Where the Wild Roses Grow

" The national flower of Scotland is the thistle, the national flower of Wales is the leek and the national flower of Ireland is the shamrock.
I dunno why England has the rose as its national flower, but there was a famous, long civil war in the Middle Ages called the 'Wars of the Roses'. It was so called because the two aristocratic families who fought each other were in control of the neighbouring counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the emblem of Lancashire was the red rose and the emblem of Yorkshire was the white rose. Marx believed it was the effects of the Wars of the Roses which led England to become the first nation in the world to create industrial capitalism, because the aristocracy were largely wiped out during the civil war leaving their lesser relatives to inherit their titles and estates. There lesser relatives of the aristocratic families were already involved in commerce and industry, whereas the aristocracy itself had been hostile to commerce and regarded it as demeaning and beneath them. This is why the British aristocracy were ready to forma class alliance with the bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries, whereas in most other nations (such as France) the bourgeoisie fought and destroyed the aristocratic class. It's why we still have a monarchy and aristocracy now, whereas most other developed nations are democratic republics."