I'm actually pretty annoyed with myself that I got this wrong - one of those things that I wish I could fix but can't. It's in the pinned Correction comment. though.
The Celtic culture and language while predating the Anglo-Saxons did originally come from the mainland; most likely from Benelux/Northern France though.
double L in welsh is not pronounced like that btw. the Britons (celts) inhabited the island since before the roman invasions long before the angles and saxons came. also hadrian's wall was originally 16-20 ft tall when it was in use.
So how is it pronounced? or is it unspellable? Try going to Mazatlan in Mexico; you could spend all day trying to pronounce the final syllable and fail.
@Hebekiah i cant really spell it but it kind of sounds somewhere between the noise a cat or a snake makes when it hisses. you sort of flatten your tongue out and blow.
interestingly though LL and DD are their own letters in the welsh alphabet not two Ls or two Ds put together as you would imagine. mainly because its pretty ubiquitous in usage
What? William the conqueror created the kingdom of England? Where are you getting your information? Apparently you don’t know as much about British history as you claim. England was united by Athelstan at brunanburh in 937. And also, the heptarchy had ceased existing since the early Nordic conquests and the great heathen army. How could you make such monumentous mistakes?
marsnz, He claimed that he would only “skim over” most of British history before 1066, not completely omit everything before then. Even if he did, that’s no excuse for falsely recalling the events that took place in 1066.
And William wasn’t a French vassal as King of England, only as Duke of Normandy. His French possessions were under de jure French suzerainity, but not his English ones. He was both a sovereign in England and a vassal in Normandy at the same time.
Depending on which historian you read/listen to, the ‘modern’ state of England was founded in 1066. Not saying that it’s true! I’m merely saying that depending on what you consider ‘England’, and not a Saxon Kingdom in the British Isles, a Roman Britain independent of Rome, etc. It kind of depends on what your definition of ‘England’ is and when it was ‘truly’ England.
Good grief, why did you bother with this? There are so many facts wrong in this that I don't know where to begin. Look, it's a complex subject with a lot of information and you're an American. Stick with small chunks of American history, you're quite good at that.
Wales is it's own country within the United Kingdom. It was independend and ruled by its own king until the middle ages and got subdued and conquered by Edward the First (the one with the inscription Scottorum Malleus - Hammer of the Scots - on his coffin), who did the same with the Scots. That's when the big fortresses like Caernarfon were build in Wales, to be garrisoned by English soldiers and control the Welsh population. I can recommend reading the Cadfael books written by Ellis Peters. Their setting is historically accurate and they are set in the 12th century, before Edward I's conquest of Wales, during the war between King Steven and Empress Maud. They feature many of the important kings and princes in Wales. The Cadfael books are set in the medieval town of Shrewsbury and involve a former crusader-now-benedictine-monk called Cadfael, who is Welsh. There is also a series of tv-movies starring Sir Derek Jacobi as Cadfael. Each tv-movie is based on one of the books. They were made in the 90's.
Surprised Viking immigration was not mentioned at some point. (Talking about the settlers not the hit-and-run raiders.)They had a significant influence on British culture and the evolution of the English language.
I would like to point out that the so-called "total independence" of the Commonwealth isn't that at all - permanent residents in the UK with commonwealth citizenship were allowed to vote for or against Brexit. That is not a small matter.
Scotland was actually first offered a parliament in 1913 but then ww1 happened and things got a bit sidetracked. It was offered devolution again in 1978 and a referendum ended in a narrow majority for the movement but it never went ahead because the referendum also had the clause stating that at least 40% of the electorate had to vote for it - which didn't happen - obviously. Interestingly, Scotland kept its own legal system after the act of union - essentially meaning that a parliament in which most of the representation came from English MP's could pass laws in Scotland even if all Scottish MP's voted against it (England: population 10 times larger than Scotland therefore has most MP's in parliament).
Not sure if it’s just because you simplified it down, but Britain didn’t take New Amsterdam from the Dutch, they traded it for a bit of British Guiana which then became Dutch Guiana and later Suriname.
