The small community of Hay-On-Wye (Or simply Hay, for short) is located in the middle of the Welsh countryside; it's a beautiful location on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park with a castle and tall green hills. Its history is nearly a century old, but it's only within the last few decades this place has made a name for itself.

In 1962, a local man by the name of Richard Booth, who was intrigued by books and had a passion for them, opened Hay's first bookshop in the old fire station. A few years later, he bought the local Hay Castle and set it up as a secondhand bookshop. Guinness World Records later recognized the castle as the world's largest second-hand bookshop, with over a million books stocked at any one time.

Richard Booth's passion for literature had gripped the community and in 1976, the Welsh Tourism Board listed Hay as a "Town of Books." However, it wasn't enough. Booth realized more needed to be done to sustain the area's economy, and so on April 1, 1977, he did something that would define the community forever: he declared himself King.

Booth raised a new flag at his castle, placed a crown on his head, and fired a cannon from a gunboat (in reality: a small rowing boat) to mark the community's independence. Although the independence was never officially recognized by the United Kingdom, other micronations supported Booth's cause to raise awareness to support his community.