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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsBerwick-upon-Tweed vs. Russia
There is an apocryphal story that Berwick is (or recently was) technically at war with Russia. The story tells that since Berwick had changed hands several times, it was traditionally regarded as a special, separate entity, and some proclamations referred to "England, Scotland and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed". One such was the declaration of the Crimean War against Russia in 1853, which Queen Victoria supposedly signed as "Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and all British Dominions". When the Treaty of Paris (1856) was signed to conclude the war, "Berwick-upon-Tweed" was left out. This meant that, supposedly, one of Britain's smallest towns was officially at war with one of the world's largest powers and the conflict extended by the lack of a peace treaty for over a century.
The BBC programme Nationwide investigated this story in the 1970s, and found that while Berwick was not mentioned in the Treaty of Paris, it was not mentioned in the declaration of war either. The question remained as to whether Berwick had ever been at war with Russia in the first place. The true situation is that since the Wales and Berwick Act 1746 had already made it clear that all references to England included Berwick, the town had no special status at either the start or end of the war. The grain of truth in this legend could be that some important documents from the 17th century did mention Berwick separately, but this became unnecessary after 1746.
intaglio
(8,170 posts)Called the 335 year War although it is more likely that van Tromp did not have a commission to declare war and the Treaty of 1654 ended any war the British Isles had with the Dutch. Despite that the Dutch Ambassador signed a peace treaty in the Isles in 1986
There was also a real state of war existing between the Municipality of Huescar in Spain and Denmark from 1819 to 1951. There was however one real hot war that lasted over 200 years - The Arauco War