England
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

England is the biggest of the four countries of the United Kingdom. (Note: Many people sometimes say "England" when they actually mean the United Kingdom or Great Britain.)
About 60 million people live in England. England is next to Wales and Scotland, on the island of Great Britain.
The capital city of the United Kingdom is London, which is also the largest city of England (England does not have a separate parliament or Government, so London is not the capital of England).
The English flag is white, with a red cross. This cross is the cross of Saint George, who is the patron saint of England. Some other symbols used for England are a red rose (for rugby) and three lions (for association football).
There are many well known English people:
- William Shakespeare, the famous English playwright
- Sir Isaac Newton, the scientist
- Charles Dickens, the famous 19th century author
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web
- The Beatles, who came from the city of Liverpool
- Sir Winston Churchill, former prime minister, and led the country in World War Two
- Queen Victoria was the Queen for most of the 19th century.
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[edit] History
England was named after a German tribe called the "Angles", who settled in Central, Northern, and Eastern England in the 5th century. A related tribe called the "Saxons" settled in the south of England. That is why that period of English history is called "Anglo-Saxon". For the majority of this time, England did not exist as a united country. The Anglo Saxons lived in many small kingdoms, which slowly united.
England became one country in 937. The first King of England was Athelstan, but he lost a lot of England to Danish invaders, who formed their own country in the East and North. Many villages and towns in this area (particularly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, still have Danish names, and use Danish-based words in their dialects. At one time Wessex (in the West of England) was the only English kingdom left. After many battles, King Alfred of Wessex became king of the whole of England, and the old kingdoms (Mercia, Northumberland, etc) just became provinces, called "Earldoms" governed by an "Earl". Soon after Alfred died, the king of Denmark (Knut or Canute) ruled England.
England soon had an English king again. When King Edward (the Confessor) died, Harold (the Earl of Wessex) became king. William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, said that Harold had promised to make William the king, so he invaded England and fought King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
William won, and then became king of England. The kings of England spoke French for the next 300 years (Queen Elizabeth II is a descendant of William, but not very directly). England took over the country of Wales in the 13th century. There were many wars, often against France and Scotland.
When Queen Elizabeth I died, she had no children, and James VI of Scotland (the son of Mary, Queen of Scots) became King James I of England. He called his two countries "Great Britain", but they were still separate countries with their own parliaments and laws, even though they had the same King.
King Charles I and the English Parliament fought each other in the English Civil War (Scotland and Ireland were involved as well, but the story is complicated!). Oliver Cromwell became leader of the Roundheads (the Parliament Army) and defeated the Cavaliers (the Royal Army). King Charles was beheaded and Oliver Cromwell became dictator ("Lord Protector"). When Cromwell died, his son Richard was not strong enough to rule, and King Charles II was invited to come to England and be king.
When King Charles II died, his brother James II was the next king. James became king but he was unpopular with a lot of people because he was a Catholic. England was invaded by William of Orange (ruler of the Netherlands and husband of Mary, the sister of King James). Many people welcomed William because he was a Protestant. James left the country without a fight and Parliament "asked" William and Mary to become King and Queen together. When Mary died, William ruled alone. The next Queen was Queen Anne. While she was queen, England and Scotland were finally officially joined as one county, and lost their separate parliaments. From now on, the parliament in London included Scottish "MPs", and was the British parliament.
After this, the history of England becomes the history of Great Britain and the United Kingdom.
Great Britain became part of the United Kingdom in 1800, when the Irish Parliament merged with the British one. Northern Ireland is now the only part of Ireland still in the UK, and England is the only part of the UK not to have its own government, Parliament or Assembly.
[edit] Geography
England is on the island of Great Britain. Scotland is to the north and Wales is to the west. France is to the south, separated by the English Channel. The Channel Tunnel under the sea links England and France.
Some of England's largest cities are: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and Liverpool. One of the main rivers is in London, The Thames.
[edit] Language
The English language is a West Germanic language spoken in many countries around the world. With around 380 million native speakers, it is the third most spoken language in the world. As many as a billion people speak it as a second language. English is an influence on, and has been influenced by many different languages.
English began in England, a country on the island of Great Britain in Europe.