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These are featured articles related to the United Kingdom which appear on Portal:United Kingdom.
Biographical articles are at Portal:United Kingdom/Featured biography.
For a full list of UK related FAs sorted by topic see Portal:United Kingdom/Featured article/List.
The Battle of Blenheim (referred to in some countries as the Battle of Höchstädt) was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession, fought on 13 August 1704. At the battle, the forces of the Grand Alliance of England, Austria, the United Provinces, Prussia, Denmark, Hesse and Hanover were commanded by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and Prince Eugene of Savoy. The French and Bavarian armies were commanded by Camille d'Hostun de la Baume, Duc de Tallard; Maximilian Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, and Ferdinand, Comte de Marsin.
Blenheim was a decisive victory for the Grand Alliance, inflicting the first major defeat on the French in over 40 years, saving
Vienna from the Franco-Bavarian army. The battle ended
King Louis XIV's plans to dominate
Europe and extend his royal power from
Spain to the
Low Countries, and from
Germany to
Italy. It also resulted in knocking Bavaria out of the war. The battle left over 30,000 men dead or wounded. (
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Arsenal Football Club (also known as Arsenal, The Arsenal or The Gunners) are an English professional football club based in Holloway, north London. They play in the FA Premier League and are one of the most successful clubs in English football. Arsenal have won thirteen First Division and Premier League titles, ten FA Cups and in 2005–06 became the first London club to reach the UEFA Champions League final. Arsenal are also members of the G-14 group of leading European football clubs.
Arsenal were founded in 1886, in
Woolwich, south-east London, but in 1913 they moved north across the city to
Arsenal Stadium,
Highbury. In May 2006 they left Highbury, moving to their current home, the
Emirates Stadium in nearby Ashburton Grove,
Holloway. Arsenal have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with neighbours
Tottenham Hotspur, located four miles away in
Tottenham, with whom they have contested the
North London derby almost every season since 1913. (
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City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the
British monarch to a select group of communities. The status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criteria, although it was traditionally given to towns with
diocesan cathedrals. This association between having a cathedral and being called a city was established in the early 1540s when Henry VIII founded dioceses (and therefore cathedrals) in six English towns and also granted them all city status by issuing Letters Patent. (
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Dorset is a
county in
South West England on the
English Channel coast. Between its extreme points Dorset measures 80
kilometres (50
mi) from east to west and 64 km (40 mi) north to south, with an area of 2,652
square kilometres (1,024
sq mi). Dorset borders
Devon to the west,
Somerset to the north-west,
Wiltshire to the north-east, and
Hampshire to the east. Around half of Dorset's population lives in the
South East Dorset conurbation. The rest of the county is largely rural with a relatively low population density. Dorset's motto is 'Who's Afear'd'. Dorset is famous for its coastline, the
Jurassic Coast, which features landforms such as
Lulworth Cove, the
Isle of Portland,
Chesil Beach and
Durdle Door, as well as the holiday resorts of
Bournemouth,
Poole,
Weymouth,
Swanage, and
Lyme Regis. Dorset is the setting of the novels of
Thomas Hardy, who was born near Dorchester. The county has a long history of human settlement and some notable archaeology, including the
hill forts of
Maiden Castle and
Hod Hill. (
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The
FA Premier League is a league competition for
football clubs located at the top of the
English football league system (above
The Football League), making it England's primary football competition. The Premier League is presently contested by twenty clubs each season, but in a total of fourteen seasons, the title has been won by only four teams:
Arsenal,
Blackburn Rovers,
Chelsea and
Manchester United. Of these, the most successful is Manchester United, who have won the title eight times. The current Premier League champions are Chelsea, who won their second consecutive title in the
2005-06 season. (
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The
Brown Dog affair was a political controversy about
vivisection that raged in
Edwardian England from 1903 until 1910, becoming a
cause célèbre that reportedly divided the country. It involved the infiltration of
University of London medical lectures by Swedish women activists, pitched battles between medical students and the police, round-the-clock police protection for the statue of a dog, a libel trial at the
Royal Courts of Justice, and the establishment of a
Royal Commission to investigate the use of animals in experiments. The affair was triggered by allegations, vigorously denied, that Dr.
William Bayliss of
University College, London had performed an illegal dissection on a brown terrier dog — anaesthetized according to Bayliss, conscious according to the Swedish activists. A statue erected by antivivisectionists in memory of the dog led to violent protests by London's medical students, who saw the memorial as an assault on the entire medical profession. The unrest culminated in rioting in
Trafalgar Square on
December 10,
1907, when 1,000 students marched down
the Strand, clashing with 400 police officers, in what became known as the Brown Dog riots. (
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Restoration comedy is the name given to
English comedies written and performed in the
Restoration period from 1660 to 1700. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the
Puritan regime, the re-opening of the
theatres in 1660 signalled a rebirth of
English drama. Restoration comedy is famous (or notorious) for its
sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by
Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the
rakish aristocratic ethos of his
court. The socially diverse audiences included both aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on, and a substantial middle-class segment. These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling
plots, by the introduction of the first professional
actresses, and by the rise of the first
celebrity actors. This period saw the first professional woman
playwright,
Aphra Behn. (
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"England expects that every man will do his duty" was a
signal sent by
Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson from his
flagship HMS Victory as the
Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on
October 21,
1805. Trafalgar was the decisive naval engagement of the
Napoleonic Wars. It gave the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland control of the seas, removing all possibility of a
French invasion and conquest of Britain. Although there was much confusion surrounding the wording of the signal in the aftermath of the battle, the significance of the victory and Nelson's death during the battle led to the phrase becoming embedded in the English psyche, and it has been regularly quoted, paraphrased and referenced up to the modern day. (
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Holkham Hall, Norfolk, England, is an eighteenth century country house constructed in the Palladian style for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester by the architect William Kent with advice from the architect and aristocrat Lord Burlington. Burlington's Chiswick House is the prototype for many of England's Palladian revival houses.
