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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers approximately 62%, and over 100 smaller adjacent islands. It has land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, and is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. At the 2021 census, the population was 56,490,048. London is both the largest city and the capital.

The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic. It takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The Kingdom of England, which included Wales after 1535, ceased to be a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union brought into effect a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland that created the Kingdom of Great Britain.

England is the origin of the English language, the English legal system (which served as the basis for the common law systems of many other countries), association football, and the Anglican branch of Christianity; its parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England is home to the two oldest universities in the English-speaking world: the University of Oxford, founded in 1096, and the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209. Both universities are ranked among the most prestigious in the world.

England's terrain chiefly consists of low hills and plains, especially in the centre and south. Upland and mountainous terrain is mostly found in the north and west, including Dartmoor, the Lake District, the Pennines, and the Shropshire Hills. The country's capital is London, the metropolitan area of which has a population of 14.2 million as of 2021, representing the United Kingdom's largest metropolitan area. England's population of 56.3 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom, largely concentrated around London, the South East, and conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East, and Yorkshire, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century. (Full article...)

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Wife selling in England was a way of ending an unsatisfactory marriage that probably began in the late 17th century, when divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthiest. After parading his wife with a halter around her neck, arm, or waist, a husband would publicly auction her to the highest bidder. Wife selling provides the backdrop for Thomas Hardy's 1886 novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, in which the central character sells his wife at the beginning of the story, an act that haunts him for the rest of his life, and ultimately destroys him.

Although the custom had no basis in law and frequently resulted in prosecution, particularly from the mid-19th century onwards, the attitude of the authorities was equivocal. At least one early 19th-century magistrate is on record as stating that he did not believe he had the right to prevent wife sales, and there were cases of local Poor Law Commissioners forcing husbands to sell their wives, rather than having to maintain the family in workhouses. (Full article...)

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Nottingham (/ˈnɒtɪŋəm/ ^ⓘ NOT-ing-əm, locally /ˈnɒtnʊm/) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located 33 miles (53 km) south-east of Sheffield and 45 miles (72 km) north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham is the legendary home of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle and tobacco industries. The city is also the county town of Nottinghamshire and the settlement was granted its city charter in 1897, as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

