page_title: Spain–United Kingdom relations
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Spain–United Kingdom relations / History
context_page_description: Spain–United Kingdom relations, also called Spanish-British relations, are the bilateral international relations between Spain and United Kingdom.
context_section_description: The history of Spanish–British relations is complicated by the political heritage of the two countries. Neither Great Britain nor Spain has a unique constitutional ancestor; Britain  was originally created by a union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland (and later joined by Ireland), whilst the Kingdom of Spain was initially created by a union of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.  They have also been complicated by the fact that Britain  and Spain were both imperial powers, after the same land, an occurrence which is being played out to this day with the disputed ownership and status of Gibraltar.
caption: Spanish Empire
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