Holkham Hall is one of England's finest examples of the Palladian revival style of architecture, the severity of the design being closer to
Palladio's ideals than many of the other numerous Palladian style houses of the period. The
Holkham estate, formerly known as Neals, had been purchased in 1609 by Sir
Edward Coke, the founder of the family fortune. It remains today the
ancestral home of the Coke family,
Earls of Leicester of Holkham. (
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The Red Barn Murder was a notorious murder committed in Suffolk, England in 1827. A young woman, Maria Marten, was shot dead by her lover, William Corder, the son of the local squire. The two had arranged to meet at the Red Barn, a local landmark, before eloping to Ipswich in order to be married. Maria was never heard from again. Corder fled the scene and although he sent Marten's family letters claiming she was in good health, her body was later discovered buried in the barn after her stepmother claimed to have dreamed about the murder.
Corder was tracked down in London, where he had married and started a new life. He was brought back to Suffolk, and, after a well-publicised trial, found guilty of murder. He was
hanged in
Bury St. Edmunds in 1828; the execution was watched by a huge crowd. The story provoked numerous articles in the newspapers, and songs and plays. The village where the crime had taken place became a tourist attraction and the barn was stripped by souvenir hunters. The plays and ballads remained popular throughout the next century and continue to be performed today. (
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West Wycombe Park is a country house near the village of West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. Built between 1740 and 1800 as a pleasure palace for the decadent 18th-century libertine and dilettante Sir Francis Dashwood, the house is long and rectangular, and all four façades are columned and pedimented, three theatrically so. The house combines and encapsulates the entire progression of British 18th-century architecture from early idiosyncratic Palladian to the Neoclassical, although anomalies in the design of the house make it architecturally unique. It is in an 18th-century landscaped park, surrounded by smaller temples that act as satellites to the greater temple, the house.
The house was given to the
National Trust in 1943 by Sir John Dashwood, 10th
Baronet (1896–1966), an action strongly resented by his heir. Dashwood retained ownership of the contents of the house, much of which he sold; after his death, the house was restored at the expense of his son, Sir Francis Dashwood. Today, while the structure is owned by the National Trust, the house is the home of Sir Edward Dashwood and his family. The house is open to the public during the summer months and a venue for civil weddings and corporate entertainment, which help to fund its maintenance and upkeep. (
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The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an English order of chivalry dating from mediæval times. It is the world's oldest national order of knighthood, and the pinnacle of the British honours system. Its membership is extremely limited compared to most modern orders, consisting of the Sovereign and not more than 25 full members, known as Knights Companion or Ladies Companion (not Dames, as in most other British chivalric orders). The Order also includes certain extra members (e.g., members of the British Royal Family and foreign monarchs), known as "Supernumerary" Knights and Ladies. Unlike most other orders, the Order of the Garter is not subject to the Prime Minister's binding advice on appointments; rather, the Sovereign alone grants membership. Membership in the Order is thus the personal gift of the Sovereign.
As the name suggests, the Order's primary emblem, depicted on several insignia, is a
garter bearing the motto
Honi soit qui mal y pense in gold letters. The motto is
Old French for "shame upon him who thinks evil of it". The Garter is not only symbolic, but is an accessory worn by the Order's members during ceremonies. (
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The Coronation of the British monarch is a ceremony (specifically, initiation rite) in which the monarch of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms is formally crowned and invested with regalia. It corresponds to the coronation ceremonies which formerly occurred in other European countries which maintain or maintained monarchies; however, all other such countries -- including even the Roman Catholic city state of the Vatican -- have abandoned coronations in favour of more matter-of-fact inaugurations. The coronation usually takes place several months after the death of the previous monarch, for the coronation is considered a joyous occasion that would be inappropriate when mourning still continues. (It also gives planners enough time to complete the elaborate arrangements required.) For example, Elizabeth II was crowned on June 2, 1953, despite having acceded to the throne on February 6, 1952, the day of her father's death.
The ceremony is performed by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric of the
Church of England. Many other government officials and guests attend, including foreign
heads of state. (
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The Silverpit crater is a sub-sea structure under the North Sea off the coast of the United Kingdom. The crater-like form was discovered in 2001 during the analysis of seismic data collected during routine exploration for oil, and was initially reported as the UK's first known impact crater. However, alternative origins have subsequently been proposed. It is named after the Silver Pit, a feature recognized by generations of fishermen.
Its age is thought to be of the order of 65 million years, making its formation roughly coincident with the impact that created the
Chicxulub Crater (
KT boundary). If Silverpit is indeed an impact crater, this may imply that the Earth was struck at that time by several objects, possibly in a similar event to the collision of
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with
Jupiter in 1994. Several other impact craters around the world are known to date from roughly the same epoch, lending credence to this theory. (
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The
Book of Kells (Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS 58, less widely known as the
Book of Columba) is an ornately illustrated
manuscript, produced by
Celtic monks around AD 800 in the style known as
Insular art. It is one of the more lavishly
illuminated manuscripts to survive from the
Middle Ages and has been described as the zenith of
Western calligraphy and illumination. It contains the
four gospels of the
Bible in
Latin, along with prefatory and explanatory matter decorated with numerous colourful illustrations and illuminations. Today it is on permanent display at the
Trinity College Library in
Dublin,
Ireland. (
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The Mini is a small car that was produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 to 2000. The most popular British-made car, it has since been replaced by the New MINI which was launched in 2001. The original is considered an icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers. In the international poll for the award of the world's most influential car of the twentieth century the Mini came second only to the Ford Model T.
This revolutionary and distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by
Sir Alec Issigonis. It was manufactured at the
Longbridge and
Cowley plants in the United Kingdom, and later also in Australia, Belgium, Chile, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. The Mini
Mk I had three major updates: the Mk II, the Clubman and the Mk III. Within these was a series of variations including an
estate car, a
pickup truck, a
van and the
Mini Moke — a
jeep-like buggy. The Mini Cooper and Cooper "S" were sportier versions that were successful as
rally cars, winning the
Monte Carlo Rally three times. (
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The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. While its original date of foundation is unknown, James VII (also King of England as James II) instituted the modern Order in 1687. The Order consists of the Sovereign and sixteen Knights and Ladies, as well as certain "extra" knights (members of the British Royal Family and foreign monarchs). The Sovereign alone grants membership of the Order; he or she is not advised by the Government, as occurs with most other Orders. The sixteen members are required to be Scottish-born, though not the "extra" knights and ladies.
