The United Kingdom, which comprises of four countries, namely Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, is famous for a number of things, including palaces, history, icons, the British sense of humour, and even for fish and chips.
However, these are just some common things that are known by almost everybody who has heard of the UK. What this article will tell you is about the three most interesting facts, which will fascinate you. These are going to sound so interesting that you will definitely seek electronic travel authorisation or ETA United Kingdom after reading this article.
#1: French was the Official Language of England for more than 300 Years!
Just in case you have always thought that English has been the official language of England since its beginning, you are wrong. It is French that used to be the official language of the country for over 3 centuries. After William the Conqueror became England’s king, the French language officially became the language of the country and stayed the same for more than 300 years. For the same reason, it has been predicted that English, which became the official language after the French language, consists of at least 50 percent ofwords that are born from the French language. Sound interesting, doesn’t it?
William asserted his authority and settled a number of his followers in the nation, resulting in several societal as well as governmental transformations. One of the transformations was introducing Nomari French as the medium of communication for the government, the court, as well as the noble elite. Thus, French words began to enter the English language and due to the switch from French to English, the names commonly used remained the ones of the French language.
It has never been clear the extent to which the invaders of Norman have learned the English language or the extent to which the French language was used by the people belonging to lower classes.
#2: Cricket, Boxing, Golf, Rugby, and Soccer were invented in the UK
That sounds too much to digest, right? All the commonly played sport all over the world, namely cricket, boxing, golf, and rugby, were invented in the UK. Some references to the cases of the court along with illustrations of the medieval period demonstrate that cricket used to be played prior to 1500 in England, which had a number of variations locally. The next is football, also called British soccer. One can always notice several football clubs playing matches of football professionally. The best clubs of football are a part of the EPL or the English Premier League. The craze for the game is so high that fans tend to attend these matches in large numbers from all over the world.
Another game, Rugby, has its roots in football and came up in the 19th century in England. In the late-19th century, two kinds of categories of the game were developed, namely rugby union and rugby league. While Rugby Union is based in the south and is restricted to amateurs, Rugby league became extremely famous among the people who work, majorly in the north.
Last, but not least, golf also originated in England and even though its date of origin is not clear, it is very much explicit that the rules of the game were written in Edinburgh in the year 1744.
#3: The British drink over 60bn cups of tea annually.
If there is one thing that the British love the most in drinks, it definitely would be tea. Whether it is plain, or contains lemon, sugar, and/or milk, the British are known to have about 60 billion cups of tea annually. This might come as a surprise to you when you do your calculations – an average person, including children, women and men, drinks about 900 cups of tea every year.
Even though the culture of drinking the beverage began in China in the 3rd millennium BC, it was in the 17th century that tea came to England for the first time.
It was the Dutch as well as Portuguese traders who took tea to England for the first time in 1610 through regular shipment. Even though the country was late with regard to trading in tea, they definitely became a fan of the beverage.
If you really wish to know which tea is the most bought and consumed by people in England, it is black tea. Not only in England but this kind of tea is consumed the most in the United Kingdom as well.
The Bottom Line
Like every other part of the world, the UK has a number of facts associated with it that make its history as well as present interesting. Whether it is tea or the sport, UK has been on the top for several centuries now.
