English people

England itself has no devolved government. The 1990s witnessed a rise in English self-awareness.{{sfn|Kumar|2003|pp=262–290}} This is linked to the expressions of national self-awareness of the other British nations of Wales, Scotland and, to some extent, Northern Ireland which take their most solid form in the new devolved political arrangements within the United Kingdom{{snd}} and the waning of a shared British national identity with the growing distance between the end of the British Empire and the present.{{sfn|Kumar|2003|pp=[https://assets.cambridge.org/97805217/71887/sample/9780521771887ws.pdf 1–18]}}{{Cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/596703.stm |title=English nationalism 'threat to UK' |work=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814023421/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/596703.stm |archive-date=14 August 2021 |date=9 January 2000}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10064563 |title=The English question Handle with care |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928154846/http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10064563 |archive-date=28 September 2008 |newspaper=The Economist |date=1 November 2007}}

Many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities.{{sfn|Condor|Gibson|Abell|2006}}{{Cite news |title=Ethnic minorities feel strong sense of identity with Britain, report reveals |first=Maxine |last=Frith |work=The Independent |date=8 January 2004 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/ethnic-minorities-feel-strong-sense-of-identity-with-britain-report-reveals-578503.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906074130/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/ethnic-minorities-feel-strong-sense-of-identity-with-britain-report-reveals-578503.html |archive-date=6 September 2011}}{{Cite book |last1=Hussain |first1=Asifa |last2=Millar |first2=William Lockley |date=2006 |title=Multicultural Nationalism |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=149–150 |isbn=978-0-19-928071-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d2Hv2QMMVrQC&dq=English+identity+Pakistani+British&pg=PA149 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160518225216/https://books.google.com/books?id=d2Hv2QMMVrQC&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=English+identity+Pakistani+British&source=web&ots=vK18u7nyNp&sig=mbDfLkCfSSRAXuOIyKbDnTcadJs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result |archive-date=18 May 2016 |via=Google Books}}{{cite news |title=Asian recruits boost England fan army |first=Dennis |last=Campbell |work=The Guardian |date=18 June 2006 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/jun/18/worldcup2006.sport |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221150741/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/jun/18/worldcup2006.sport |archive-date=21 December 2016}}"National Identity and Community in England" (2006) Institute of Governance Briefing No. 7. [https://www.institute-of-governance.org/forum/Leverhulme/briefing_pdfs/IoG_Briefing_07.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515193209/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/ethnic-minorities-feel-strong-sense-of-identity-with-britain-report-reveals-578503.html|date=15 May 2011}} Use of the word "English" to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their perceived national identity. They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as "English", non-white people were more likely to describe themselves as "British"."78 per cent of Bangladeshis said they were British, while only 5 per cent said they were English, Scottish or Welsh", and the largest percentage of non-whites to identify as English were the people who described their ethnicity as "Mixed" (37%).[https://web.archive.org/web/20110824122026/https://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=459 'Identity', National Statistics, 21 February 2006] However, in the 2021 United Kingdom census, 58.4% of respondants identified as "British" instead of "English" to 14.9%. Although, the Office for National Statistics states the reason for this change may partially be true, it is most likely due to changes to the question structure where "British" became the top response option in 2021 for England only.{{cite web |title=National identity, England and Wales: Census 2021 |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/bulletins/nationalidentityenglandandwales/census2021 |website=Office for National Statistics |access-date=5 January 2025}}

It is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. The words "English" and "British" are often incorrectly used interchangeably, especially outside the UK. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say "English, I mean British". He notes that this slip is normally made only by the English themselves and by foreigners: "Non-English members of the United Kingdom rarely say 'British' when they mean 'English{{'"}}. Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of England's dominant position with the UK, it is also "problematic for the English [...] when it comes to conceiving of their national identity. It tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles".{{sfn|Kumar|2003|pp=1–2}}