The Order's primary emblem is the
thistle, the
national flower of Scotland. The motto is
Nemo me impune lacessit (
Latin for "No one provokes me with impunity"); the same motto also appears on the
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom for use in Scotland and on some
pound coins. The
patron saint of the Order is
St Andrew. (
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The City of Manchester Stadium (also known as COMS or Eastlands) is a sports venue in Manchester, England. Originally designed as part of Manchester's failed bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, the stadium was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games at a cost of GB£110 million. After the Games it was converted for use as a football facility, and became the home of Manchester City F.C. who moved there from Maine Road in 2003, signing a 250 year lease.
The stadium is bowl shaped, with two tiers all the way round the ground and third tiers along the two side stands. With an all seater capacity of 47,726 it is currently the fourth largest stadium in the FA Premier League and tenth largest in the United Kingdom. On 4 October 2006 it was announced that the stadium will host the 2008 UEFA Cup Final.
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The
slate industry in Wales began during the
Roman period when
slate was used to roof the fort at
Segontium, modern
Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, from when it expanded rapidly and reached its peak output in the late 19th century, at which time the most important slate producing areas were in north-west Wales. These included the
Penrhyn Quarry near
Bethesda, the
Dinorwig Quarry near
Llanberis, the
Nantlle Valley quarries and
Blaenau Ffestiniog, where the slate was
mined rather than
quarried. Penrhyn and Dinorwig were the two largest slate quarries in the world, and the Oakeley mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog was the largest slate mine in the world. The
Great Depression and the
Second World War led to the closure of many smaller quarries, and competition from other roofing materials, particularly tiles, resulted in the closure of most of the larger quarries in the 1960s and 1970s. Slate production continues on a much reduced scale. (
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Weymouth is a town in
Dorset,
England, situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the
River Wey on the
English Channel coast. The town is 13 kilometres (8 mi) south of
Dorchester and 8 kilometres (5 mi) north of the
Isle of Portland. The population of Weymouth is almost 52,000. The
A354 road bridge connects Weymouth to Portland, which together form the borough of
Weymouth and Portland. The history of the borough stretches back to the 12th century; including involvement in the
Black Death, the
settlement of the Americas, the
Georgian era, and
World War II. Although fishing and trading employ fewer people in the area since their peak in earlier centuries, tourism has had a strong presence in the town since the 18th century. Weymouth is a popular tourist
resort, and the town's economy depends on its harbour and visitor attractions. Weymouth is a gateway town situated half-way along the
Jurassic Coast, a
World Heritage Site on the Dorset and east
Devon coast, important for its geology and landforms. Weymouth Harbour is home to cross-channel ferries, pleasure boats and private yachts, and nearby
Portland Harbour is home to the
Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, where the sailing events of the
2012 Olympic Games will be held. (
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Baden-Powell House, colloquially known as B-P House, is a Scouting hostel and conference centre in South Kensington, London, which was built as a tribute to Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting. The house, owned by The Scout Association, hosts a collection of Baden-Powell memorabilia, including the original Baden-Powell painting by David Jagger, Baden-Powell's Last Message to Scouts, and a granite statue by Don Potter.
The building committee, chaired by
Sir Harold Gillett,
Lord Mayor of London, purchased the site in 1956, and assigned
Ralph Tubbs to design the house in the
modern architectural style. The Foundation Stone was laid in 1959 by World Chief Guide
Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, and it was opened in 1961 by
Queen Elizabeth II. The largest part of the £400,000 cost was provided by the Scout Movement itself. Over the years, the house has been refurbished several times, so that it now provides modern and affordable lodging for
Scouts,
Guides, and their families, staying in London. (
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The British African-Caribbean (Afro-Caribbean) community are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background, and whose ancestors were indigenous to Africa.
As immigration to the United Kingdom from Africa increased in the 1990s, the term has been used to include UK residents solely of African origin, or as a term to define all Black British residents, though this is usually denoted by "African and Caribbean". The most common and traditional use of the term Afro-Caribbean community is in reference to groups of residents continuing aspects of Caribbean culture, customs and traditions in the United Kingdom.
The largest proportion of the African-Caribbean population in the UK are of
Jamaican origin; others trace origins to smaller nations including
Trinidad and Tobago,
Saint Kitts and Nevis,
Barbados,
Saint Lucia,
Grenada,
Montserrat,
Dominica,
Anguilla,
Antigua and Barbuda,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Guyana, which though located on the
South American mainland, has close cultural ties to the Caribbean, and was historically considered to be part of the British West Indies, and
Belize (formerly
British Honduras), in
Central America, which culturally is more akin to the Caribbean than to
Latin America, due to its colonial and still-extant economic ties to the UK. (
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The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the
British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Beginning in 1987,
Bill Drummond and
Jimmy Cauty released
hip hop-inspired and
sample-heavy records as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and, on one occasion (the British number one hit single "
Doctorin' the Tardis"), as The Timelords. As The KLF, Drummond and Cauty pioneered the genres "stadium house" (rave music with a pop-rock production and sampled crowd noise) and "
ambient house". The KLF released a series of international top-ten hits on their own
KLF Communications record label, and became the biggest selling singles act in the world for 1991. Their most notorious performance was at the February 1992
Brit Awards, where they fired machine gun blanks into the audience and dumped a dead sheep at the aftershow party. This performance announced The KLF's departure from the music business, and in May 1992 the duo deleted their entire back catalogue. With The KLF's profits, Drummond and Cauty established the
K Foundation and sought to subvert the art world, staging an
alternative art award for the worst artist of the year and burning a million
pounds sterling in
The K Foundation burn a million quid. Although Drummond and Cauty remained true to their word of May 1992—the KLF Communications catalogue remains deleted—they have released a small number of new tracks since then, under different names. (
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Dundee (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Dèagh)—originally called Alectum—is the fourth-largest city in Scotland, with a population of 143,090. However, if outer districts such as Monifieth and Invergowrie, joined physically but not politically, are counted, the number is around 170,000. It is located on the north bank of the River Tay's estuary and so is near the east coast and the North Sea. Dundee is known as the City of Discovery, both in honour of Dundee's history of scientific activities, and of the RRS Discovery, Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic exploration vessel, which was built in Dundee and is now berthed there.