Wales is it own country our language and culture was made essentially illegal so it looks like Wales is not different and we are only just getting our culture back
Another fun fact, William the Bastard Duke of Normandy only became known as the Conqueror a long time after he became King. Of an England that had existed as a country for 139 years.
You said Llewellyn wrong I believe. I'ts not Lew-well-in (lewis) but more like Clue-well-in. The double L at the start is that funny "chhhhhhhh" sound. Hard to explain through text
English and Welsh.. close? no not so as late as the early C20th a welsh speaking child in school (in Wales) if caught speaking welsh on school grounds was made to wear the Dunce's Cap the only way to get out of this humiliation was by accusing another poor Welsh speaking kid speaking Welsh... I know this as it happened to my grandmother in North Wales when she was a child in Wales.. the fight for preserving Welsh culture and the Welshness of the Welsh people has gone on since the union of 1536..
"dunce's cap was never forced upon the Welsh by the English" what planet are you on? The English state spent centuries attempting to extinguish the Welsh language.. the idea that Welsh speaking parents didn't speak Welsh to their children and compelled them to speak English on the home is absurd.
As someone from Quebec I empathize with you, it's a redundant english tactic to try to eliminate the language and the culture of people living on the territory they took control of.
Don't forget the "Welsh Not", a block of wood worn about the neck of the Welsh speaking child; to be passed on to the next child caught speaking Welsh, until the end of the week when physical punishment was met out to the wearer.
William the Conqueror was not the first king of a united England, it was Athelstan over 100 years prior to the 1066 Norman invasion. The war happened only because William claimed the crown from the recently deceased Edward the Confessor although Harold Godwinson was elected to the position.
Wales is a country - and they haven't stopped going on about their "oppression" for centuries, as if modern English people are still responsible for things that happened before we were born, and all of England supported the Tories during the 1984-5 Miners' Strike.
+Knowing Better At 5:06 you say "Guess how many kingdoms were in England before William the Conqueror came along? I'll give you a hint, it was called the heptarchy; 7." Your use of words suggests that William was the one who ended the seven kingdoms, this is however not true. One Kingdom of England was founded in 927 AD by Æthelstan, over 100 years before William the Conqueror's 1066 Conquest.
Fun Fact 1: New Zealand was originally called Nova Zealandia by the Dutch as there was already a Zealandia in Holland. When the British took over they just anglised the name to New Zealand. Fun Fact 2: A few years ago it was discovered that the islands (there are 2 major islands and several smaller islands) that make up New Zealand were infact the upper sections of a massive continant. The rest is under water; it has all the characteristics of a continant and it was called Zealandia Fun Fact 3: The native Maori (which is actually pronouced more-re with a tongue roll on the r) are not native to New Zealand. They actually descend from the Polynesians and are closely related to the natives of Hawaii. Their ancestors came from the island which sank centuries ago. Fun Fact 4: The Maori word for New Zealand is Aotorea which translates to "Island of the long white cloud". When misty the clouds hang around the top of the trees and given that the island would have been almost completely covered in trees, it's no wonder they named it as such.
when you say Australia became independent in 1986 what exactly does that mean?? I learned about Federation in 1901 but no one talks about whatever happened in 1986
The Saxons weren't actually from modern Saxony - two branches of saxons came from what is now Schleswig-Holstein and one went south establishing the stem duchy of Saxony within the HRE, and the others migrated oversea to Sussex, Wessex etc, the latter part of those names coming from "Saxon". Jutes (and potentially also Cimbrii) also came across with the Angles and Saxons but they didn't have anywhere other than jutland named for them.
Also the britons coming from brittany is totally false - Britons were the celts already throughout britain and northern/coastal france and belgium. There was migration in both directions between brittany and cornwall and wales but the languages spoken in these areas were already very similar.
We didn’t think our language would die out, it was being intentionally killed by the English parliament. The welsh knot was implemented in schools to punish and beat welsh children for speaking their native language. And to say wales and England are like 🤞 is like saying the same of Scotland and England. Wales was not brought into the fold it was conquered, there are more castles in wales per square mile than any other country in Europe, nearly all of the, built to oppress the welsh and prevent an uprising. The reason it wasn’t until the 60s and 70s that Wales didn’t have a movement of nationalism and heritage is because no one would listen, but after the tragedy in Aberfan and the controversy surrounding the national coal board and Capel Celyn the Welsh came together and gained more support across the uk because of the national focus in the media
Love the Westeros/British Isle geography comparison. But remember that Westeros is the same size as South America, whereas the UK is the size of Oregon.
