The 1669 Act of Annexation was a Parliamentary Act passed during 1669 by the Parliament of Scotland to establish Orkney and Shetland's status as Crown Dependencies following a legal dispute with William, Earl of Morton, who held the estates of Orkney and Shetland.
The Act made Orkney and Shetland exempt from any "dissolution of His Majesty’s lands". In 1742 a further Act of Parliament returned the estates to a later Earl of Morton, however, the original act of Parliament specifically proscribes this, stating that any such change is to be "considered null, void and of no effect".
The 1669 Act specifically removed Orkney and Shetland from the jurisdiction of the Scottish Parliament and places it firmly in the care of the Crown, restoring the situation as it was 200 years prior at the time of the pawning of the islands by King Christian I of Denmark/Norway to Scotland's James III.[1]