London

London is a city in southern England, and the current capital of the United Kingdom.

Renaissance
During the time of the mid-Renaissance, London was ruled by King Henry VII of England. During the late 15th century, the Templars made attempts to obtain the English throne. However, their plans were thwarted by Henry VII, as he imprisoned Lambert Simnel and had Perkin Warbeck hanged. In 1503, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the Mentor of the Italian Assassins, sent a group of his apprentices to London to aid King Henry VII. They subsequently killed Warbeck and Simnel's co-conspirator Margaret of York in November of 1503.

Afterwards, the apprentices killed several Templars instigating riots over Margaret's death. One such Templar revealed that their Order had infiltrated Henry's Star Chamber, to which the apprentices quickly searched for the infiltrators; they found a group of Englishmen signing Borgia documents and eliminated them. As a reward, King Henry offered the Assassins a seat in the Star Chamber.

Restoration era
In 1660, Charles Stuart was invited to London to be crowned King after having been exiled by Oliver Cromwell for several years. At his crowning, Stuart noticed a man holding a sphere wrapped in a thick piece of cloth talking with his General, George Monck.

London later burned to the ground from September 2-5 1666, in what is now known as the Great Fire of London, which gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall. It threatened, but did not reach, the aristocratic district of Westminster, Charles II's Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban slums. It consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St. Paul's Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's 80,000 inhabitants. The death toll is unknown but traditionally thought to have been small, as only six verified deaths were recorded. This reasoning has recently been challenged on the grounds that the deaths of poor and middle-class people were not recorded, while the heat of the fire may have cremated many victims leaving no recognizable remains.

18th century
Following his time as a privateer-turned-pirate in the Caribbean, the Assassin Edward Kenway retired to a spacious mansion on Queen Anne's Square, in Bloomsbury, with his wife Tessa, son Haytham, and daughter Jenny. On 3 December, 1735, mercenaries hired by the Templar – and family friend – Reginald Birch attacked their home, murdering Edward and kidnapping Jenny. Birch then took Haytham in, training him to become a Templar.

In 1754, Haytham attended a performance of  at the Theatre Royal to find and kill the Assassin Miko, an act which saw Assassin influence in the city collapse entirely for the next 114 years. Haytham recovered an artifact for Birch, who believed it was a key to a Precursor site in North America: Haytham set sail for Boston on the Providence. Meanwhile, Miko's murder became public news and left many civilians wondering whether to should leave the city or not.

Four years later, Jenny returned to Queen Anne's Square after Haytham found her and rescued her from a palace in Damascus.

During the 18th century, the Templars were able to gain complete control of the city and kept it under their thumb well into the 19th century.

19th century
"Today, Starrick sits at the helm of the most sophisticated Templar infrastructure known in the western world. Every class, every borough, the gangs, the industries - his reach extends all across London. [...] Look at what Starrick has done to this city. Whitechapel is riddled with crime. Child labor, despite regulations. A gang known as the Blighters overruns the streets. And Templars manipulating behind the scenes. As in all the other boroughs. We need to return this city to the people who built it in the first place."

- Henry Green describing the state of London, 1868.

By the 19th century, under Queen Victoria's rule, London became the global capital of invention with its technological advancement. It was divided into seven boroughs - the City of London, Lambeth, The Strand, Westminster, Southwark, Whitechapel, and the River Thames - each with a different culture but with a single commonality. As country folk moved in to the city for employment, however, it resulted in a sudden increase in population and decrease in wages, in addition to most businessmen abusing workers. These actions became a spark for the Industrial Revolution.

During the year 1868, Assassins and fraternal twins Jacob and Evie Frye created the gang known as the Rooks to remove the influence of the Templar-backed gangs throughout London.