England

England is the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total population of the United Kingdom, whilst the mainland territory of England occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the North Sea, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and English Channel.

England became a unified state during the 10th century and takes its name from the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes who settled in the territory during the 5th and 6th centuries. The capital of England is London, which is the largest urban area in Great Britain.

Many Harry Turtledove stories feature characters referring to the United Kingdom as "England", which remains a common, if incorrect, colloquialism. Thus, in most stories with a Point of Divergence after 1707, characters who refer to England usually mean Great Britain. This probably applies to the Atlantis series as well.

England in Agent of Byzantium

The Anglelanders settled in Britannia when the Roman Empire withdrew its legions in the 4th century (hence the Angle name of Angleland) eventually forming a kingdom which continued to the 14th century. Being the neighbors (and in many cases, the enemies) of the Franco-Saxons, they had some common interests with the Byzantine Empire, which bordered the Franco-Saxons in the other direction. However, Anglelander-Bynzantine alliances were temporary and fraught with mutual suspicion.

England in Atlantis

See Also: Britain (Atlantis)

England was on the verge of civil war in 1452. When Edward Radcliffe and his sons learned of the existence of Atlantis, they saw an opportunity to escape from England's more oppressive institutions, the war included. Subsequently, the war drove even more refugees to Atlantis, creating the colonies of New Hastings, Freetown, and Bredestown.

The strong presence of English settlers in Atlantis insured that the conflicts of the home island would impact the Atlanteans, many of whom wanted England kept at a distance.

Nonetheless, English affairs found their way onto Atlantean shores. In 1470, the Earl of Warwick, a one-time supporter of King Edward IV was exiled to Atlantis. He initiated a brief tyrannical reign over New Hastings before he was toppled and killed.

After the English Reformation, a variety of monarchs tried with varying degrees of success to impose Anglicanism on the Atlanteans. While several settlements were officially Anglican by the time of the Atlantean War of Independence, far more English Atlanteans clung to Catholicism than did Englishmen, and the government did not have the stomach for the difficult task of suppressing recusancy in the always-willful colony.

Another century later, England again asserted itself in Atlantean affairs when the sundry pirates and corsairs who made their base in Avalon, Atlantis grew intolerable to English shipping. English naval forces joined with Dutch and Atlantean ships to form an armada to subdue the pirates once and for all. Despite this cooperation, Atlantean political leaders were able to keep the mother country at arms length.

In the Eighteenth Century, after England had become the core of the Kingdom of Great Britain, England's traditional rivalry with France spilled over into Atlantis, as soldiers and subjects of both England did battle with the subjects of France and Spain, with England ultimately pushing France out of Atlantis and greatly expanding the territory under its control.

However, these gains would prove short-lived. A generation later, Atlanteans launched a revolution that resulted in independence for all British Atlantean colonies.

England in Crosstime Traffic

Crosstime Traffic was aware of an alternate in which the Spanish Armada conquered England in 1588 and Spain created an empire that bordered Russia. Footage taken in this alternate was shown to Jeremy Solters and his fellow students in US history class.

England in In High Places

In an alternate where the Great Black Deaths killed 80% of the population of Europe, England never became an important power. Instead, it was Europe's backwater (which in turn was the backwater of the world). English was in general spoken only in England; people of other countries had no special reason to study it and English merchants abroad usually spoke French or Arabic. As noted by Annette Klein, the English of this timeline was very different from that of the home timeline, and she could only understand about half the words. She thought it might have evolved from the dialect of Yorkshire.

England in A Different Flesh

Beginning in the reign of King James I, England established the most successful colonial empire in the New World. James' son Charles I adopted the French "divine right of kings" model for his monarchy in the mid 17th century. The absolutist tyranny the state imposed upon its citizens led to an exodus of people fleeing to the colonies of North America. In the 18th century, those colonies rebelled, becoming the independent Federated Commonwealths of America in 1738.

England in "Islands in the Sea"

By 769, the Saxon Angle kingdoms in Britain retained independence from both the Pope and the Caliph.

England in Ruled Britannia

England was ruled by Queen Elizabeth from 1558 until 1588, when it was invaded and conquered by a Spanish army under the Duke of Parma. Spain's King Philip II overthrew Elizabeth and administered England as a part of the Spanish Empire through the satellite monarchs Queen Isabella and King Albert. This continued until Philip's death in 1598, at which point Isabella and Albert were overthrown by an uprising organised by William and Robert Cecil. The Spaniards were expelled, and Elizabeth was restored to the throne.

In the 16th century, England alternated between Catholicism and Protestantism as state religions on five separate occasions.