Region of The British Isles, Europe

The notes in the Place location for the Region of The British Isles, Europe are duplicated here for reference

The British Isles consists of many islands of approx 315,000 sq.km in the North Atlantic Ocean off of the north-western coast of continental Europe. The area was once joined to the mainland of Europe during the last glacial period of Quaternary glaciation (when the seas were lower with the most recent Ice Age) as a single mass of land extending northwest from the northern coastlines of France, Belgium and the Netherlands

With the end of the last Ice Age they evolved into the islands of Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and over six thousand smaller isles; the islands of Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, and their neighboring smaller islands are a part of the British Isles, even though they do not form part of the archipelago -- they are islands off of the coast of France

Ice continued to cover almost all of Scotland, most of Ireland and Wales and the hills of northern England as the islands formed; from ~14,000 BC to 10,000 BC, sea levels rose as the ice melted, separating Ireland from Britain and also creating the Isle of Man; about 3,000 years later, Britain became separated from the mainland of Europe. Britain was (presumed) to have been repopulated as the Ice Age ended and when Britain was still part of a peninsula of the European continent. Ireland was not settled by people until after 8,000 BC

Today's climate (the 2020's) of the islands is temperate marine, with mild winters and warm summers; the North Atlantic drift brings significant amounts of moisture to the islands, raising temperatures by ~11°C (20°F) above the global average for other locations around the globe at this latitude, 51° 28' 0.12" N — this led to a landscape long dominated by a temperate rainforest, although human activity has since cleared the vast majority of forest cover.

Britain remained separated from Europe until the Euro Tunnel under the Straits of Dover in the English Channel was opened on December 1st, 1990, linking Folkestone, Kent with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais (near Calais) via rail. Today's UK has been a part of the EU since 1973 and remains so, although there are active debates about its departure (March, 2019)

Culturally, the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has evolved over many years

At the time of the Roman Empire, the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, the tribes of Hiberni (Ireland), Pictish (northern Britain) and Briton (southern Britain), all speaking Celtic dialects Insular Celtic group, were inhabiting the islands. The Romans expanded their civilisation to control much of Brittonic-occupied Britain in AD 43, but were impeded in advancing any further and built Hadrian's Wall to mark the northern frontier of their empire in 122 AD

The first Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power started to wane in the 5th century, eventually dominating the bulk of what is now England. Initially, their arrival seems to have been at the invitation of the Britons as mercenaries to repulse incursions by the Hiberni and Picts but over time, Anglo-Saxon demands on the British became so great that they came to culturally dominate the bulk of southern Britain, though recent genetic evidence suggests Britons still formed the bulk of the population. This dominance created what is now England, leaving culturally British enclaves only in the north of what is now England, in Cornwall and what is now known as Wales

Ireland had been unaffected by the Romans except, significantly, for being Christianized — traditionally by the Romano-Briton, Saint Patrick. As Europe, including Britain, descended into turmoil following the collapse of Roman civilisation, an era known as the Dark Ages, Ireland entered a golden age and responded with missions (first to Britain and then to the continent), the founding of monasteries and universities. These were later joined by Anglo-Saxon missions of a similar nature

Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by more permanent settlements, particularly along the east coast of Ireland, the west coast of modern-day Scotland and the Isle of Man. Though the Vikings were eventually neutralized in Ireland, their influence remained in the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Wexford. England, however, was slowly conquered around the end of the first millennium, eventually becoming a feudal possession of Denmark

The relations between the descendants of Vikings in England and counterparts in Normandy, in northern France, lay at the heart of a series of events that led to the Norman conquest of England in 1066 (by my 35th Great Grandfather, William Beauclerc). The remnants of the Duchy of Normandy, which conquered England, remain associated to the English Crown as the Channel Islands to this day. A century later, the marriage of the future King of England Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine created the Angevin Empire, partially under the French Crown. At the invitation of Diarmait Mac Murchada, a provincial king, and under the authority of Pope Adrian IV (the only Englishman to be elected pope), the Angevins invaded Ireland in 1169. Though initially intended to be kept as an independent kingdom, the failure of the Irish High King to ensure the terms of the Treaty of Windsor led Henry II, as King of England, to rule as effective monarch under the title of Lord of Ireland. This title was granted to his younger son, but when Henry's heir unexpectedly died, the title of King of England and Lord of Ireland became entwined in one person