Its history began with the
Picts in the
Iron Age and during the medieval period was the site of many battles. During the
Industrial Revolution the local
jute industry caused the city to grow rapidly. In this period Dundee also gained a reputation for its marmalade industry and its journalism, giving Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism". Dundee's population reached a peak of nearly 200,000 at the start of the 1970s, but it has since declined due to outward migration and the council boundary changes of the 1970s and 1980s, which saw Dundee lose suburbs to the surrounding counties. (
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The
Priestley Riots took place from 14 July to 17 July 1791 in
Birmingham,
England; the rioters' main targets were
religious Dissenters, most notably the religious and political controversialist,
Joseph Priestley. The riots started with an attack on a hotel that was the site of a banquet organized in sympathy with the French Revolution. Then, beginning with Priestley's church and home, the rioters attacked or burned four Dissenting chapels, twenty-seven houses, and several businesses. Many of them became intoxicated by liquor that they found while looting, or with which they were bribed to stop burning homes. A small core could not be bribed, however, and remained sober. They burned not only the homes and chapels of Dissenters, but also the homes of people they associated with Dissenters, such as members of the scientific
Lunar Society. While the riots were not initiated by Prime Minister
William Pitt's administration, the national government was slow to respond to the Dissenters' pleas for help. Local Birmingham officials seem to have been involved in the planning of the riots, and they were later reluctant to prosecute any ringleaders. Those who had been attacked gradually left, leaving Birmingham a more conservative city than it had been throughout the
eighteenth century. (
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Thoughts on the Education of Daughters is British
feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's first published work. Published in
1787 by her friend
Joseph Johnson,
Thoughts is a
conduct book that offers advice on female education to the emerging British
middle class. Although dominated by considerations of morality and etiquette, the text also contains basic child-rearing instructions, such as how to care for an infant. An early version of the modern
self-help book, the
eighteenth-century British conduct book drew on several literary traditions, such as advice manuals and religious narratives. There was an explosion in the number of conduct books published during the second half of the eighteenth century, and Wollstonecraft took advantage of this burgeoning market when she published
Thoughts. However, the book was only moderately successful: it was favourably reviewed, but only by one journal and it was reprinted only once. Although it was excerpted in popular magazines of the time, it was not republished until the rise of
feminist literary criticism in the 1970s. The book encourages mothers to teach their daughters analytical thinking, self-discipline, honesty, contentment in their social position, and marketable skills (in case they should ever need to support themselves). (
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Sheffield is a major city and metropolitan borough in the north of England. It is so named because of its origins in a field on the River Sheaf that runs through the city. The city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wide economic base. The population of the City of Sheffield is estimated at 520,700 people (2005), and it is one of the eight largest English cities outside London that form the English Core Cities Group.
The city became world famous in the nineteenth century for its production of
steel. Many innovations in the industry were developed locally, including
crucible and
stainless steel. This fuelled an almost tenfold increase in the population during the
Industrial Revolution. It gained its
city charter in 1893 and became officially titled the City of Sheffield. International competition caused a decline in local industry during the 1970s and 1980s, and at the same time the national coal industry collapsed, affecting Sheffield's population. In recent years the city has reinvented itself as a sporting and technology city. (
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Weymouth is a town in Dorset, England, United Kingdom, situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey on the English Channel coast. The town is 13 kilometres (8 mi) south of Dorchester and 8 kilometres (5 mi) north of the Isle of Portland. The population of Weymouth is almost 52,000.
The A354 road bridge connects Weymouth to Portland, which together form the borough of Weymouth and Portland. The history of the borough stretches back to the 12th century; including involvement in the Black Death, the settlement of the Americas, the Georgian era, and World War II.
Although fishing and trading are less significant employment sectors in the area since their peak in earlier centuries, tourism has had a strong presence in the town since the 18th century. Weymouth continues to be a popular tourist
resort, and the town's economy depends on its harbour and the beaches of
Weymouth Bay. Weymouth is a gateway town situated half-way along the
Jurassic Coast, a
World Heritage Site on the Dorset and east Devon coast, important for its geology and landforms. Weymouth harbour is home to cross-channel ferries, pleasure boats and private yachts, and nearby
Portland Harbour is home to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, where the sailing events of the
2012 Olympic Games will be held. (
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The
Great Fire of London was a major
conflagration that swept through the central parts of
London,
England, from Sunday,
2 September to Wednesday,
5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval
City of London inside the old
Roman City Wall. It threatened, but did not reach, the aristocratic district of
Westminster (the modern
West End),
Charles II's
Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban
slums. It consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches,
St. Paul's Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated that it destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's 80,000 inhabitants. The death toll from the fire is unknown and is traditionally thought to have been small, as only a few verified deaths were recorded. This reasoning has recently been challenged on the grounds that the deaths of poor and middle-class people were not recorded anywhere, and that the heat of the fire may have cremated many victims, leaving no recognisable remains. (
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The history of Scotland in the High Middle Ages concerns itself with Scotland in the era between the death of Domnall II in 900 AD and the death of king Alexander III in 1286, which led indirectly to the Scottish Wars of Independence.
In the tenth and eleventh centuries, northern
Great Britain was increasingly dominated by
Gaelic culture, and by a Gaelic
regal lordship known in
Gaelic as "
Alba", in
Latin as either "Albania" or "
Scotia", and in
English as "Scotland". From a base in eastern Scotland north of the
River Forth, the kingdom acquired control of the lands lying to the south. It had a flourishing culture, comprising part of the larger
Gaelic-speaking world. (
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British anti-invasion preparations of World War II entailed a large scale programme of military and civilian mobilisation in response to the threat of invasion by
German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The army needed to recover from the defeat of the
British Expeditionary Force in
France and one and a half million men were enrolled as part-time soldiers in the
Home Guard. The rapid construction of
field fortifications transformed much of Britain, especially southern England, into a prepared battlefield. Short of heavy weapons and equipment, the British had to make the best use of whatever was available. The German invasion plan, known to English speakers as
Operation Sealion, was never taken beyond the preliminary assembly of forces stage. Today, very little remains of Britain's anti-invasion preparations. Only reinforced concrete structures such as pillboxes are common and even these have, until very recently, been unappreciated as historical monuments. (
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Chew Valley Lake (grid reference ST5659) is a large reservoir in the Chew Valley, Somerset, England, and the fifth-largest artificial lake in the United Kingdom (the largest in south-west England), with an area of 1,200 acres (4.9 km²). The lake, created in the early 1950s and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956, provides much of the drinking water for the city of Bristol and surrounding area, taking its supply from the Mendip Hills. Some of the water from the lake is used to maintain the flow in the River Chew.