In the 2021 Census, Nottingham had a reported population of 323,632. The wider conurbation, which includes many of the city's suburbs, has a population of 768,638. It is the largest urban area in the East Midlands and the second-largest in the Midlands. Its Functional Urban Area, the largest in the East Midlands, has a population of 919,484. The population of the Nottingham/Derby metropolitan area is estimated to be 1,610,000. The metropolitan economy of Nottingham is the seventh-largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $50.9 billion (2014). Aside from Birmingham, it is the only city in the Midlands to be ranked as a sufficiency-level world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various England-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Maps of territory held by Royalists (red) and Parliamentarians (green) during the English Civil War (1642–1645) (from History of England)
Image 2The Lady Chapel of Wells Cathedral (from Culture of England)
Image 3First English Civil War at the Battle of Marston Moor, 1644 (from History of England)
Image 4Tomb of Richard I of England and Isabella of Angoulême (from History of England)
Image 5The epic poem Beowulf, set in 6th century Scandinavia, composed c. 700–1000 AD. (from History of England)
Image 6Remains of Hadrian's Wall (from History of England)
Image 7The Great Fire London, 1666. (from History of England)
Image 8The Battersea Shield (detail), 350 BC. (from History of England)
Image 9King Henry VIII (from History of England)
Image 10Elizabeth I (from History of England)
Image 11The Alfred Jewel, late 9th century (from History of England)
Image 12One of only four surviving exemplifications of the 1215 text, Cotton MS. Augustus II. 106, property of the British Library (from History of England)
Image 13Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels, c. 720 AD (from History of England)
Image 14Procession of characters from Shakespeare's plays (from Culture of England)
Image 15The Spanish Armada and English ships in August 1588, (unknown, 16th-century, English School) (from History of England)
Image 16King Charles I, who was beheaded in 1649 (from History of England)
Image 17England playing Australia at Lord's Cricket Ground in the 2009 Ashes series. After winning the 2019 Cricket World Cup, England became the first country to win the World Cups in football, rugby union and cricket. (from Culture of England)
Image 18Chester, c. 1880 (from History of England)
Image 19First played in 1877, the Wimbledon Championships is the oldest tennis tournament in the world. (from Culture of England)
Image 20King Alfred the Great statue in Winchester, Hampshire. The 9th-century English king encouraged education in his kingdom. (from Culture of England)
Image 21Durham Cathedral. The Norman cathedral was built 1093–1133 (from History of England)
Image 22The first general laws against child labour, the Factory Acts, were passed in Britain in the first half of the 19th century. Children younger than nine were not allowed to work and the work day of youth under the age of 18 was limited to twelve hours. (from History of England)
Image 23The Mob Quad of Merton College, University of Oxford, 13th–14th century (from History of England)
Image 24The Billingsgate Fish Market in London in the early 19th century (from History of England)
Image 25The Ruthwell Cross, 8th century AD (from History of England)
Image 26Christopher Lee (seen here as Dracula in 1958) starred in many of Hammer's British horror films. (from Culture of England)
Image 27View of the ramparts of the hillfort of Maiden Castle (450 BC), as they look today (from History of England)
Image 28The wizard Merlin features as a character in many works of fiction, including the BBC series Merlin. (from Culture of England)
Image 29Geoffrey Chaucer, c. 1340s–1400, author of The Canterbury Tales (from History of England)
Image 30Edward Elgar is one of England's most celebrated classical composers. (from Culture of England)
Image 31William Hogarth's depiction of a scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest is an example of how English literature influenced English painting in the 18th century. (from Culture of England)
Image 32Stinking Bishop cheese (from Culture of England)
Image 33Victory in Europe Day celebrations in London, 8 May 1945 (from History of England)
Image 34Whitehall by Francis Dodd (1920) displaying the Palace of Westminster (from Culture of England)
Image 35National performing arts are held annually at the Royal Albert Hall, as well as The Proms during the summer. (from Culture of England)
Image 36Canterbury Cathedral nave, 1377 (from History of England)
Image 37Canterbury Cathedral is the seat of the Primate of All England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior bishop of the Church of England. (It was the property of the Roman Catholic Church before the English Reformation.) (from Culture of England)
Image 38Sir Francis Drake's voyage 1585–86 (from History of England)
Image 39Countries where English is natively spoken or has official status (from Culture of England)
Image 40Jack In the Green, a traditional English folk custom being celebrated in Hastings Old Town, known for its many pre-Victorian buildings. (from Culture of England)
Image 41King Charles II (from History of England)
Image 42King's College in Cambridge is regarded as one of the greatest examples of late English Gothic architecture. It has the world's largest fan vault, while the chapel's stained-glass windows and wooden chancel screen are considered some of the finest from their era. (from Culture of England)
Image 43Artefacts from Bush Barrow at Stonehenge. Wessex culture, Early Bronze Age, c. 1900 BC (from History of England)
Image 44Dover Castle, 12th–13th century (from History of England)
Image 45Gold torc from Snettisham, 70 BC (from History of England)
Image 46The Lindisfarne Gospels (from Culture of England)
Image 47Portrait of the Royal Tudors. At left, Henry VII, with Prince Arthur behind him, then Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), and Prince Edmund, who did not survive early childhood. To the right is Elizabeth of York, with Princess Margaret, then Princess Elizabeth who didn't survive childhood, Princess Mary, and Princess Katherine, who died shortly after her birth. (from History of England)
Image 48The English landscape garden at Stourhead, described as a 'living work of art' when first opened in the 1750s (from Culture of England)
Image 49Bronze coins of Cunobelin, called "King of the Britons" by Suetonius. 1–42 AD. (from History of England)
Image 50A traditional Punch and Judy booth, at Swanage, Dorset, England (from Culture of England)
Image 51England in 878 (from History of England)
Image 52King James I of England (from History of England)
Image 53The White Tower of the Tower of London, built in 1078 (from History of England)
Image 54The Procession Picture, c. 1600, showing Elizabeth I borne along by her courtiers (from History of England)
Image 55Sir Isaac Newton is regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution. (from Culture of England)
Image 56Durham Cathedral, dating from 1093 (from Culture of England)
Image 57Flatford Mill ('Scene on a Navigable River') by John Constable, c. 1816 (from Culture of England)
Image 58Portrait of Edward VI, c. 1550 (from History of England)
Image 59Alfred Hitchcock is often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, and was described as "a straightforward middle-class Englishman who just happened to be an artistic genius." (from Culture of England)
Image 60Depiction of the Battle of Hastings (1066) on the Bayeux Tapestry (from History of England)
Image 61Remains of the Roman baths at Bath, England. (from History of England)
Image 62Londinium (Roman London), c. 120 AD (from History of England)
Image 63The Royal College of Music is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, established by royal charter in 1882. (from Culture of England)
Image 64Stonehenge, erected in several stages from c.3000–2500 BC (from History of England)
Image 65Silbury Hill, c. 2400 BC (from History of England)
Image 66The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found^[update]. It consists of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments. (from Culture of England)
Image 67Interior of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford (from Culture of England)
Image 68King Charles II, a patron of the arts and sciences, supported the Royal Society, a scientific group whose early members included Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton. (from Culture of England)
Image 69Anglo-Saxon helmet from the Sutton Hoo ship burial, 625 AD (replica) (from History of England)
Image 70Kingdoms and tribes in Britain, c. AD 600 (from History of England)
Image 71Frontispiece of Bede's Life of St Cuthbert, showing King Æthelstan presenting a copy of the book to the saint himself. c. 930 (from History of England)
Image 72Anglo-Saxon king with his Witan. Biblical scene in the Old English Hexateuch (11th century) (from History of England)
Image 73The Roman Baths in Bath; a temple was constructed on the site between 60–70CE in the first few decades of Roman Britain. (from Culture of England)
Image 74Morris dancing (from Culture of England)
Image 75Francis Bacon led the advancement of both natural philosophy and the scientific method and his works remained deeply influential in the Scientific Revolution. (from Culture of England)
Image 76A pint of real ale (from Culture of England)
Image 77Shoulder clasp from Sutton Hoo, 625 AD (from History of England)
Image 78Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol played a major role in reviving the "spirit" of Christmas and seasonal goodwill. (from Culture of England)

