply taken the higher ordinal, which to date has always been english). one example is queen elizabeth ii of the united kingdom, who is referred to as being "the second" even though there never was an elizabeth i of scotland or great britain. thus the term "great britain" is generally used from 1707.