In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote,

When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago, "England" was still an all-embracing word. It meant indiscriminately England and Wales; Great Britain; the United Kingdom; and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so. Bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as "Prime Minister of England" [...] Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of "England" except for a geographic area brings protests, especially from the Scotch.Taylor, A. J. P. (1965, English History, 1914–1945 Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. v

However, although Taylor believed this blurring effect was dying out, in his book The Isles: A History (1999), Norman Davies lists numerous examples in history books of "British" still being used to mean "English" and vice versa.{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Davies |title=The Isles: A History |date=1999 |publisher=Macmillan Publishing |isbn=978-0333692837}}{{Page needed|date=September 2011}}

In December 2010, Matthew Parris in The Spectator, analysing the use of "English" over "British", argued that English identity, rather than growing, had existed all along but has recently been unmasked from behind a veneer of Britishness.{{cite news |first=Matthew |last=Parris |work=The Spectator |date=18 December 2010 |title=With a shrug of the shoulders, England is becoming a nation once again}}

{{Further|Genetic history of the British Isles}}

English people, like most Europeans, largely descend from three distinct lineages: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, descended from a Cro-Magnon population that arrived in Europe about 45,000 years ago;{{cite news |first=Andrew |last=Curry |title=The first Europeans weren't who you might think |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/first-europeans-immigrants-genetic-testing-feature |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319032852/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/first-europeans-immigrants-genetic-testing-feature |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 March 2021 |work=National Geographic |date=August 2019}} Neolithic farmers who migrated from Anatolia during the Neolithic Revolution 9,000 years ago;{{cite journal |last1=Gibbons |first1=Ann |title=Thousands of horsemen may have swept into Bronze Age Europe, transforming the local population |journal=Science |date=21 February 2017 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-horsemen-may-have-swept-bronze-age-europe-transforming-local-population}} and Yamnaya Steppe pastoralists who expanded into Europe from the Pontic–Caspian steppe in the context of Indo-European migrations 5,000 years ago.{{Cite journal|last1=Haak |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Lazaridis |first2=Iosif |last3=Patterson |first3=Nick |last4=Rohland |first4=Nadin |last5=Mallick |first5=Swapan |last6=Llamas |first6=Bastien |last7=Brandt |first7=Guido |last8=Nordenfelt |first8=Susanne |last9=Harney |first9=Eadaoin |last10=Stewardson |first10=Kristin |last11=Fu |first11=Qiaomei |date=11 June 2015 |title=Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe |journal=Nature |volume=522 |issue=7555 |pages=207–211 |doi=10.1038/nature14317 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=5048219 |pmid=25731166 |bibcode=2015Natur.522..207H |arxiv=1502.02783}}

Recent genetic studies have suggested that Britain's Neolithic population was largely replaced by a population from North Continental Europe characterised by the Bell Beaker culture around 2400 BC, associated with the Yamnaya people from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} This population lacked genetic affinity to some other Bell Beaker populations, such as the Iberian Bell Beakers, but appeared to be an offshoot of the Corded Ware single grave people, as developed in Western Europe.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature07331 |pmid=18758442 |pmc=2735096 |title=Genes mirror geography within Europe |journal=Nature |volume=456 |issue=7218 |pages=98–101 |year=2008 |last1=Novembre |first1=John |last2=Johnson |first2=Toby |last3=Bryc |first3=Katarzyna |last4=Kutalik |first4=Zoltán |last5=Boyko |first5=Adam R.|last6=Auton|first6=Adam |last7=Indap |first7=Amit |last8=King |first8=Karen S. |last9=Bergmann |first9=Sven |last10=Nelson |first10=Matthew R. |last11=Stephens |first11=Matthew |last12=Bustamante |first12=Carlos D. |bibcode=2008Natur.456...98N}}{{Cite web|url=https://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2019/01/dutch-beakers-like-no-other-beakers.html |title=Dutch Beakers: Like no other Beakers| date=19 January 2019 |access-date=21 February 2022 |archive-date=12 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512053452/https://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2019/01/dutch-beakers-like-no-other-beakers.html| url-status=live}} It is currently unknown whether these Beaker peoples went on to develop Celtic languages in the British Isles, or whether later Celtic migrations introduced Celtic languages to Britain.{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43115485 |title=Ancient Britons 'replaced' by newcomers |work=BBC News |date=21 February 2018 |last1=Rincon |first1=Paul |access-date=2 February 2019 |archive-date=4 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304004824/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43115485 |url-status=live}}