Americans really need to stop saying England and Britain interchangeably. For someone who acts smug in every video you sure seemed confident when you said England but referred to the UK flag.
Did you say Australia became independent in 1986? Where on earth did you get that date? 1901, when we became a Federation. I know you said this was a brief overview, but so many things are not correct. Not your usual style!
Loosing America forced the British to form the united Kingdom? Kind of misleading since it was already united - England, Scotland, Wales. The addition of Ireland sort of just "added" to the deal.
You should do a video on the disastrous partition of India and Pakistan. Once you discover how the border was determined................well, I won’t spoil it for you!
5:11 there were more than 7 kingdoms, the idea of a "heptarchy" came from a 12th century writer who wanted to make a parallel between the English kingdoms and the "7 tribes or israel". saying there were 7 tribes is extremely simplistic.
QUICK LINGUISTICS FACTS *You* was not pronounced _thou,_ it was pronounced _thou._ This may be confusing, but that's english's fault! Think about it, when you say "the", it doesn't sound like "think" , the starting sound is different, right? Well this sound at the start of "the" also turns up in words like "this" and "though" and is distinct from the sound in "think" and "thing", which from now on I will represent as "th" and "fh" respectively. Now, English had two symbols for these sounds, ð (Eth) and þ (Thorn), and as they were interchangeable it was just as confusing, but in the whole printing thorn got replaced by Y and so people would write "Ye Olde Inn". But think, that's "(th)e Olde Inn", not "(fh)e Olde Inn", which means Thou isn't _fhou_ as some overenthusiastic drama students might say, but _thou,_ like the start of "the". Bonus fact: Interestingly, at the time English also had a word "you", pronounced _you_ that meant the same as "thou", but was used to people you weren't close to, like the difference between French _tu_ and _vous._ Extra confusing, right? Well, this was so confusing that it probably contributed to "thou" being replaced completely by "you" long after the Y was replaced by TH.
2:10 Most English people would say "Ye" in any case. Yes I know it's wrong but most of my country thinks it won the Second World War by itself. 4:03 That's just the name of the railway station and yes it was done for publicity purposes.
I loved this... I’m a Brit and I now have know idea about my history... not that I care, after all I’m like, quarter Dutch, fifth french, sixteenth one thing some thing else another place I don’t care about... wink wink to all Americans seeking roots from someplace for some reason
I’ll add to the mistake list on this one. You lumped in a bunch of colonies and said “Pilgrims” founded them. Maryland was founded by the Calverts, English Catholic Barons, which are very different from English Calvinists.
We kind of aren't tho. Us Welsh despise the English because for hundereds of generations we were prejeduced against and for pretty much the entire duration of the Victorian era our language was kind of banned. Leading to the shameful mockery of the fact that there is town in Canada where the entire population speak fluent Welsh and in Wales there is one where maybe 4 or 5 people speak it fluently. Funny thing is that the English are fine with us because they think they did nothing wrong.
The Bretons invading Britain? Are you sure? I thought the Bretons were descended from Celtic refugees fleeing the Germanic invasions (well, and hold-outs from the original Gaulish inhabitants).
William the Conquer was not the first person to unite England. It had already been united for some time under various Anglo-Saxon and Danish Kings. He was the first Norman king, even though he was related to both of the previous bloodlines.
You misspelled Llewelyn and when Wales was absorbed into the Kingdom of England following the Statute of Rhuddlan (1284), Wales continued to have it's own legal system. Following the Glyndwr Uprising in 1400, the Enlgish imposed the Penal Laws against Wales (1402), these made Welsh people second class citizens in their own country, these laws were not repealed until 1624. The Laws in Wales Acts (1535 and 1542) removed Welsh Law and effectively made Wales a part of the Kingdom of England. Even so, of all the Celtic Nations, Wales is the only one to have held on to its language, Ireland is trying to bring Irish back and is using how Wales kept Welsh alive as an example.
