Re: Tolkien: Frequently Asked Questions (2/2)

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 18:31:24 +0000 from Matthew T Curtis
<littlebleeder@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 17:44:01 +0000, Robert Shaw
<Robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
which includes the entire island of Great Britain, part of
the island of Ireland, and several minor island.

Formed when the Act of Union was passed in the respective Scots and
English parliaments in 1707.

Not quite. The 1707 Act of Union did unite England and Scotland in
one kingdom, but its title was the Kingdom of Great Britain.
(Therefore it's incorrect to speak of "the Queen of England": the
last Queen of England was good Queen Anne in 1707. She was also the
first Queen of Great Britain.)

The country called the United Kingdom was created on 1 Jan 1801 by
the _second_ Act of Union, uniting the kingdoms of Great Britain and
of Ireland, which also had the same person on both thrones. George
III was last monarch of Great Britain and first of the United
Kingdom.

There's some confusion on this point, perhaps because the 1707 Act
described Great Britain as a "united Kingdom". That capital-K looks
like part of a title, but note that the "u" is lower case. In the
18th century it was common to capitalize nouns, as was done in the US
Constitution 80 years later.

The official UK Monarchy Web site
<http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page5.asp> is a mine of sloppy
information: it refers to "Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom
(from 1603)"! Over on alt.talk.royalty we're forever having to
explain to newcomers that some particular "fact" they got about UK
royalty from an official UK government Web site is wrong.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Tolkien FAQs: http://Tolkien.slimy.com (Steuard Jensen's site)
Tolkien letters FAQ:
http://users.telerama.com/~taliesen/tolkien/lettersfaq.html
FAQ of the Rings: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/ringfaq.htm
Encyclopedia of Arda: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.htm
more FAQs: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/faqget.htm
.

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