The close genetic affinity of these Beaker people to Continental North Europeans means that British and Irish populations cluster genetically very closely with other Northwest European populations, regardless of how much Anglo-Saxon and Viking ancestry was introduced during the 1st millennium.{{clarify|reason=BC or AD, or presumably later?|date=July 2024}}{{Cite journal |doi=10.1534/genetics.116.189241 |pmid=27535931 |pmc=5068857 |title=Nationwide Genomic Study in Denmark Reveals Remarkable Population Homogeneity |journal=Genetics |volume=204 |issue=2 |pages=711–722 |year=2016 |last1=Athanasiadis |first1=G. |last2=Cheng |first2=J. Y. |last3=Vilhjalmsson |first3=B. J. |last4=Jorgensen |first4=F. G. |last5=Als |first5=T. D. |last6=Le Hellard |first6=S. |last7=Espeseth |first7=T. |last8=Sullivan |first8=P. F. |last9=Hultman |first9=C. M. |last10=Kjaergaard |first10=P. C. |last11=Schierup |first11=M. H. |last12=Mailund |first12=T.}}

{{Main|Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain}}

File:LindisfarneFol27rIncipitMatt.jpg to Matthew from the Book of Lindisfarne, an Insular masterpiece]]

The influence of later invasions and migrations on the English population has been debated, as studies that sampled only modern DNA have produced uncertain results and have thus been subject to a large variety of interpretations.{{Cite journal |url=https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/19/7/1008/1068561 |title=Y Chromosome Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration |first1=Michael E. |last1=Weale |first2=Deborah A.|last2=Weiss|first3=Rolf F.|last3=Jager |first4=Neil|last4=Bradman|first5=Mark G. |last5=Thomas |date=1 July 2002 |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=19 |issue=7 |pages=1008–1021 |via=academic.oup.com |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a004160 |pmid=12082121 |doi-access=free |access-date=7 June 2020 |archive-date=2 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602051714/https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/19/7/1008/1068561 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.csueastbay.edu/museum/files/docs/exhibit/dna/dna-chrom-isles.pdf |title=A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles |access-date=7 June 2020 |archive-date=7 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607222334/https://www.csueastbay.edu/museum/files/docs/exhibit/dna/dna-chrom-isles.pdf |url-status=live}}{{Cite book |last=Oppenheimer |first=Stephen |date=2006 |title=The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story |publisher=Constable and Robinson |location=London |isbn=978-1-84529-158-7}} More recently, however, ancient DNA has been used to provide a clearer picture of the genetic effects of these movements of people.

One 2016 study, using Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon era DNA found at grave sites in Cambridgeshire, calculated that ten modern day eastern English samples had 38% Anglo-Saxon ancestry on average, while ten Welsh and Scottish samples each had 30% Anglo-Saxon ancestry, with a large statistical spread in all cases. However, the authors noted that the similarity observed between the various sample groups was likely to be due to more recent internal migration.Schiffels, S. et al. (2016) [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26783965 Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191217103037/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26783965 |date=17 December 2019}}, Nature Communications 7, Article number:10408 {{doi|10.1038/ncomms10408}}

Another 2016 study conducted using evidence from burials found in northern England, found that a significant genetic difference was present in bodies from the Iron Age and the Roman period on the one hand, and the Anglo-Saxon period on the other. Samples from modern-day Wales were found to be similar to those from the Iron Age and Roman burials, while samples from much of modern England, East Anglia in particular, were closer to the Anglo-Saxon-era burial. This was found to demonstrate a "profound impact" from the Anglo-Saxon migrations on the modern English gene pool, though no specific percentages were given in the study.