@@amehak1922 They had more than just Gaelic. A lot in the south of the Republic around Wexford spoke Yola, which is sort of analogous with Scots, arising from Middle English. It fizzled out in the 19th century.
"I am American but I do know something about non America" All non Americans : "(Gasp in shock) really!" After watching the video : "(Sigh of relief) don't worry he doesn't know that much" *Order has been restored
That was quite the simplification on the Hadrian's Wall, the tallest remaining section of the wall is, like, 17 feet tall, and the largest stretch is nearly 6 feet wide, 10 feet tall, and pretty dang long. It used to be an imposing wall, and in some parts where it is less run down, it still looks pretty dang impressive.
Yh but, as is common with every non British person, he glosses over it because he probably doesn’t like the English very much so wants to demean us in any way possible no matter how petty smh. Although I quite like this channel and his quite unbiased views on most subjects he’s still human and as an American it’s been hard wired into him
Dylan Mcgee Well at the time the Scottish warriors were more barbaric than not, not to say other countries weren’t but it’s a preconception that the Scottish were especially barbaric fighters
Dylan Mcgee you’re not hearing it? I mean maybe I’m reading into it too far but I also hear it when he’s talking about the location of Hadrian’s wall, he implying that we fucked it up but it was built at the intended border and not the modern day border. Maybe I’m being over sensitive but if you aren’t English it’s kinda hard to understand because most ethnicities don’t dislike you.
I've been binge watching your channel for the past while now assuming that your content was well researched. As I know quite a bit about this topic I noticed that there are so many giant glaring mistakes in this video that I don't know if I can trust your other content anymore.
Poultry is live chicken (like cows are referred to as cattle). So a shelf with poultry products includes fresh eggs, meat and other derivatives like skin, feet etc As beef was generally diversified much later we just call it beef products (although its root is French bouf). We're talking jerky, cut steaks, sausages, meatballs etc and not dairy. The meat itself is just called chicken.
What are live cows and chickens called in French...? I uh... Don't speak French. Le bouf commé le grassé...? Le poulet beccé le maissón? .-. Everything in French sounds similar, I'm now thinking of Le Bourget...
SantomPh And “poultry” includes other birds raised or hunted for meat: ducks, geese, turkeys, quail, etc. Wild turkey can be either poultry or an intoxicant.
The sun never sets on the empire thing came about because the empire was so large that it had territory in every single time-zone, so the sun was always shining somewhere in the empire.
12Me21: But at no point was the sun set for all of it. So, within the empire as a whole, the sun never actually set, regardless of what is going on in individual parts.
Sorry, but this wasn't uip to your usual standard, some of it was poorly researched and just plain wrong. As an Australian, I can tell you we had federation in 1901, which is when Australia became our own country, even if still technically part of the Commonwealth. I don't know where you got 1986 from, but that's a long way from being correct my good man. I see other people have corrected you on some of the other things, but I hadn't seen anyone correct you on that, although I only skimmed comments and may have missed it.
In 1986, the British Government officially had no power over Australia any more. Up to 1986 Australia had its own Government but the constitution meant that Britain could take over at any time. The constitution was changed in 1986. It was the same with Canada, they changed it in 1982.
Australia didn't have a federal parliament until 1901. Or a Constitution for that matter. The state parliaments (still officially termed as colonies) were the ultimate legislative power.
Similar thing with Canada, they became a sovereign nation in 1932 but Britain still solely reserved the right to control their constitution until 1986.
Troy Wilkins Re; 1986. I think he was referring to (though I doubt he realised it) to the appointment of a representative of the Queen to be the Australian head of state. I forget the details. It’s something like that. I’m sure it’s possible to google it.
