Editing Regnal number (section)

====Current state====
{{see also|Pillar Box War}}
The issue arose again with the accession of [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]], as Scotland had never before had a regnant Queen Elizabeth, the [[Elizabeth I of England|previous queen of that name]] having been queen of England only. Objections were raised, and sustained, to the use of the [[royal cypher]] E<small>II</small>R anywhere in Scotland, resulting in several violent incidents, including [[Pillar Box War|the destruction]] of one of the first new E<small>II</small>R [[pillar box]]es in Scotland, at [[Leith]] in late 1952. Since that time, the cipher used in Scotland on all government and Crown property and street furniture has carried no lettering, but simply the [[Crown of Scotland]] from the [[Honours of Scotland]]. A court case, ''[[MacCormick v Lord Advocate]],'' contesting the style "Elizabeth II" within Scotland, was decided in 1953 on the grounds that the numbering of monarchs was part of the [[royal prerogative]], and that the plaintiffs had no title to sue [[the Crown]].

To rationalise this usage, it was suggested by [[Winston Churchill]], the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] of the day, that in future, the higher of the two numerals from the English and Scottish sequences would always be used.<ref name="hansard">{{cite hansard |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1953/apr/15/royal-style-and-title|title=Royal Style and Title |date=15 April 1953 |column_start=199 | column_end=201 |house=House of Commons }}</ref> This had been the case ''de facto'' since the [[Acts of Union 1707]]; nine of the thirteen monarchs since the Act had names either never previously used in England or Scotland (Anne, six Georges, and Victoria) or used in both only after the [[Union of the Crowns|1603 Union of Crowns]] (three Charleses), which sidestepped the issue, while the English numbers for the remaining four monarchs' names have consistently been both higher and the ones used (William, two Edwards, and Elizabeth). Under the Churchill rule, if a future British monarch were to use the regnal name ''Alexander'', even though there has never been a King of England of that regnal name, they would be Alexander IV, there having been three Kings Alexander of Scotland (reigning 1107–1124, 1214–1249, and 1249–1286).