The History of the UK

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(102 102 102 1)>The UK didn't crown itself in a quiet corner-it clawed from Celtic fogs where druids slung spells against Caesar's eagles Roman roads rutting the landscape till Boudicca's iceni torched Colchester in '60 revenge. Angles and Saxons splashed in next Alfred's cakes burning while Canute waved back the waves birthing a patchwork of petty kings that knitted under Normans' '66 boot at Hastings. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(102 102 102 1)>Medieval melee followed-Plantagenets plotting in Tower greens Magna Carta's barons shoving quills at John's chin a brew of border reivers and Robin Hood's tax dodges that stitched England from the fray. Empire's salt stung deep: Tudors' Mary scorching Protestants while Elizabeth's sea dogs nipped Spanish gold Cromwell's republic crumbling into Restoration revels amid plague pits and fire-gutted London. Industrial hammers fell hard-Watt's steam puffing Manchester mills navvies spiking railways through soot-choked dales while Victoria's brood bloated borders from Bengal bazaars to Boer kopjes. It was a realm of rum and rifles where Kipling's verses veiled the vultures circling native necks. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(102 102 102 1)>Twentieth-century thunder cracked the crown: Somme's mud graves swallowing tommies Blitz bombs rattling Big Ben till VE Day's victory V's veiled the ration queues. Suez's '56 fumble shrank the map Thatcher's '79 grip grinding miners amid Falklands fog Blair's spin dancing into Iraq dust while Brexit's '16 ballot boxed the isles in blue passports. The UK's no tidy tea tray-it's a haggis heart of heather and hubris proving a soggy scepter can swing the world's sway.</span></p>