Before the lake was created, archaeological investigations were carried out that showed evidence of occupation since Neolithic times and included Roman artefacts. The lake is an important site for wildlife and has been dedicated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Protection Area (SPA). It is a national centre for birdwatching, with over 260 species recorded, including some unusual sightings. The lake has indigenous and migrant water birds throughout the year, and two nature trails have been created. The flora (plants) and fauna provide a variety of habitats and include some less common plants and insects.
Some restricted use for recreational activities is permitted by the owner,
Bristol Water, including
dinghy sailing and
fishing, primarily for
trout. (
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In the common law of crime in England and Wales, a common scold was a species of public nuisance — a troublesome and angry woman who broke the public peace by habitually arguing and quarrelling with her neighbours. The Latin name for the offender, communis rixatrix, appears in the feminine gender, and makes it clear that only women could commit this crime.
The offence was punishable by ducking: being placed in a chair and submerged in a river or pond. Although rarely prosecuted it remained on the statute books in England and Wales until 1967. (
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Augustan literature is a
style of
English literature whose origins correspond roughly with the reigns of
Queen Anne,
King George I, and
George II. In contemporary critical parlance, it refers to the literature of 1700 up to approximately 1760 (or, for some, 1789). It is a literary
epoch that featured the rapid development of the
novel, an explosion in
satire, the mutation of
drama from
political satire into
melodrama, and an evolution toward
poetry of personal exploration. In
philosophy, it was an age increasingly dominated by
empiricism, while in the writings of
political-economy it marked the evolution of
mercantilism as a formal philosophy, the development of
capitalism, and the triumph of
trade. (
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The Country Wife is a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. Even its title contains a lewd pun. It is based on several plays by Molière, with added features that 1670s London audiences demanded: colloquial prose dialogue in place of Molière's verse, a complicated, fast-paced plot tangle, and many sex jokes. It turns on two indelicate plot devices: a rake's trick of pretending impotence in order to safely have clandestine affairs with married women, and the arrival in London of an inexperienced young "country wife", with her discovery of the joys of town life, especially the fascinating London men.
The scandalous trick and the frank language have for much of the play's history kept it off the stage and out of print. Between 1753 and 1924,
The Country Wife was considered too outrageous to be performed at all and was replaced on the stage by
David Garrick's cleaned-up and bland version
The Country Girl, now a forgotten curiosity. The original play is again a stage favourite today, and is also acclaimed by
academic critics, who praise its linguistic energy, sharp social
satire, and openness to different interpretations. (
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The
Ormulum or
Orrmulum is a 12th-century work of Biblical
exegesis, written in early
Middle English verse by a monk named Orm (or Ormin). Because of the unique
phonetic orthography adopted by the author, the work preserves many details of English pronunciation at a time when the language was in flux after the
Norman Conquest; consequently, despite its lack of literary merit, it is invaluable to
philologists in tracing the development of English. Orm was concerned that priests were unable to speak the
vernacular properly, and so he developed an idiosyncratic spelling system to tell his readers how to pronounce every vowel, and he composed his work using a strict poetic meter that ensured that readers would know which syllables were stressed. Modern scholars can use these two features to reconstruct Middle English just as Orm spoke it. (
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Motörhead are a British heavy metal band formed in 1975 by bassist, singer and songwriter Lemmy (real name Ian Kilmister), who has remained the sole constant member. Usually a power trio, Motörhead had particular success in the early 1980s with several successful singles in the UK Top 40 chart. The albums Overkill, its follow on, Bomber, Ace of Spades, and particularly No Sleep 'til Hammersmith, cemented Motörhead's reputation as one of Britain's foremost heavy metal groups.
While Motörhead are typically classified as heavy metal,
speed metal or
thrash metal (and often regarded as a foundational influence on the latter two styles), Lemmy dislikes such labels, preferring to describe the band's music simply as "
rock and roll". Motörhead's approach has remained the same over the band's career, preferring to play what they enjoy and do best, their love for early rock and roll is reflected in some of their occasional cover songs. Motörhead's lyrics typically cover such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse, and "life on the road". (
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York City F.C. is an
English football club based in
York,
North Yorkshire. The club participates in the
Conference National, the fifth tier of English football. Founded in 1922, they joined
The Football League in 1929, and have spent the majority of their history in the lower divisions. The club once rose as high as the second tier of English football, spending two seasons in the
Second Division in the 1970s. In the 2003–04 season the club lost their League status when they were relegated from the
Third Division, and have since remained in the Conference. York have enjoyed more success in cup competitions than in the league, with highlights including an
FA Cup semi-final appearance in 1955. In the
1995–96 Coca-Cola Cup, York beat
Manchester United 3–0 at
Old Trafford; Manchester United went on to win the
FA Cup and
Premiership double that season. York play their home games at
KitKat Crescent in York. This stadium was formerly known as Bootham Crescent, but was renamed KitKat Crescent because of a sponsorship deal with
Nestlé, whose confectionery factory, formerly known as
Rowntrees, is one of the city's largest employers. (
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Oriel College is the fifth-oldest of the constituent
colleges of the
University of Oxford in the
United Kingdom. Oriel has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford, a title formerly claimed by
University College, whose claim of being founded by
King Alfred is no longer promoted. The original
medieval foundation set up by
Adam de Brome, under the patronage of
Edward II, was called the House of the Blessed Mary at Oxford. The first design allowed for a
Provost and ten
Fellows, called 'scholars', and the College remained a small body of graduate Fellows until the sixteenth century, when it started to admit undergraduates. During the
English Civil War, Oriel played host to high-ranking members of the
King's Oxford Parliament. The College has nearly 40 Fellows, about 300 undergraduates and some 160 graduates, the student body having roughly equal numbers of men and women. Oriel's notable alumni include two
Nobel laureates; prominent Fellows have included
John Keble and
John Henry Newman, founders of the
Oxford Movement. As of 2003, the college's estimated
financial endowment is £63.5m. (
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The production of
