England and Scotland.

For a long time the Tudors were trying to join Scotland to England. In their attempts to preserve the independence of Scotland, the Scottish kings could not get much support from their nobility, because Scottish nobility was not united: some of them wanted closer friendship with England, and others wanted to remain loyal to the old alliance with France.-Knowing how weak they were, the Scottish kings usually tried to avoid war with England. They made a peace treaty with Henry VII, and James IV, king of Scotland, married Henry VII's daughter Margaret¹. But it did not help. Henry VIII made two warson Scotland. King James IV was killed during the first war. James V, whose army was also badly defeated during the second war, died soon after the war.

Henry VIII hoped to marry his son Edward VI to James V's daughter, the baby Queen of Scots Mary and in this way join the two countries together un­der an English king. But the Scots did not want this marriage and sent Mary to France, where she mar­ried the French king's son in 1558. However, her French husband died soon after their marriage, and |he returned to Scotland. Mary was a Catholic, but during her time in France Scotland had become of fi­nally a Protestant country. The Scottish Protestants did not want a Catholic queen on the throne. There was a struggle, as a result of which Mary had to escape to England, where she was held by Elizabeth for nineteen years and finally executed.

Elizabeth I never married and had no children. Her closest relative was Mary's son, the Scottish king James VI, and after Elizabeth's death in 1603, he inherited the English throne. So, after a long strug­gle the two countries were united, but, ironically, under a royal dynasty which came from Scotland.

III. Language.

The Celts spoke Celtic, which survives today in the form of Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic. Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic are still spoken by some people, although they have suffered from the spread of English. However, all three languages are now officially encouraged and taught at schools.

English developed from Anglo-Saxon and it is a language of the Germanic group. All the invading peoples, particularly the Norman-French, influenced the English language, and we can find many words in English which are French in origin. Nowadays all Welsh, Scottish and Irish people speak English (even if they speak their own language as well), but they have their own special accents and dialects, so you can tell what part of Britain a person is from as soon as they begin to speak. Sometimes the differences in accents are so great that people from different parts of the UK have difficulty in understanding one an­other. The southern accent is generally accepted as standard English.

The Union Jack.

The flag of the United Kingdom, known as the Union Jack, is made up of three crosses. The upright red cross is the cross of St George, the patron saint of England. The white diagonal cross (with the arms going into the cor­ners) is the cross of St Andrew, the pa­tron saint of Scotland. The red diag­onal cross is the cross of St Patrick, the patron saint of The Union Jack Ireland.