Why Is It That STOP Signs Are Red?
Automobiles have been in use since the late 19th Century. Road signs are not that old. One of the most famous road signs is the STOP sign. It is universally seen today as white capital letters on a red background, all painted on an octagonal sign. But the shape of the sign and the color of the sign and the letters are innovations not present at the beginning.

Roman Britain
The Romans first "visited" the British Isles in the 1st Century B.C. They returned a century later and achieved a near conquest. Ruling for a handful of centuries, the Romans left their mark on British society, reshaping the people and the inhabitants.

The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy
The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes eventually conquered most of what is now called England (after Angle-land). In doing so, they established seven major kingdoms called the Heptarchy. Learn more about these seven kingdoms, including their leaders and their fates and fortunes through a few years before the arrival of the Danes and then the Normans.

SCOTLAND Rulers of Early Medieval Scotland What is now Scotland was populated by various tribes in the days of the Roman Empire and before. These tribes included the Picts, the Scots, the Gododdin, and others. Early kingdoms included Dalriada, Galloway, Lothian, Rheged, and Strathclyde. Many historians consider Kenneth mac Alpin (right) to be the first official king of Scotland. He came to be known as The Conqueror. A series of other rulers followed, among them a number of Malcolms, David I, William the Lion, and Alexander III, whose successor-less death in the early 13th Century gave rise to the Great Cause. Into this power vacuum stepped no less than 13 men, with varying claims to the throne. The two most powerful were John Balliol and Robert Bruce. The latter's descendant Robert the Bruce achieved Scottish independence at Bannockburn in 1314. A series of kings named James ruled Scotland; the last, James VI, achieved a peaceful union with England when he became King James I (left). The final step was the 1707 Act of Union, which created Great Britain. WALES Rulers of Early Medieval Wales For most of the early years of its existence, Wales was a collection of largely Celtic tribes and then kingdoms. Roman soldiers eventually conquered Wales but then left a bit abruptly. Anglo-Saxon invaders took over England and some of Wales, and Danish invaders advanced on Welsh positions from both east (England) and west (Ireland); but by and large, Wales after Rome was left to advance according to its own devices. By the time of the Norman Conquest in England, Wales was largely four large areas: Deheubarth, Glamorgan (or Morgannwg), Gwynedd, and Powys. Through the first millennium, some rulers were powerful indeed, ruling more than one kingdom. Succession was difficult in that the Celtic custom was to pass on a ruler's lands and possessions not to the first-born son alone but to all of the ruler's sons. The first Welsh ruler who could lay claim to nearly all of Wales was Rhodri the Great (left), who was King of Gwynedd and then King of Powys in 855. Grufudd ap Llewelynn, in the 11th Century, was the first leader who claimed leadership of all of Wales and invaded England. The English response was delayed but finally came in the person of Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, who later became King of England of Wales. Harold lost his crown to William the Conqueror, who nearly conquered Wales. Norman Marcher lords certainly ranged into Wales, but no English king attempted overlordship of Wales. Welsh rulers gradually took back land seized by the Normans. Llewelynn ap Gruffudd (right) was later leader of Wales in effect, but it was England's King Edward I who defeated the Welsh and absorbed that proud land into the English fold, in the late 13th Century. NORTHERN IRELAND People lived in what is now Ireland very early on, about the same time as civilization sprang up in what is now the rest of the United Kingdom. The Irish people formed tribes and then kingdoms and, like their relatives in England and Scotland, suffered invasions from Scandinavia. One of early Ireland's most famous names was Patrick, the bringer of Christianity to the Emerald Isle. Irish monks (thanks to Patrick's introduction of the Roman alphabet) played a large part in keeping alive the Greek and Roman traditions during the Dark Ages. These monks were particularly skilled at creating illuminated manuscripts, incorporating Christian stories and calligraphy. Possibly the most famous of these was the Book of Kells, created about A.D. 800. As was the case in Scotland, a power struggle after the death of a leader led to England's filling the void, and King Henry II of England ruled over Ireland in the late 12th Century. Henry set up a feudal system, along the lines of the one already running smoothly in England, and made sure that a number of Norman nobles had settled in to owning large estates in their new home of Ireland, then returned to England. The first Irish parliament convened in 1297, following the English model of summoning knights and noblemen from the wealthier areas; a subsequent parliament at the turn of the century includes representatives from the towns as well. The 16th Century English monarchs King Henry VII and King Henry VIII asserted their authority over Ireland. The Tudor dynasty continued the heavy hand, with Edward VI sending more troops to deal with Irish chiefs who refused to recognize the young English king as King of Ireland. Also under Edward VI came the beginning of the "plantation" system, whereby English sympathizers were "planted" on lands in Ireland in order to maintain order. During the English civil wars of the 17th Century, a number of Irish leaders and troops allied themselves with the royalist forces. The parliamentarian side triumphed, even executing the king, and the new nominal leader of England was Oliver Cromwell, who wasted no time in bringing a large contingent of his New Model Army to Ireland in 1649. English troops landed in August and set about reconquering Ireland, at times exacting high amounts of retribution. Things were relatively more peaceful in the 1700s. The industrialization that rose to great heights in Great Britain in the late 18th Century entered Irish cities and towns as well but mainly in the north. Southern Ireland remained largely agricultural. In 1800, at the dawn of a new century, people in Great Britain and Ireland convinced one another that the time was right for consolidation. The Act of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

