UK? No

Oh yes- and my part of Switzerland was still Prussian until 1848. And Alsace belonged to Germany, and Savoie was Swiss- and Yugoslavia was one country, and so on.

Wales was united with the English crown in the 13th century by Edward I, long before Henry Tudor seized the crown of England and Wales through some dodgy ancestral claims.

Yugoslavia was a 'cobbled together country' after 1918 and became the Kingdom of Yogoslavia in 1929.

exactly - my mother was the guest of the Queen in 1931, both in Zagreb and Bled.

The point being that many European countries which seem to be 'one' were in fact until not so long ago, just a diverse in culture and languages as Wales, Scotland, England and NI.

Many Italians still do not accept unification, and want the North (rich and well educated !) and the South (poor and speaking weird dialects !) ... to be separated again. Don't ask a Milanese to be assimilated to a Napolitan- or else)...

England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales are four countries so far more than culture and language. What were the two sets rate countries of Italy called before they become one country ?

@granjura

And don't mention Sicily!

Have you ever read the Cadfael mysteries, ab, by Ellis Peters? Great stories based in and around medieval Shrewsbury. Some of the stories extend into Wales and Cadfael himself is Welsh, as the name suggests.

daphne you beat me to it! Sicilians and Calabrese still use dialects which are totally different to Italian- and that Northern Italians just couldn't comprehend. In fact the whole of the South, including Sicily, was 'Sicily- then the centre was ther papal States, and the North a whole array of small countries, including Tuscany, and Sardinia in the NE, including the island of, Lombardia and Tyrol, etc.

As you say, much more than language- different ethnic groups and history altogether- but not separated by an obvious dividing barrier like Offa's Dike or Adrian's wall.

But what were the two separate countries which are now Italy caked, culture and language alone doesn't make a country ,

I did attempt to reply in my last post- it also included history, genetics, ethnicity and origins, history of different regions, and so much more.

Thought about this and don't think I would mind if Welsh news channels announced this as for Wales and the other home countries,ditto Scotland, so English news should be allowed England.

In 1858, they were: the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, the Papal states, Tuscany, Venetia, Modena, Parma, Sardinia and Lombardy. The country now known as Italy was even more fragmented before then.

But this was the BBC! The BBC is supposed to be British, not English.

Can Ireland be counted as a "home team" if it is a team from all Ireland? It's still British as in part of the British Isles but not part of the UK, so it wouldn't be right to refer to it as one of the UK countries, as the OP seems to be suggesting.

German unification (not counting after the pulling down of the Berlin Wall) was relatively late too, wasn't it? Nineteenth century, Bismarck and all that. Has someone already mentioned that? I expect I'm not keeping up very well here at the back.

1870, although the German borders weren't the same as they were in 1918, 1945 or today.

I read about a man from Alsace, who had fought for the French twice and the Germans once. He was threatened with a court martial for treason.

PS. Bavaria (Bayern) still doesn't like to think of itself as part of Germany.

thatbags and annieb wasn't Cadfael on tv ages ago with Derek Jacobi as the eponymous monk?

I thought Italy was the result of the unification of several small states, not just north and south.

Ignore my post above
granjura already posted that!

The Nomans actually began the invasion of Wales soon after the conquest, doing various deals with different Chieftains. There was sporadic insurrection in Wales, hence the building of those castles, till the laws in Wales act of 1535-42 when Wales was finally incorporated into the kingdom of England.

Yes, I was thinking about the Normans in Wales (as well as England) when I mentioned Cadfael.

Yes, they were always dashing over the border in order to escape the kings men!!!!! Must say, I loved that series, but then I am a Derek Jacobi fan as well as a history one!

BBC means BRITISH Broadcasting not English Broadcasting , the licence fee is the same in the four countries .