Considering your channel is called Knowing Better ... this video is a bit of a mess of poor research. (And I like some of your other videos.) 1. The Saxons came from Old Saxony. The modern German federal states bearing the name of Saxony (especially the one just called ‘Saxony’) aren’t geographically synonymous with this region. 2. The Britons weren’t from Brittany. They were always there. Heck, the original Roman province was called Britannia. 3. William the Conqueror did not create England. The concept of England had been around at least since Bede, and lasting unity was actually achieved by Æthelstan in 927. What William did was to contest the succession and effect a complete regime change and found a new constitutional order. 4. The French and Normans spoke the same language, but they’re not interchangeable terms. You make it sound like the French gave the English terms for food - the Normans did. 5. You’ve, like, done away with a ton of Welsh history here. Oh boy. Unlike England, Wales did not have one ruler in this period - indeed, it was a fragmented mess of petty kings who occasionally managed to establish overlordship over large parts of the country, but never the whole. When William I was around, the biggest boy on the block was not called the ‘Prince of Wales’ - he was the King of Gwynedd and Powys. There’s a lot more to unpack here - especially in later Medieval history - but the term ‘Prince of Wales’ has never been a de jure territorial title and in fact went in and out of favour for centuries. 6. Are we forgetting hundreds of years of resistance? Llewelyn the Great? Owain Glyndwr? Edward’s castles? Wales has had an ‘identity thing’ that hasn’t *ever* stopped. It didn’t start in the 20th century. It just got more political footing. 7. Wales is its own country. In a bigger country, anyway. The important thing is it’s definitely not England! (Which is also its own country. It’s complicated.) 8. The heptarchy stopped being a thing during the Viking Era. I’ve already mentioned English unification, but seriously - it’s like claiming Abraham Lincoln founded the USA. And Essex, Sussex and Kent hadn’t been effectively independent for even longer. 9. Hadrian’s Wall wasn’t the kind of anti-barbarian bulwark we think of it as. It was a means of control, not a last line of defence, so it’s not some titanic edifice for a reason. Roman power projected much, much further into Scotland. Indeed, at one point the Romans effectively controlled much of the south of Scotland and built the similar Antonine Wall much further north (which was nevertheless only really in use for about 8 years). 10. The flag design actually happened a lot earlier in 1606 during James’s reign, as although the two kingdoms were legally separate a joint flag was necessary for various things (like as a naval ensign). An unofficial different design was also popular in Scotland for a time, where the Scottish saltire took precedence. 11. Ireland is a bit more complicated - it wasn’t just divided, there was an actual war. 12. The way you say ‘fully independent’ doesn’t make it very clear how much Ireland, Canada and Australia were self-governing sovereign states. The last bits, for instance, were essentially removing the Privy Council of the UK as the court of last appeal. 13. Similarly, New Zealand is an independent country. The fact that the royal proclamation of 1907 has never been revoked is really just a historical curiosity as New Zealand has been de facto and de jure independent since 1947. 14. King/Queen ‘of England’ hasn’t been an actual official title since 1707. 15. The British government had already taken over government of India in 1858 - before the Civil War. Cotton was important, but it wasn’t the background behind the title ‘Empress of India’. 16. India is still part of the Commonwealth, so it’s a little different to the US in that it still claims membership of some weird community organisation thing. But yes, it’s independent. 17. You missed out Africa. 18. Wales is its own country. A sub-country, I guess. Now you know better?
05:37 Hadrian's wall used to be taller there's this thing called 'erosion'. It has this tendency to break down stone structures over millennia, especially when maintenance of said structures is neglected.
Since we're mentioning inaccuracies in this video, the They Might Be Giants version of Istanbul (Not Constantinople) was in Tiny Toons, not Animaniacs.
I mean, at 5:09 he said that 'Before William the Conqueror came along, there were 7 kingdoms in England.' But England had already been united at that point....
@@Comred1 technically united but not really, each kingdom still existed as a system of council and one that would decide the next "Bretwalda" aka king of all anglo saxon kingdoms within England. it wasnt until William that England was officially united and declared a kingdom with all the laws it entails
@@maxdavis7722 technically true but England was ruled by elective monarchy one that tended to choose a king from the 7 kingdoms that founded it together while you could say it was officially the kingdom of England it operated more like the later holy roman empire with elector counts and minor shifts in laws when each new king was elected. It wasn't until William the conqueror that it was formed into what we know as a kingdom today
Yes, Alfred the Great was the first man to unify the kingdom's of England. Although several had claimed the title before, he was the first King of all the English who held de facto power over the entire territory.
