HISTORY OF BRITISH ANCESTRY

[THE FUGITIVE]

This article is about a nation and an ethnic group. For information on the population of England, see Demography of England. For other uses, see English (disambiguation) and Englishman (disambiguation).
"Englanders" redirects here. It is not to be confused with the term Little Englander.
English

Traditionally Anglicanism, but also non-conformists and dissenters (see History of the Church of England), as well as other Protestants; also Roman Catholics (see Catholic Emancipation); Islam (see Islam in England); other faiths (see Religion in England).
Related ethnic groups
[original research?]
British people & Celts (sa. Bretons) Germanic peoples (esp. Frisians & Germans, Danes, Norwegians) Romance peoples (esp. French)
a English American, b English Australian, c English Canadian, d British diaspora in Africa
The English are a nation and an ethnic group native to England who speak the English language. The English identity is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Angelcynn ("family of the Angles"). Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD.[7] England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom, and the majority of people living there are British citizens.

Historically, the English population is descended from several peoples â€" the earlier Celtic Britons (or Brythons) and the Germanic tribes that settled in Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans, including Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become England (from the Old English Englaland) along with the later Danes, Anglo-Normans and other groups. In the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England was succeeded by the Kingdom of Great Britain.[8] Over the years, English customs and identity have become fairly closely aligned with British customs and identity in general.

Today many English people have recent forebears from other parts of the United Kingdom, while some are also descended from more recent immigrants from other European countries and from the Commonwealth.

The English people are the source of the English language, the Westminster system, the common law system and numerous major sports such as cricket, football,[9] rugby union, rugby league and tennis. These and other English cultural characteristics have spread worldwide, in part as a result of the former British Empire.

Historical origins and identity[edit]
Main article: Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain
There is a debate between historians, geneticists and others about the extent to which historical changes in the culture of the British Isles corresponds to historical migration events of Germanic tribes, and to the extent of these migrations. The traditional view of historians is that the English are primarily descended from the Anglo-Saxons, the term used to describe the various Germanic tribes that migrated to the island of Great Britain following the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, with assimilation of later migrants such as the Norse Vikings and Normans. This version of history is now regarded by many historians as incorrect, on the basis of more recent genetic and archaeological research. Based on a re-estimation of the number of settlers, some have taken the view that it is highly unlikely that the British Celtic-speaking population was substantially displaced by the Anglo-Saxons and that instead a process of acculturation took place, with an Anglo-Saxon ruling elite imposing their culture on the local populations.[23][24] Research into the genetic history of the British Isles, conducted by Stephen Oppenheimer in 2007 appears to support this theory, not showing a clear dividing line between the English and their 'Celtic' neighbours but a gradual clinal change from west coast Britain to east coast Britain, originating from upper palaeolithic and Mesolithic era variations in a pre-Indo-European population, which Oppenheimer argues form the basis of the modern population of the British Isles rather than Germanic tribes or Celts.[25][26] More recent genetic studies of ancient British DNA have refuted the hypothesis that the Anglo-Saxon invaders formed an elite class largely separate from the indigenous population, finding that samples from culturally Anglo-Saxon graveyards contained individuals who were more Celtic, suggesting a high level of intermingling between the Anglo-Saxons and the native Britons.[27] The 2016 study authored by Stephan Schiffels et al. found the Anglo-Saxons to have significantly impacted the genetic composition of the British Isles, so that on average the contemporary East English population derives 38 percent of its ancestry from Anglo-Saxon migrations, with this proportion varying in other parts of Britain that saw less of the migration or the migration of different Germanic tribes.[28] The remaining portion of English DNA is primarily French, introduced in a migration after the end of the Ice Age.[citation needed]

The theory that the English people are primarily descended from Anglo-Saxons is based largely on the dramatic cultural changes in Britain following their migration. The Celtic language was almost totally displaced by Anglo-Saxon and there was a complete shift towards North-West German farming methods and pottery styles.[29] The Brythonic languages such as Cornish, Cumbric and Welsh, held on for several centuries in parts of England such as Cornwall, Devon, Cumbria and a part of Lancashire.[30][31] Many historians, while making allowance for the limited survival of the Britons in England, hold to the view that there was significant displacement of the indigenous population after the Germanic migrations.[32][33]

History of English people[edit]
Main article: History of England
Early Middle Ages[edit]
Further information: Anglo-Saxons, Roman Britain, Sub-Roman Britain, Ancient Britons, Romano-Britons

"The Arrival of the First Ancestors of Englishmen out of Germany into Britain": a fanciful image of the Anglo-Saxon migration, an event central to the English national myth. From A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence by Richard Verstegan (1605)
The first people to be called 'English' were the Anglo-Saxons, a group of closely related Germanic tribes that began migrating to eastern and southern Great Britain, from southern Denmark and northern Germany, in the 5th century AD, after the Romans had withdrawn from Britain. The Anglo-Saxons gave their name to England (Engla land, meaning "Land of the Angles") and to the English.


A reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon burial chamber at Sutton Hoo, East Anglia.
The Anglo-Saxons arrived in a land that was already populated by people commonly referred to as the 'Romano-British'â€"the descendants of the native Brythonic-speaking population that lived in the area of Britain under Roman rule during the 1stâ€"5th centuries AD. The multi-ethnic nature of the Roman Empire meant that small numbers of other peoples may have also been present in England before the Anglo-Saxons arrived. There is archaeological evidence, for example, of an early North African presence in a Roman garrison at Aballava, now Burgh-by-Sands, in Cumbria: a 4th-century inscription says that the Roman military unit Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum ("unit of Aurelian Moors") from Mauretania (Morocco) was stationed there.[34] Although the Roman Empire incorporated peoples from far and wide, genetic studies suggest the Romans did not significantly mix into the British population.[35]

The exact nature of the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and their relationship with the Romano-British is a matter of debate. Traditionally, it was believed that a mass invasion by various Anglo-Saxon tribes largely displaced the indigenous British population in southern and eastern Great Britain (modern-day England with the exception of Cornwall). This was supported by the writings of Gildas, the only contemporary historical account of the period, describing slaughter and starvation of native Britons by invading tribes (aduentus Saxonum).[36] Furthermore, the English language contains no more than a handful of words borrowed from Brythonic sources.[37]

However, this view has been re-evaluated by some archaeologists and historians since the 1960s; and more recently supported by genetic studies,[26] which see only minimal evidence for mass displacement. Archaeologist Francis Pryor has stated that he "can't see any evidence for bona fide mass migrations after the Neolithic."[38]

While the historian Malcolm Todd writes "It is much more likely that a large proportion of the British population remained in place and was progressively dominated by a Germanic aristocracy, in some cases marrying into it and leaving Celtic names in the, admittedly very dubious, early lists of Anglo-Saxon dynasties. But how we identify the surviving Britons in areas of predominantly Anglo-Saxon settlement, either archaeologically or linguistically, is still one of the deepest problems of early English history."[39]

In a survey of the genes of British and Irish men, even those British regions that were most genetically similar to (Germanic speaking) continental regions were still more genetically British than continental: "When included in the PC analysis, the Frisians were more 'Continental' than any of the British samples, although they were somewhat closer to the British ones than the North German/Denmark sample. For example, the part of mainland Britain that has the most Continental input is Central England, but even here the AMH+1 frequency, not below 44% (Southwell), is higher than the 35% observed in the Frisians. These results demonstrate that even with the choice of Frisians as a source for the Anglo-Saxons, there is a clear indication of a continuing indigenous component in the English paternal genetic makeup."[40]

In 2016, through the investigation of burials using ancient DNA techniques, researchers found evidence of intermarriage in the earliest phase of Anglo-Saxon settlement. By studying rare mutations and employing whole genome sequencing, it was claimed that the continental and insular origins of the ancient remains could be discriminated, and it was calculated that 25â€"40% of the ancestry of the modern English is attributable to continental 'Anglo-Saxon' origins.[41][42]

Vikings and the Danelaw[edit]
Further information: Vikings and Danelaw
From about 800 AD waves of Danish Viking assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of Danish settlers in England. At first, the Vikings were very much considered a separate people from the English. This separation was enshrined when Alfred the Great signed the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum to establish the Danelaw, a division of England between English and Danish rule, with the Danes occupying northern and eastern England.[43]

However, Alfred's successors subsequently won military victories against the Danes, incorporating much of the Danelaw into the nascent kingdom of England. Danish invasions continued into the 11th century, and there were both English and Danish kings in the period following the unification of England (for example, Æthelred II (978â€"1013 and 1014â€"1016) was English but Cnut (1016â€"1035) was Danish).

Gradually, the Danes in England came to be seen as 'English'. They had a noticeable impact on the English language: many English words, such as anger, ball, egg, got, knife, take, and they, are of Old Norse origin,[44] and place names that end in -thwaite and -by are Scandinavian in origin.[45]

English unification[edit]
Further information: Treaty of Wedmore and Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum

Southern Great Britain in AD 600 after the Anglo-Saxon settlement, showing England's division into multiple petty kingdoms.
The English population was not politically unified until the 10th century. Before then, it consisted of a number of petty kingdoms which gradually coalesced into a Heptarchy of seven powerful states, the most powerful of which were Mercia and Wessex. The English nation state began to form when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms united against Danish Viking invasions, which began around 800 AD. Over the following century and a half England was for the most part a politically unified entity, and remained permanently so after 959.

