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And if it’s more complicated than that and there are multiple contenders, then who are they?

In England’s case, the first King of England was Æthelstan, building on the work of his grandfather Alfred the Great, his father Edward the Elder and his aunt Æthelflæd. He conquered York and unified the Kingdom in 927 AD. He reformed the legal system, and later defeated the Vikings and the Scots at the Battle of Brunanburh. Those who know about him tend to rank him very highly, but he’s not well known. Still, with the 1100th anniversary of his unification coming next year, perhaps that will be commemorated somehow.

Queen Anne was the first monarch of a unified Great Britain, ruling from 1702 to 1714 and being in charge when the Act of Union with Scotland went through in 1707. She presided over the War of the Spanish Succession and an age of political instability with the emergence of the Whigs and the Tories. She was a more capable, active and principled ruler than she is often given credit for. But, despite having 17 pregnancies, none of her children came close to outliving her, so the throne passed to the Elector of Hanover, George I.

1. The White Ship. A vessel that was supposed to be carrying King Henry I’s son and heir William Adelin across the channel, the crew got pissed and proceeded to accidentally steer the ship straight onto the rocks. The ship sank, William died, and Henry was left without an heir, setting England down the road to the brutal civil war known as the Anarchy.

2. The Mayflower. Played a major role in the origins of the United States by carrying the Pilgrims across the Atlantic.

3. The Titanic. Sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, in one of the most famous and discussed maritime disasters of all time.

4. The Olympic. Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic had a much longer and more varied career, She rammed and sank a U-boat during the First World War, and it was far from the only thing she hit.

In Britain’s case, being a maritime nation, we’ve had a few.

1. The Golden Hinde. A 16th century galleon, the Golden Hinde was the ship of the Elizabethan Sea Dog Francis Drake as he became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. This image is of a modern replica.

2. HMS Victory. Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar, and the oldest commissioned warship to this day (but not the oldest one afloat).

3. HMS Dreadnought. Revolutionised naval design when it was launched in 1906, rendering every battleship in the world immediately obsolete. In World War One, she rammed and sank a U-Boat.

4. HMS Warspite. The most decorated British warship in history, she fought at Jutland, in Norway, and in the Mediterranean. Holds the joint record for the longest ranged shot landed on an enemy ship.

For Britain, probably the Battle of the Saintes 1782. The Royal Navy led by Admirals George Rodney and Samuel Hood defeated the French fleet of the Comte de Grasse in the Caribbean, capturing de Grasse’s flagship and aborting a planned French attack on Jamaica in the process. Along with the successful defence of Gibraltar, it prevented the end of the American War for Independence from being even worse for Britain.

For England specifically, probably Agincourt or Crecy.

And what about you?