renewable energy in Scotland is an issue that has come to the fore in technical, economic and political terms during the opening years of the 21st century. The natural resource base for renewables is extraordinary by European, and even global standards. In addition to an existing installed capacity of 1.3
gigawatts (GW) of
hydro-electric schemes,
Scotland has an estimated potential of 36.5 GW of
wind and 7.5 GW of
tidal power, 25% of the estimated total capacity for the
European Union and up to 14 GW of
wave power potential, 10% of EU capacity. The renewable electricity generating capacity may be 60 GW or more, considerably greater than the existing capacity from all fuel sources of 10.3 GW. Much of this potential remains untapped, but continuing improvements in engineering are enabling more of the renewable resource to be utilised. Fears regarding '
peak oil' and
climate change have driven the subject high up the political agenda and are also encouraging the use of various
biofuels. Although the finances of many projects remain either speculative or dependent on subsidies, it is probable that there has been a significant, and in all likelihood long-term, change in the underpinning economics. (
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Pink Floyd are an
English rock band, noted for progressive compositions, philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, cover art and elaborate
live shows. The group is one of rock music's most successful and influential acts, believed to have sold an estimated 73.5 million albums in the U.S. and over 200 million albums worldwide. Pink Floyd enjoyed moderate success in the late 1960s as a
psychedelic band led by
Syd Barrett. Barrett's erratic behaviour caused his colleagues to replace him with guitarist
David Gilmour and the band went on to record several elaborate
concept albums, achieving worldwide success with 1973's
The Dark Side of the Moon, 1975's
Wish You Were Here, 1977's
Animals, and 1979's
The Wall, among the best-selling, most critically acclaimed, and enduringly popular albums in rock music history.
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The granting of
Royal Assent is the formal method by which the
Sovereign of the
United Kingdom, or the Sovereign's representative in
Commonwealth Realms, completes the process of the enactment of legislation by formally assenting to an
Act of Parliament. While the power to withhold Royal Assent was once exercised often, it is almost never exercised under modern constitutional conventions. The power remains as one of the
reserve powers of the monarch. The granting of the Royal Assent is sometimes associated with elaborate ceremonies. In the United Kingdom, for instance, the Sovereign appoints
Lords Commissioners who in turn announce that Royal Assent has been granted at a ceremony at the
Palace of Westminster,
Buckingham Palace or another royal residence. Two methods of notifying the Parliament are available: the Lords Commissioners or the Sovereign's representatives may grant Assent in the presence of both Houses of Parliament; alternatively, each House may be notified separately, usually by the presiding officer.
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An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump is a 1768
oil-on-canvas painting by
Joseph Wright of Derby, part of a series of candlelit scenes that Wright painted during the 1760s. The
Air Pump departed from previous painting conventions by depicting a scientific subject in the reverential manner formerly reserved for scenes of historical and religious significance. Wright was intimately involved in depicting the
Industrial Revolution and the scientific advances of the
Enlightenment, but while his paintings were recognized as something out of the ordinary by his contemporaries, his provincial status and choice of subjects meant the style was never widely imitated. The picture has been owned by the
National Gallery since 1863 and is still regarded as a masterpiece of British art. The painting depicts a
natural philosopher, a forerunner of the modern scientist, recreating one of
Robert Boyle's
air pump experiments, in which a bird is deprived of oxygen, before a varied group of onlookers. The group exhibit different reactions, but for most scientific curiosity overcomes concern for the bird. The central figure looks out of the picture as if inviting the viewer's participation in the outcome. (
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Belton House is a
country house near
Grantham,
Lincolnshire,
England. The mansion is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading to
follies within a greater wooded
park. Belton has been described as a compilation of all that is finest of
Carolean architecture, the only truly
vernacular style of architecture that England had produced since the time of the
Tudors. Only
Brympton d'Evercy has been similarly lauded as the perfect English country house. For three hundred years, Belton House was the seat of the
Brownlow and Cust family, who had first acquired land in the area in the late 16th century. Between 1685 and 1688 the young Sir John Brownlow and his wife had the present mansion built. Despite great wealth they chose to build a modest country house rather than a grand contemporary
Baroque palace. The contemporary, if provincial, Carolean style was the selected choice of design. However, the new house was fitted with the latest
innovations such as sash windows for the principal rooms, and more importantly completely separate areas for the staff. (
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Buckingham Palace is the official
London residence of the
British monarch (or
sovereign), and the largest working royal
palace remaining in the world. In addition to being the London home of
Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace is a setting for state occasions and royal entertaining, a base for all officially visiting
heads of state, and a major
tourist attraction. It has been a rallying point for the British at times of national rejoicing and crisis. The palace, originally known as Buckingham House, was a large
townhouse built for the
Duke of Buckingham in 1703 and acquired by
King George III in 1762 as a private residence. It was enlarged over the next 75 years, principally by
architects John Nash and
Edward Blore, forming three wings around a central
courtyard. Buckingham Palace finally became the official royal palace of the British monarch on the accession of
Queen Victoria in 1837. The last major structural additions were made during the
Victorian era, with the addition of the large wing facing east towards
The Mall, and the removal of the former state entrance,
Marble Arch, to its present position near
Speakers' Corner in
Hyde Park. (
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Four Times of the Day is a series of four paintings by
William Hogarth from
1736, reproduced as a series of four
engravings published in
1738. They are humorous depictions of life in the streets of
London, the vagaries of fashion, and the interactions between the rich and poor of the capital. Unlike many of Hogarth's other series, such as
A Harlot's Progress,
A Rake's Progress,
Industry and Idleness and
The Four Stages of Cruelty, it does not depict the story of an individual, but instead focuses on the society of the city. Hogarth intended the series to be humorous rather than instructional; the pictures do not offer a judgement on whether the rich or poor are more deserving of our sympathies: while the upper and middle classes tend to provide the focus for each scene there are fewer of the moral comparisons seen in some other of his works. The four pictures depict scenes of daily life in various locations in London as the day progresses.
