United Kingdom

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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, known more commonly as the United Kingdom, is a sovereign state which includes the island of Great Britain, the northern part of island of Ireland, and many other small islands.

Before the United Kingdom was formed, Great Britain consisted of two sovereign states, Scotland and England, who united in 1707 to form Great Britain. Following this, the Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland were merged in 1801 to create the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the current ruling body. The city of London had been established as the capital of England - and its successor states - since the Norman conquest of 1066.

History

Renaissance

"Henry VII of the House of Tudor rules England with unflinching power. Though England enjoys peace and stability under his command, he may soon become a victim of Templar manipulation."

―An Assassin's observation, 1503.

During the mid-Renaissance era, London was ruled by King Henry VII, and the Templars Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck made attempts to obtain the English throne for their Order. However, their plans were thwarted by King Henry, as he imprisoned Lambert, and had Perkin hanged.

In 1503, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the Mentor of the Italian Assassins, sent a group of his Assassin recruits to London to aid King Henry, and eliminate any remaining power the Templars held in the country. After convincing him that they had similar interests, the Assassins were sent after Simnel and Warbeck's co-conspirator, Margaret of York, and in November of that year, they made sure she died a "natural death" by using a discreet poison.

Soon after, the other conspirators fled to smaller villages, and began to rally the civilians there to rise up against their king. The Assassins targeted only members of the Templar Order, and killed all but one. In exchange for his life, the Templar revealed that his Order had infiltrated King Henry's Star Chamber, the secret high court of England.

King Henry's Star Chamber

The apprentices quickly began a search for the infiltrators, and eventually tracked down a group of Englishmen signing documents for the Templar-affiliated Borgia family. As a reward for eliminating them, King Henry offered the Assassins a seat in the Star Chamber.

In 1553, Mary I became queen. She wished to restore England to Roman Catholicism, and in the process, she had almost 300 religious dissenters burned at the stake. The Assassins monitored her for a while before they finally assassinated her on the 17th of November in 1558.

After Mary, her half-sister Elizabeth I became the queen, and undid the damage that Mary had caused to England. During her reign, she had an Apple of Eden in her possession, and remained as Queen of England until her death in 1603.

Restoration era

"I am invited to England to receive my crown. I must prepare for my return. There are many things I must do once I am there. Many wrongs I must right!"

―Charles II, 1660.

The crowning of Charles II

In 1642, the English Civil War began between King Charles I and the forces of the English Parliament led by Oliver Cromwell. King Charles eventually lost this war, and was beheaded on January 30, 1649. This led to his wife Henrietta Maria, and his son, the future King Charles II, into exile in France.

During Charles' time in France, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and was in charge of the country until Charles II was finally restored to the throne on 29 May 1660, with the help of General George Monck. At his crowning, King Charles noticed a man holding a sphere wrapped in a thick piece of cloth, who conversed with his General.

Colonial era

In 1707, the acts of Union between Scotland and England lead to a new country being formed - Great Britain, known commonly as Britain or the United Kingdom. During the early 18th century, Britain ruled over numberous islands in the British West Indies (Caribbean). Edward Kenway is known to have visited Jamaica (including the Cayman Islands, which remains a British Overseas Terrority), The Bahamas and Florida (which was still a colony of Britain). British rule over Nassau, the Bahamas, was put in jeopardy when it became a pirate haven, and republic from 1713, until 1718. In the 18th century, Britain ruled the Thirteen Colonies of North America. Connor Kenway and his father are known to have visited the British cities of Boston and New York in the colonies of Massachuetts and New York respectively. During this time period - Haytham Kenway also visited the British capital of London. Following the costly French and Indian War, many British Americans grew disgruntled with taxation and lack of representation in Parliament. Following incidents such as the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party, the American Revolutionary War broke out and the colonies declared their independence. By 1783, the British Army lost the war and signed a peace treaty. The British Empire was the largest empire in history (by both population and land), ruling over places like Canada, Australia, India and nearly half of Africa.

Modern times

London, Great Britain during the late 19th century

In the late nineteenth century, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded in London, led by William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell Mathers. The organization was closely tied to the occult, which was frowned upon by the society, and was therefore forced to stay secret. However, due to tensions and a struggle for power, the Order soon started to decline, until it eventually fell apart.

A century later, the United Kingdom was involved in World War II, a Templar plot devised to create their New World Order. The Prime Minister at the time, Winston Churchill, was secretly a Templar puppet, and worked with the man that was supposed to be his greatest enemy, Adolf Hitler, in order to orchestrate the transfer of a Piece of Eden.

From 1979 to 1990, Margaret Thatcher held the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and she too was manipulated by the Templar shadow-company Abstergo Industries. During her reign, she installed Boris Yeltsin, a fellow Templar, as Russia's new president.