Æthelstan was the first King of England and was when England was united into a single Kingdom. However before that several kings including Alfred The Great and his Grandfather (of Vikings TV show fame) Egbert held the Title Bretwalda (Wide Ruler or Britain Ruler). This is often referred to as "The King of The English" or "The King of the Anglo Saxons". There was no consistency in the title and was used when a King held dominance over the other Kings of the England/Britain (not necessarily all of them). Anglo Saxon history is fun and isn't confusing at all. Now lets all thank the Vikings for being an outside threat and forcing the unification of the Kingdoms and making everything more straight forward.
Ok. You got almost everything wrong about Wales. 1) "Wales was brought into the picture pretty quickly" - the Welsh are the remnants of the people who arrived before the Romans, the Britons. The Welsh (then living in all of Wales and modern-England) were conquered/integrated with the Romans who arrived with Julius Caesar, and as a result the Welsh language is the offspring of Celtic Brythonic and Roman Latin. When the Saxons invaded, they pushed these Brythonic people to the fringes of the island - which is why the hilliest parts of Great Britain are occupied by Celtic nations. Until the Kingdom of Great Britain came about, the words Welsh and Britons were used interchangeably to refer to the Welsh. Before William the Conqueror arrived in 1066, Wales had a King and was a separate entity to England. Harold Godwinson, the last Saxon king of England, earned his stripes by fighting the Welsh. Wales was never conquered by the Saxons, and Wales before and after King Gruffydd (1055-1063) was a collection of principalities. It took the Normans ~280 years to conquer Wales, and as a result, Edward I and Edward II's kingdom was pretty peniless. This is partly the reason Edward I was never able to conquer Scotland - Wales had cost him too much. 2) "It was given everything equal to England" - this was a considerable problem with annexation. Wales was given parliamentary representation - the condition, however, was that any holder of public office from tax collector to member of parliament was banned from speaking Welsh. Practically nobody in Wales at that time spoke English. You don't need to be an imperial historian to figure out why that's bad. Wales was not given everything equal to England, Wales was forcibly annexed by England. Historians (namely Johnes, G.A.Williams, etc.) have agreed that the violent policy of displacement of Welsh communities with the import of English settlers, the outlawing of the language of the Welsh, etc would have today been recognised as apartheid. Big difference to being "given everything equal to England". BTW, probably a good place to mention that you've missed out a civil war that lasted 15 years in which an alliance between the Welsh rebel Owain Glyndwr and the French King saw the English defeated in battle on English soil by French soldiers for the first and last time in a thousand years. Also probably a relevant place to include that Henry VIII's father, Henry VII, was Welsh and defeated King Richard III with a Welsh army that held the banner of Caradoc - the Red Dragon flag today is a combination of the dragon of Caradoc's banner, an ancient symbol of the Britons, and the green and white of the Tudor family to which Henry Tudur belonged. For a significant period, the English king was a Welshman. 3) "Which is why England and Wales are like THIS, son" - No, Wales and England are not like this, son. Wales is by far a more left-wing, communitarian nation than England. The red flag of socialism was associated with socialism first in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. The great social advances of the UK have been led by Welshmen, the pension and unemployment benefit by David Lloyd George from Caernarfon, and the National Health Service by Aneurin Bevan from Tredegar, Wales (which extended the Tredegar health insurance system to the whole island). Chartists who fought for the right of the working class to vote had their most violent uprisings in Wales, and Wales has voted for the socialist party since 1918. Culturally, very different places. You'd be best looking to core-periphery development theory for a better understanding of why this divide has happened. 4) "Wales didn't start their whole 'identity thing' until the 1950s and 60s" - Jesus, wrong. The Welsh have been Welsh since before the English were English. It's a testament to the Welsh people who came before that the culture, language, and identity has survived, and now support for independence stands at around 32%. True, the political campaign for independence kicked off properly in the 1950s and 1960s, but the 'identity' thing predates anything you've mentioned in the video. 