Morning shows a prudish spinster making her way to church in
Covent Garden past the revellers of the night before;
Noon shows two cultures on opposite sides of the street in
St Giles;
Evening depicts a
dyer's family returning hot and bothered from a trip to
Sadler's Wells; and
Night shows a drunken
Freemason staggering home from a night of celebration . (
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The
Scottish Parliament Building is the home of the
Scottish Parliament at
Holyrood, within the
UNESCO World Heritage Site in
Edinburgh. Construction on the building commenced in June 1999 and the
Members of the Scottish Parliament held their first debate in the new building on Tuesday,
7 September 2004. The formal opening by
Queen Elizabeth II took place on
9 October 2004.
Enric Miralles, the
Catalan architect who designed the building, died during the course of its construction. From the outset, the building and its construction have proven to be highly controversial. The choices of location, architect, design and construction company were all criticised by
politicians, the
media and the Scottish public. Scheduled to open in 2001, it did so in 2004, more than three years late with an estimated final cost of £414m, substantially higher than initial costings of between £10m and £40m. A major
public inquiry into the handling of the construction, chaired by the former
Lord Advocate,
Peter Fraser, was established in 2003. The inquiry concluded in September 2004 and criticised the management of the whole project from the realisation of cost increases down to the way in which major design changes were implemented. Despite these criticisms and a mixed public reaction, the building was welcomed by architectural academics and critics. (
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The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick is an
order of chivalry associated with
Ireland. The Order was created in 1783 by
George III. The regular creation of knighthoods of
St Patrick lasted until 1922, when most of Ireland became independent as the
Irish Free State. While the Order technically still exists, no knighthood of St Patrick has been created since 1934, and the last surviving knight,
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, died in 1974. The patron saint of the Order is
St Patrick. Its motto is
Quis separabit?, which is
Latin for "Who will separate us?". Most
British orders of chivalry cover the entire kingdom, but the three most exalted ones each pertain to one constitutent nation only. The Order of St Patrick, which pertains to Ireland, is the third-most senior in precedence and age. The Order of St Patrick earned international coverage when in 1907 its insignia, known generally as the
Irish Crown Jewels, were stolen from
Dublin Castle shortly before a visit by the Order's Sovereign, King
Edward VII. Their whereabouts remain a mystery. (
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The
corporation tax is a
tax levied in the
United Kingdom on the
profits made by UK-resident
companies and
associations. It is also levied on non-UK resident companies and associations which trade in the UK through a permanent establishment. The tax was introduced by the Finance Act 1965, which simultaneously removed companies and associations that became liable to corporation tax from the charge to the income tax. The tax borrowed its basic structure and many of its rules from income tax. Recently the tax has come under pressure from a number of sources. Tax competition between jurisdictions has reduced the headline charge to 30 percent; judgments from the
European Court of Justice have found that certain aspects of UK corporate tax law are discriminatory under
European Union treaties and are expected to continue to do so; and
tax avoidance schemes marketed by the big
accountancy and law firms and by banks have threatened the tax base. The British government has responded to the last two by introducing ever more complex legislation to counter the threats. (
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The Brownsea Island Scout camp was a boys camping event on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, southern England, organised by Lieutenant-General Baden-Powell to test his ideas for the book Scouting for Boys. Twenty boys from different social backgrounds participated from 1 August to 8 August 1907 in activities around camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism. Recognised as the world's first Scout camp, the event is regarded as the real origin of the worldwide Scout movement.
Up to the early 1930s, camping by
Boy Scouts continued on Brownsea Island. In 1963, a formal 50 acre Scout campsite was opened by
Olave Baden-Powell, when the island became a
nature conservation area owned by the
National Trust. In 1973, a Scout
Jamboree was held on the island with 600 Scouts. (
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The
Order of the Bath is a British
order of chivalry founded by
George I on
18 May 1725. The name derives from the ancient ceremony wherein individuals participated in a vigil of
fasting,
prayer, and
bathing on the day before being knighted. Apart from the Sovereign and the Great Master, before
1815 there were a maximum of thirty six 'Knights of the Bath' (K.B.). After 1815 the number of classes and members were increased several times; the Order now includes three classes in civil and military divisions. The Order's motto is
Tria juncta in uno (
Latin for "Three joined in one"), a reference to either the union of
England,
Scotland and
Ireland, or to the
Holy Trinity. The Order is the fourth-most senior in the
British honours system, after
Order of the Garter,
Order of the Thistle, and
Order of St Patrick. The last of the aformentioned Orders—which relates to
Ireland, which, except for
Northern Ireland, is no longer a part of the United Kingdom—still exists but is in disuse; no appointments have been made to it since
1934. (
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Neilston is a village and
parish in
East Renfrewshire set in the west
central Lowlands of
Scotland. It lies in the
Levern Valley at the southwestern edge of the
Greater Glasgow conurbation. Neilston is a
dormitory village comprising a resident population of just over 5,000 people. Neilston is mentioned in documents as early as the 12th century, and its early history is marked by its status as an important
ecclesiastical parish linked with
Paisley Abbey to the north. Neilston Parish Church—a
Category B listed building—has lain at the centre of the community since 1163. The urbanisation and development of Neilston largely coincided with the
Industrial Revolution. Industrial-scale
textile processing was introduced to Neilston around the middle of the 18th century with the construction of several
cotton mills. Although known as a former
milling village,
agriculture has, and continues to play, an economic role for Neilston. The annual Neilston Agricultural Show is an important trading and cultural event for farmers from southwest Scotland each spring. Although heavy industry demised during the latter half of the 20th century, as part of Scotland's densely populated
Central Belt, Neilston has continued to grow as a
commuter village, supported by its position between Paisley and
Glasgow, from roughly 1,000 people in 1800 to 5,168 in 2001. (
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century
Middle English alliterative chivalric romance outlining an adventure of Sir
Gawain, a knight of
King Arthur's
Round Table. In this
Arthurian tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The "
Green Knight" offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain's struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the way demonstrate
chivalry and
loyalty. The poem survives on a single manuscript, the
Cotton Nero A.x., on which are also written three religious pieces. These works are thought to have been written by the same unknown author, dubbed the "
Pearl Poet" or "Gawain poet". All four
narrative poems are written in a
North West Midland dialect of Middle English. Everything from the Green Knight, to the beheading game, to the
girdle given to Gawain as protection from the axe, is richly symbolic and steeped in
Celtic,
Germanic, and other folklore and cultural traditions. (
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The
East End of London is the area of
London,
England, east of the medieval walled
City of London and north of the
River Thames. Starting in the 19th century, the area experienced extreme overcrowding and a concentration of poor people and immigrants. Successive waves of immigration began with
Huguenot refugees creating a new extramural suburb in
Spitalfields in the 17th century. They were followed by
Irish weavers,
Ashkenazi Jews and, in the 20th century,
Bangladeshis. Many of these immigrants worked in the clothing industry. The abundance of semi- and unskilled labour led to low wages and poor conditions throughout the East End. This brought the attentions of social reformers during the mid-18th century and led to the formation of
unions and workers associations at the end of the century. The radicalism of the East End contributed to the formation of the
Labour Party and demands for the
enfranchisement of women. Official attempts to address the overcrowded housing began at the beginning of the 20th century under the
London County Council.