The Magna Carta charter for Britain was written by King John and released on June 15th, 1215; six of the Barons are a part of my tree ( see the media file for more details )

By the Late Middle Ages, Britain was separated into the Kingdoms of England and of Scotland, while control in Ireland fluxed between Gaelic kingdoms, Hiberno-Norman lords and the English-dominated Lordship of Ireland. A similar situation existed in the Principality of Wales, which was slowly being annexed into the Kingdom of England by a series of laws. During the course of the 15th century, the Crown of England would assert a claim to the Crown of France, thereby also releasing the King of England from being vassal of the King of France. In 1534, King Henry VIII, at first having been a strong defender of Roman Catholicism in the face of the Reformation, separated from the Roman Church after failing to secure a divorce from the Pope. His response was to place the King of England as "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England", thereby removing the authority of the Pope from the affairs of the English Church. Ireland, which had been held by the King of England as Lord of Ireland, but which strictly speaking had been a feudal possession of the Pope since the Norman invasion was declared a separate kingdom in personal union with England

Scotland meanwhile had remained an independent Kingdom. In 1603, that changed when the King of Scotland inherited the Crown of England, and consequently the Crown of Ireland also. The subsequent 17th century was one of political upheaval, religious division and war. English colonialism in Ireland of the 16th century was extended by large-scale Scottish and English colonies in Ulster. Religious division heightened and the king in England came into conflict with parliament over his tolerance towards Catholicism. The resulting English Civil War or War of the Three Kingdoms led to a revolutionary republic in England

Ireland, largely Catholic, was mainly loyal to the king. Following defeat to the parliaments army, large scale land distributions from loyalist Irish nobility to English commoners in the service of the parliamentary army created a new Ascendancy class which obliterated the remnants of Old English (Hiberno-Norman) and Gaelic Irish nobility in Ireland. The new ruling class was Protestant and English, whilst the populace was largely Catholic and Irish. This theme would influence Irish politics for centuries to come. When the monarchy was restored in England, the king found it politically impossible to restore the lands of former land-owners in Ireland. The "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 repeated similar themes: a Catholic king pushing for religious tolerance in opposition to a Protestant parliament in England. The king's army was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne and at the militarily crucial Battle of Aughrim in Ireland. Resistance held out, eventually forcing the guarantee of religious tolerance in the Treaty of Limerick. However, the terms were never honoured and a new monarchy was installed

The Kingdoms of England and Scotland were unified in 1707 creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. Following an attempted republican revolution in Ireland in 1798, the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain were unified in 1801, creating the United Kingdom. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands remained outside of the United Kingdom but with their ultimate good governance being the responsibility of the British Crown (effectively the British government)

Although the colonies of North America that would become the United States of America were lost by the start of the 19th century, the British Empire expanded rapidly elsewhere. A century later it would cover one third of the globe. Poverty in the United Kingdom remained desperate, however, and industrialization in England led to terrible condition for the working classes. Mass migrations following the Irish Famine and Highland Clearances resulted in the distribution of the islands' population and culture throughout the world and a rapid de-population of Ireland in the second half of the 19th century. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty (1919–1922), with the six counties that formed Northern Ireland remaining as an autonomous region of the UK

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich is a historic observatory which played a role in the world's history and in science and for its long history there are many famous scientists worked in this observatory. It is located at Blackheath Avenue, in London, UK and was founded in the middle of the 17th century by King Charles. There is a small museum and a scientific room in the observatory; click to view:

A geographical visualisation of the British Isles