The nation of England was formed in 937 by Æthelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh,[46][47] as Wessex grew from a relatively small kingdom in the South West to become the founder of the Kingdom of the English, incorporating all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Danelaw.[48]

Norman and Angevin rule[edit]
Further information: Normans

King Harold II of England (right) at the Norman court, from the Bayeux Tapestry
The Norman conquest of England during 1066 brought Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule of England to an end, as the new French speaking Norman elite almost universally replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and church leaders. After the conquest, "English" normally included all natives of England, whether they were of Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian or Celtic ancestry, to distinguish them from the Norman invaders, who were regarded as "Norman" even if born in England, for a generation or two after the Conquest.[49] The Norman dynasty ruled England for 87 years until the death of King Stephen in 1154, when the succession passed to Henry II, House of Plantagenet (based in France), and England became part of the Angevin Empire until 1399.

Various contemporary sources suggest that within 50 years of the invasion most of the Normans outside the royal court had switched to English, with Anglo-Norman remaining the prestige language of government and law largely out of social inertia. For example, Orderic Vitalis, a historian born in 1075 and the son of a Norman knight, said that he learned French only as a second language. Anglo-Norman continued to be used by the Plantagenet kings until Edward I came to the throne.[50] Over time the English language became more important even in the court, and the Normans were gradually assimilated, until, by the 14th century, both rulers and subjects regarded themselves as English and spoke the English language.[51]

Despite the assimilation of the Normans, the distinction between 'English' and 'French' survived in official documents long after it had fallen out of common use, in particular in the legal phrase Presentment of Englishry (a rule by which a hundred had to prove an unidentified murdered body found on their soil to be that of an Englishman, rather than a Norman, if they wanted to avoid a fine). This law was abolished in 1340.[52]

In the United Kingdom[edit]
Main article: History of the formation of the United Kingdom
St George's Cross
(England) St Andrew's Cross
(Scotland) Great Britain St Patrick's Cross
(Ireland) United Kingdom
Since the 18th century, England has been one part of a wider political entity covering all or part of the British Isles, which today is called the United Kingdom. Wales was annexed by England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535â€"1542, which incorporated Wales into the English state.[53] A new British identity was subsequently developed when James VI of Scotland became James I of England as well, and expressed the desire to be known as the monarch of Britain.[54]

In 1707, England formed a union with Scotland by passing an Act of Union in March 1707 that ratified the Treaty of Union. The Parliament of Scotland had previously passed its own Act of Union, so the Kingdom of Great Britain was born on 1 May 1707. In 1801, another Act of Union formed a union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, about two-thirds of the Irish population (those who lived in 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland), left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State. The remainder became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although this name was not introduced until 1927, after some years in which the term "United Kingdom" had been little used.

Throughout the history of the UK, the English have been dominant in population and in political weight. As a consequence, notions of 'Englishness' and 'Britishness' are often very similar. At the same time, after the Union of 1707, the English, along with the other peoples of the British Isles, have been encouraged to think of themselves as British rather than to identify themselves with the constituent nations.[55]

Immigration and assimilation[edit]
See also: Historical immigration to Great Britain and Immigration to the United Kingdom (1922-present day)
England has been the destination of varied numbers of migrants at different periods from the 17th century onwards. While some members of these groups seek to practise a form of pluralism, attempting to maintain a separate ethnic identity, others have assimilated and intermarried with the English. Since Oliver Cromwell's resettlement of the Jews in 1656, there have been waves of Jewish immigration from Russia in the 19th century and from Germany in the 20th.[56]

After the French king Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal in 1685 in the Edict of Fontainebleau, an estimated 50,000 Protestant Huguenots fled to England.[57] Due to sustained and sometimes mass emigration of the Irish, current estimates indicate that around 6 million people in the UK have at least one grandparent born in the Republic of Ireland.[58]

There has been a black presence in England since the 16th century due to the slave trade,[59] and an Indian presence since at least the 17th century because of the East India Company[60] and British Raj.[59] Black and Asian populations have grown throughout the UK generally, as immigration from the British Empire and the subsequent Commonwealth of Nations was encouraged due to labour shortages during post-war rebuilding.[61] However, these groups are often still considered to be ethnic minorities and research has shown that black and Asian people in the UK are more likely to identify as British rather than with one of the state's four constituent nations, including England.[62]

Current national and political identity[edit]
The 1990s witnessed a resurgence of English national identity.[63] Survey data shows a rise in the number of people in England describing their national identity as English and a fall in the number describing themselves as British.[64] Today, black and minority ethnic people of England still generally identify as British rather than English to a greater extent than their white counterparts;[65] however, groups such as the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) suggest the emergence of a broader civic and multi-ethnic English nationhood.[citation needed] Scholars and journalists have noted a rise in English self-consciousness, with increased use of the English flag, particularly at football matches where the Union flag was previously more commonly flown by fans.[66][67]