World War II devastated much of the East End, with its docks, railways and industry forming a continual target, leading to dispersal of the population to new suburbs, and new housing being built in the 1950s. The final closure of the
London docks in 1980 created further challenges and led to attempts at regeneration and the formation of the
London Docklands Development Corporation. The
Canary Wharf development, improved infrastructure, and the
Olympic Park mean that the East End is undergoing further change, but some of its parts continue to contain some of the worst poverty in Britain. (
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The
M62 motorway is a west-east
trans-Pennine motorway in northern
England, connecting the cities of
Liverpool and
Hull. The road also forms part of the unsigned
Euroroutes E20 (
Shannon to
Saint Petersburg) and
E22 (
Holyhead to
Ishim). The road is 107 miles (172 km) long; however, for seven miles, it
shares its route with the
M60 motorway around
Manchester. The motorway, which was first proposed in the 1930s, and originally conceived as two separate routes, was built in stages between 1971 and 1976, with construction beginning at Pole Moor and finishing in
Tarbock. The motorway also absorbed the northern end of the Stretford-Eccles bypass, which was built between 1957 and 1960. Adjusted for inflation to 2007, the motorway cost approximately
GB£765 million to build. The motorway is relatively busy, with an average daily traffic flow of 100,000 cars in Yorkshire, and has several areas prone to gridlock, in particular, between
Leeds and
Halifax in
West Yorkshire. Since the Stretford-Eccles bypass was opened, the motorway's history beyond construction has included a
coach bombing on
4 February 1974, and a
rail crash on
28 February 2001. (
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The
Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904 was the first official British exploration of the
Antarctic regions since
James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier. Organised on a large scale under a joint committee of the
Royal Society and the
Royal Geographical Society, the new expedition aimed to carry out scientific research and geographical exploration in what was then largely an untouched continent. It launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in the
Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration including
Robert Falcon Scott who led the expedition,
Ernest Shackleton,
Edward Wilson,
Frank Wild,
Tom Crean and
William Lashly. Its scientific results covered extensive ground in
biology,
zoology,
geology,
meteorology and
magnetism. There were important geological and zoological discoveries, including those of the snow-free
McMurdo Dry Valleys and the
Cape Crozier Emperor Penguin colony. In the field of geographical exploration, achievements included the discoveries of
King Edward VII Land, and the
Polar Plateau via the
western mountains route. The expedition did not, however, make a serious attempt on the
South Pole, its principal southern journey reaching a
Furthest South at 82°17'S. As a trailbreaker for later ventures, the Discovery Expedition was a landmark in British Antarctic exploration history. (
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The
Victoria Cross is the highest
military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of some
Commonwealth countries and previous
British Empire territories. It takes precedence over all other orders, decorations, medals and
postnominals. It may be awarded to a person of any
rank in any service and civilians under military command, and is presented to the recipient by the
British monarch during an investiture held at
Buckingham Palace. It is the joint highest award for bravery in the United Kingdom with the
George Cross, which is the equivalent honour for valour not "in the face of the enemy". The VC was introduced on
29 January 1856 by
Queen Victoria to reward acts of valour during the
Crimean War. Since then the medal has been awarded 1,356 times to 1,353 individual recipients. Only 14 medals have been awarded since the end of the
Second World War. Due to its rarity, the VC is highly prized and the medal can reach over
£200,000 at auction. There are a number of public and private collections devoted to it, most notably that of
Lord Ashcroft, which contains over one-tenth of the total VCs awarded. (
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The
monarchy of the United Kingdom is a system of government in which a hereditary
monarch is the
sovereign of the United Kingdom and its
overseas territories. The terms
British monarch and
British monarchy may mean different things in different contexts beyond the United Kingdom. The present monarch is
Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since
6 February 1952. The
heir apparent is her eldest son,
Charles, Prince of Wales and
Duke of Rothesay. They and the Queen's husband and
consort,
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, undertake various public duties in accordance with their positions. Elizabeth II is
Head of the Commonwealth and also reigns as head of state of 15 other
Commonwealth countries. This developed from the former colonial relationship of these countries to Britain, but they are now independent and the monarchy of each is legally distinct. (
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BAE Systems is a
British defence and aerospace company headquartered at
Farnborough, UK, which has worldwide interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary
BAE Systems Inc. BAE is the world's third-largest defence contractor and the largest in Europe. BAE was formed on
30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion merger of two British companies:
Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of
The General Electric Company plc (GEC) and aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer
British Aerospace (BAe). It has increasingly disengaged from its businesses in continental Europe in favour of investing in the United States. Since its formation it has sold its shares of
Airbus,
EADS Astrium,
AMS and
Atlas Elektronik. BAE Systems is involved in several major defence projects, including the
F-35 Lightning II, the
Eurofighter Typhoon and the
Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. The company has been the subject of criticism, both general opposition to the arms trade and also specific allegations of unethical and corrupt practices, including the
Al Yamamah contracts with
Saudi Arabia that have earned BAE and its predecessor £43 billion in twenty years. (
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