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Digital reconstruction giving an impression of Old St Paul's during the Middle Ages. The image is based on a model of the Cathedral in the Museum of London, composited with a modern city background.

Old St Paul's Cathedral was the cathedral of the City of London that, until the Great Fire of 1666, stood on the site of the present St Paul's Cathedral. Built from 1087 to 1314 and dedicated to Saint Paul, this building was perhaps the fourth such church at this site on Ludgate Hill, going back to the 7th century.

Work on the cathedral began after a fire in 1087, which destroyed the previous church. Work took more than 200 years, and over that time the architecture of the church changed from Norman Romanesque to early English Gothic. The church was consecrated in 1240, enlarged in 1256 and again in the early 14th century. At its completion in the mid-14th century, the cathedral was one of the longest churches in the world, had one of the tallest spires and some of the finest stained glass. (Full article...)

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Did you know?

...that the Mendip Hills (commonly called The Mendips) are a range of limestone hills situated to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset?
...the England and Wales Cricket Board was created on 1 January 1997 combining the roles of the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB), the National Cricket Association (NCA) and the Cricket Council?
...that the Flag of England is the St George's Cross?
...that the Tudor rose (pictured) is a traditional heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty?

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In the news

2 July 2024 –: Serial killer Lucy Letby is convicted of an attempted murder in a retrial at Manchester Crown Court in Manchester, England. (BBC News)
20 June 2024 –: Two Just Stop Oil activists film themselves cutting through a metal fence and spraying orange paint on two private jets at Stansted Airport in Essex, England, United Kingdom. Police arrest the activists for criminal damage. (BBC News)
4 June 2024 –: The National Health Service declares a "critical incident" after several hospitals in London, including King's College Hospital, say they have cancelled appointments and turned away patients after a cyberattack on their Synnovis IT systems. (AP)

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“

England... is a nation of shopkeepers

”

— Napoleon

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Related WikiProjects

England • Bedfordshire • Brighton • Cheshire • Cornwall • Derbyshire • Dorset • Greater Manchester • Hampshire • Lincolnshire • London • Merseyside • Northamptonshire • North East England • Sheffield • Surrey. Warwickshire • West Midlands • Worcestershire • Yorkshire

Topics

Cities and major towns: Blackpool • Birmingham • Bristol • Chelmsford • Leeds • Liverpool • London • Manchester • Newcastle • Nottingham • Oxford • Portsmouth • Sheffield • Southampton • Stoke-on-Trent

Culture: The Football Association • Rugby Football Union • England and Wales Cricket Board • English inventions and discoveries

Geography: Geology • Climate • Mountains and hills • Islands • Rivers

Economy: Bank of England • London Stock Exchange • Chancellor of the Exchequer • Monetary Policy Committee • HM Treasury

History: Timeline of English history • Prehistoric Britain • Roman Britain • Anglo-Saxon England • Norman England • Plantagenet England • House of Lancaster • House of York • House of Tudor • House of Stuart

Governance: Kingdom of England • Prime Minister of the United Kingdom • Parliament of the United Kingdom • Home Secretary • Local Government Boundary Commission for England • Administrative divisions of England • English law

Symbols: Flags • Flag of England • St George's Cross • Tudor rose • Coat of arms of England

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