5) "There's four Ls in a row, you can't do that" - In the Welsh language, LL is a single letter and pronounced differently to a single L. There are two LLs in a row. Just as Nottingham has two Ts next to each other, and Hull has two Ls. In this case, the two LLs form the end of one word and the beginning of the next in that place name, as the village is named descriptively. 6) "Wales didn't get it's own parliament until 1998" - Wales voted for an Assembly with administrative powers in 1997, which opened in 1999. In 2006, through a complicated legislative procedure, the Welsh Assembly was granted by the UK Parliament powers to create laws in a very roundabout way. In 2011, the Welsh voted again to give the Welsh Assembly full law-making powers, in 2017 the Welsh Assembly received tax-making powers (though any tax has to be approved by the UK government, which - as hinted at above - is difficult, because Wales always votes for the left-wing party and England (80%+ of the UK's MPs) mostly votes for the right-wing party). In 2020, the Welsh Assembly was renamed Senedd Cymru (or Parliament of Wales/Welsh Parliament). 7) "So while people always say that Wales is its own country - come on" - Wales is defined as a country by the UN, and matches all criteria for distinct geography, distinct culture, and now political jurisdiction. 8) "[The Prince of Wales has] almost no power there and it's almost entirely symbolic" - The Prince of Wales has no power in Wales. The principality of Wales since conquest only ever encompassed the north of the country, and the principality was abolished with the Acts of Union. Wales hasn't had principalities or been a principality since 1536. One for the beauty of the gesture, while I'm here. BONUS) "Guess how many kingdoms there were before William the Conqueror came along?... Seven" - Alfred the Great would contest this. He unified most of England in the 9th century, and Aethelstan in the 10th century was the first King of all modern England. You have nearly 200 years to account for. Eurgrhrhrghrhrgrhhhh. Why make a big video about something full of misinformation.
+M3M3R Not really, there's no velar stop element (/k/) to . But points for trying! Shakespeare also got it a little off, thinking that he heard when observing Welsh speakers of English (his character Fluellen is meant to be Llewelyn). The easiest advise I give people trying to pronounce the double L (in phonetics, a voiceless alveolar lateral "fricative") is to place your tongue at the roof of your mouth where you'd pronounce 'light' and then produce a stream of air (a fricative sound). In other words, keep the L sound going as long as you can (like an F sound). That's essentially it.
Incorrect. Before the Romans, Britain was inhabited by the Britons whose culture was Celtic. Also, England was already a kingdom before William invaded. In fact, the history of the Kingdom of England goes back to about 940 AD. William invaded in 1066.
I’m gonna say, actually being from Britain (England to be exact) I can categorically tell you without a doubt in my mind that Wales is a different country (that is also a part of the larger country of the UK... but definitely not England). Having many friends who are Welsh people, I can tell you their culture is not just an extension of England’s but it’s own independent thing. They also have their own language which while isn’t spoken much in South Wales, is so prominent in Northern Wales that there are areas where many people can’t speak English, and is by far the second largest known language in Great Britain; as everyone I know at the very least knows the Welsh language exists, and it’s present on signs all across Wales. It should also be noted that Wales have independent powers outside the control of London, that English land does not have (same as Scotland and Northern Ireland), for example when it comes to tuition fees in University, they have become £9000 per year in England, whereas Wales independently decided to make theirs £4500 and I believe Scotland decided to have theirs tuition free (unless you’re English and then it’s £9000...) But my point is: there is no one from Britain (and particularly from the two countries in question, England or Wales) who claim that Wales is a part of England, that is just factually dishonest
Yes. The Welsh Assembly was formed n 1997 not 1998. Also do not tell a Welsh man that wales is not it's own country. You will get an ear full. I can't say shot as the British do not have guns they way Americans do.
I'm pedantic, and I like people to specify, so I'm not above or beneath typing a complaint in a comment section, but I always always make a suggestion for how it could be better. If you are going to complain about what was wrong with this video why not 1. (Do as I'm doing with your comment) Make a suggestion for how it could be improved. 2. Make your own video on the history of Britain? Don't just complain. Offer a solution.
