Englishness Where does it come from? - Initial Thoughts

We are looking at the concept of Englishness. It is fair to say that England is a unique nation with something of a national identity crisis. Many English people, when asked, are unsure whether to describe themselves as ‘British’ or English’. It seems as though the English are teetering on the brink of having no national identity.

The country of England co-exists with Wales and Scotland on the island of Britain, with England being the largest country of the three. Together with the people of Northern Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, i.e. the UK. The homeland of the British people is Britain. However, not all of the citizens of Britain live in mainland Britain. Northern Ireland is a territory of the UK and its people are British. Geographically the country occupies a small part of Ireland. Physically speaking the majority of Ireland is the territory of the Irish Republic, i.e. Eire. Thus England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland together form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, more commonly known as the UK. Note that technically speaking Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom but not part of Great Britain..

Historically the English are an ethnic group who are native to the land of England, who speak the English language. It was during the early medieval period that the specific identity of the English as a people is thought to have arisen. The genetic roots of the English are believed to be a mix of various settlers and invaders came in waves who over a period of a thousand years. These visitors include Romans, tribes from Northern Europe and Scandinavia such as the Angles (from where we derive the word English), Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, and the Normans. Many of these people settled alongside the people of the land, i.e. the Britons. Flowing into this genetic pool were migrants from Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In later centuries peoples came from the African and Indian nations of the Commonwealth and other European nations. These peoples and these events created what was to become known as England and all ultimately contribute to that mix of values known as Englishness. However it is not just our mixed roots that give this identity crisis however but that is the subject of another article.

Happy is England

I could be content
To see no other verdure than its own;
To feel no other breezes than are blown
Through its tall woods
with high romances blent:
Yet do I sometimes feel a languishment
For skies Italian, and an inward groan
To sit upon an Alp as on a throne,
And half forget what world or worldling meant.
Happy is England, sweet her artless daughters;
Enough their simple loveliness for me,
Enough their whitest arms in silence clinging:
Yet do I often warmly burn to see
Beauties of deeper glance, and hear their singing,
And float with them about the summer waters.

By John Keats
One of many famous Englishmen poets.

Englishness - What is It?

Englishness as a concept is difficult to describe. It's a bit like jelly (jello) - that harder you squeeze it, the more it squirms through your fingers. You probably know Englishness when you see it though ...

In Richard II Shakespeare described England like this :

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars

This other Eden, demi-paradise

This fortress built by Nature for herself”

However this is the place, not the people.

Englishness of is not often described directly, but in more indirect ways. An example of Englishness is the concept of the gentleman. Ideals such as ‘fair play’, coolness, kindness, love of pets and animals, artistic creativity and gentleness. These all illustrate Englishness.

However for each of the aforementioned there is another side of the coin which actually shows us that the concept of englishness is in fact a paradox. For example compare the idea of insularity and kindness with the historical reality of the British empire, the world's largest empire which covered a third of the Earth’s surface and included twenty five percent of her people. While English people are indeed kind, especially to the disadvantaged they have, as a race the a huge propensity for violence - note the number of armed conflicts the country has been involved in.

Englishness is an idea that is in plain sight and yet remains a complex paradox.