England began as a conglomeration of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. Various leaders of East Anglia, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex were powerful enough to be named Bretwalda, an early form of overlord. Historians generally regard one of a number of 9th-Century or 10th-Century Wessex kings as the first king of all England. Saxon tribes struggled through a number of Danish invasions during this time. One of England's most famous defenders was Alfred the Great (left). Two Scandinavians sat on the throne of England: Canute and his son, Hardacanute. The last Saxon King of England was King Harold, who lost his crown and his life at the Battle of Hastings to William the Conqueror (right), who ushered in the Norman Conquest, which changed the landscape and people of England in many fundamental ways.

A period of stability ensued, during which the Norman and Saxon cultures further melded. The death of William's descendant Henry I resulted in a succession struggle known as The anarchy. Emerging supreme was the dynamic and very successful Henry II (left), whose marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine helped usher in the creation of the Angevin Empire, a successor of sorts to the Norman territories. French gains in subsequent years pared the English holdings to a slim few, especially during the devastating Hundred Years War. Despite sensational victories led by Henry V, England ultimately sued for a peace that had long-lasting ramifications on both sides of the English Channel. England catapulted from one war to another, with the Wars of the Roses consuming the best and brightest of the Houses of Lancaster and York in a struggle that ended the Plantagenet Dynasty at the hands of Henry VII, who ushered in the Tudor Dynasty.

Following him on the throne was perhaps England's most famous monarch, Henry VIII (left), whose three famous children (Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I) all followed him onto the throne, with varying degrees of longevity. It was during the reign of Elizabeth that William Shakespeare came to worldwide prominence.

Next to rule England were the Stuarts, the first of whom was Scotland's King James VI, who became England's King James I in 1603. The country again descended into civil war a couple of decades later, during the reign of Charles I. The accession of William and Mary in 1688 brought relative peace for a time.

Four straight kings named George comprised the Hanoverian Dynasty that ruled England and Great Britain in the 18th Century and early 19th Century, during which time the English colonies in America won their independence and British troops played a large part in defeating the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Leading the country for nearly six decades during the 19th Century, and presiding over the height of the Industrial Revolution was Queen Victoria (right), whose descendants led the countries (since 1800 the United Kingdom) through a pair of devastating world wars in the first half of the 20th Century. Taking the throne in 1953 and still ruling today: Elizabeth II.

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