Do you think we'll ever see the likes of the British Empire again? What country's history should I cover next? CORRECTIONS: The Britons were a group of Celts who lived on the western side of Britannia AND THEN in Brittany, France. The Istanbul (Not Constantinople) cartoon (performed by They Might Be Giants) was from Tiny Toons, not Animaniacs, I'm actually quite ashamed that my nostalgic memory failed me on that one.
i didn't get what's wrong with the saying "the sun never sets over the British Empire"... or is it just the fact that there's no such empire currently around?
I would like to add that William of Normandy did not found England, Alfred the Great and Edward I set up the stage for a future England by expanding the kingdom of Wessex, King Canute inherited Wessex along with the danish lands, forming the North Sea Empire, he then died and his kingdom split into Denmark, Norway and England. England, finally an independent state was then ruled by St Edward the Confessor until his death in 1066 and the war between Harold Hadrada, Harold Godwinson and William.... Phew...
Love the fact you said Llwellyn is easy to pronounce after pronouncing it wrong :) the Ll is it's own letter which has a pronunciation ( i cant explain it to you, just look it up you need to hear it) separate to a normal L
The Britons didn't arrive from Brittany around the time of the Saxon invasions. They left for Brittany around that time. The Britons were just the indigenous celtic population of Britain.
New Zealand was discovered by the Maori, the Dutch arrived but never landed. The Dutch left after a battle at a place they named Murderers Bay (now Golden Bay). The British didn't take New Zealand off the Dutch, they agreed a treaty with the Maori people in 1840. New Zealand is an independent country. We became a Dominion in 1907, then ratified the Statute of Westminster in 1947, then repealed it with the Constitution Act 1986. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealand in the same way James was king of both England and Scotland. Membership of the Commonwealth is open to any country once part of the Empire so the USA could join if it wanted to. You do not have to have the Queen as head of state to be a member. But please don't join as we would not win as many medals at the Commonwealth Games if you lot joined.
The confusion comes from the fact there are basically two groups referred to as the commonwealth, the Commonwealth of Nations which is the what you described, but also the Commonwealth Realms which are the 16 nations that retain the monarchy as their head of state
Bit inconsequential to say Maori "discovered" New Zealand, "well of course they did." But the Maori had nothing to do with "world knowledge" that is the core Eurasian civilisation. If Chinese got there first, and Europeans heard about it through them, then the Chinese would have discovered it. But Maori had no connection to the larger knowledge base. This is the same reason why the Viking's 'discovery' of North America isn't compared to Columbus. Having the Dutch discover it, it was now known to the wider world (well eventually anyway). No, the British didn't take it off the Dutch, because the Dutch never did anything (they were interested more in money then anything else). But the British did effectively take it, the treaty was a minor appeasement (to their credit, Maori put up a good fight for a people disconnected from the rest of the world for so long). Everything about NZ's law, governance and society is British, not Maori. Heh, at least they still have some cute dancing and hakas.
John Nicholas incorrect. The UK has a national government, and (apart from England) the other regions have a "devolved" regional government. This isn't unique to the UK. Canada has provincial governments as well as a national government. As with the US and its states. That doesn't make Ontario or Wyoming or Florida countries. So invalid point
11:47 Since it was the British alone who founded the abolition movement and enforced it across the world with the Royal Navy, this remark seems more than a little bit baseless. The Victorians gave their blood, toil, tears and treasure to eradicate slavery wherever they found it, against their own vested interests. You should do a video on the West Africa Squadron, the Blockade of Africa (yes, the whole continent) and the Abolition movement under Wilberforce.
The British and us both tried to stop the export of slaves from Africa after new slaves were outlawed in the us, it barely worked and was a waste of both nations time
@@derekhenschel3191 what? The west Africa squadron freed a lot of slaves. It’s not secret that the British played a huge role in the global norm of slavery. Dunno about the US.
@@maxdavis7722 slavery was the world wide norm long before the European Africa trade started the word slave comes from slav because so many slavs were enslaved
Everyone: “saxons refers to old saxony, the idea of England was developed before William the conquered, the Welsh unification was much more complex” Me: “did he actually just call tiny toon adventures Animaniacs?”
