WALES

Сonstituent country in Western Europe, part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland. It is located in the southwest of the island of Great Britain. The capital is the
city of Cardiff. The inhabitants of Wales are called the Welsh.

It is located in the south-west of Great Britain, borders England to the east, is surrounded by
the sea on three sides: to the south is the Bristol Channel (mouth of the Severn River), to the
south-west is St. George's Strait, to the north and west is the Irish Sea, to the north-east — the
mouth of the Dee River
Wales was never a sovereign state within its present borders. However, from about 1057 to
1063, Gryffid ap Llywelyn owned almost all of the lands that make up present-day Wales. After
the death of Gruffydd, this was no longer the case, and during the Norman conquest of West
Wales in 1282, the country was again divided between several kingdoms. In 1400, the scion of
two ancient Welsh royal families, Owain Glyndúr, led a rebellion against the English and was
proclaimed King of Wales, but by 1410 had completely lost support and was forced into hiding.
Welsh laws were not completely superseded by English laws until 1542.
After the Norman conquest in 1066, the Welsh kingdoms, despite the resistance of the Welsh
rulers, gradually became dependent on their eastern neighbors. William the Conqueror tried to
subdue the Welsh by creating several powerful fiefdoms on the Welsh border. The lords of the
so-called Welsh mark mostly maintained their independence until the reign of Henry VIII. Some
Welsh rulers, such as Owain Gwynedd, Rhys ap Gryffid, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, at different times
united a large part of the country under their authority, but the unification of Wales never
happened. In 1282, after the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, who declared himself the ruler of
all Wales, and his brother was captured and executed, the troops of Edward I captured the
entire territory of Wales. To control the local inhabitants, the English built several powerful
castles (in particular, Cairnarvon and Conwy in the north of Wales, near the royal capital of
Gwynedd, Garth-Caelin). The last major rebellion was that of Owain Glyndúr, centuries later.
The Welsh Tudor family, which actively participated in the War of the Red and White Roses,
became the royal dynasty of England in 1485. The final legal merger of the Principality of Wales
with England took place under Henry VIII after the passage of a series of laws, according to
which Welsh law in Wales was replaced by English.
 Scotland

a country in Western Europe belonging to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland. Once an independent state. It occupies the northern part of Great Britain, borders
England in the south, the North Sea washes its shores in the east, the Atlantic Ocean in the
north and west, the North Channel and the Irish Sea in the southwest. In addition, Scotland
consists of about 790 islands, including the Shetland, Orkney and Hebridean archipelagos.

Edinburgh, the second largest city and capital of the country, is one of the largest European
financial centers. Edinburgh was the center of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century,
which transformed Scotland into a powerful commercial, intellectual and industrial nation.
Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, was once one of the world's leading industrial cities, and is
now the center of the Greater Glasgow urban agglomeration. Scotland's water area includes a
large part of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, which contains the largest oil reserves in the
European Union. This gave the city of Aberdeen, the country's third largest city, the title of
European oil capital.