Isle of Man in United Kingdom

“The island was much visited -in accordance to Bamber Gascoigne´ Encyclopedia of Britain about “Isle of Man”– from the 6C by Celtic missionaries from Ireland; it was part of the territory of the Viking rulers of Dublin (10–13C); then for nearly a century it was governed from Scotland; and from 1333 it has been linked with England, first as the feudal territory of various great nobles (in particular the Stanley family, the earls of Derby) and since 1765 as the property of the crown.

But it has never been entirely absorbed within the United Kingdom. It is a self-governing crown dependency and as such retains its own parliament, the Tynwald. The heraldic device of three running legs, joined at the centre, has been in use since at least the 14C. The island is most widely known for the TT races and the Manx cat.

The Tynwald led the world as the first parliament to give votes to women (in 1881, see *suffragettes), but a century later the Isle of Man was notoriously backward in its legislation; bills to end capital punishment and to legalize homosexuality were at last introduced in 1992, but corporal punishment was also at that time still on the statute book.”

It is called Ellan Vannin in Manx Gaelic. It had 65,000 inhabitants in 1981.