A third study combined the ancient data from both of the preceding studies and compared it to a large number of modern samples from across Britain and Ireland. This study found that modern southern, central and eastern English populations were of "a predominantly Anglo-Saxon-like ancestry" while those from northern and southwestern England had a greater degree of indigenous origin.Ross P. Byrne, Rui Martiniano, Lara M. Cassidy, Matthew Carrigan, Garrett Hellenthal, Orla Hardiman, Daniel G. Bradley, Russell McLaughlin: "Insular Celtic population structure and genomic footprints of migration" (2018)

A major 2020 study, which used DNA from Viking-era burials in various regions across Europe, found that modern English samples showed nearly equal contributions from a native British "North Atlantic" population and a Danish-like population. While much of the latter signature was attributed to the earlier settlement of the Anglo-Saxons, it was calculated that up to 6% of it could have come from Danish Vikings, with a further 4% contribution from a Norwegian-like source representing the Norwegian Vikings. The study also found an average 18% admixture from a source further south in Europe, which was interpreted as reflecting the legacy of French migration under the Normans.Margaryan, A., Lawson, D.J., Sikora, M. et al. "Population genomics of the Viking world". Nature 585, 390–396 (2020) See Supplementary Note 11 in particular

A landmark 2022 study titled "The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool", found the English to be of plurality Anglo-Saxon-like ancestry, with heavy native Celtic Briton, and newly confirmed medieval French admixture. Significant regional variation was also observed.{{cite journal |last1=Gretzinger |last2=Sayer |last3=Justeau |display-authors=etal |date=21 September 2022 |title=The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool |journal=Nature |volume= 610|issue= 7930|pages= 112–119|doi=10.1038/s41586-022-05247-2|pmid= 36131019|pmc= 9534755|bibcode=2022Natur.610..112G }}

{{Redirect-distinguish|History of the English|History of English}}

{{Main|History of England}}

{{Further|Anglo-Saxons|Roman Britain|Sub-Roman Britain|Brython|l4=Ancient Britons|Romano-British culture|l5=Romano-Britons}}

File:2008-05-17-SuttonHoo.jpg]]

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 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.

The Anglo-Saxons arrived in a land that was already populated by people commonly referred to as the "Romano-British"—the descendants of the native Brittonic-speaking population that lived in the area of Britain under Roman rule during the 1st–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.[https://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/blackhistorymap/arch.html The archaeology of black Britain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724015646/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/blackhistorymap/arch.html |date=24 July 2013}}, Channel 4. Retrieved 21 December 2009. Although the Roman Empire incorporated peoples from far and wide, genetic studies suggest the Romans did not significantly mix into the British population.Eva Botkin-Kowacki, '[https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0120/Where-did-the-British-come-from-Ancient-DNA-holds-clues Where did the British come from? Ancient DNA holds clues.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015114720/https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0120/Where-did-the-British-come-from-Ancient-DNA-holds-clues |date=15 October 2018}}' (20/01/16), The Christian Science Monitor

File:Britain peoples circa 600.svgs]]

The exact nature of the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and their relationship with the Romano-British is a matter of debate. The traditional view is that a mass invasion by various Anglo-Saxon tribes largely displaced the indigenous British population in southern and eastern Britain (modern-day England with the exception of Cornwall). This is supported by the writings of Gildas, who gives the only contemporary historical account of the period, and describes the slaughter and starvation of native Britons by invading tribes (aduentus Saxonum).{{cite web |url=https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gildas_02_ruin_of_britain.htm |title=The Ruin of Britain |date=1899 |pages=4–252 |first=Gildas the |last=Wise |website=Tertullian.org |access-date=21 August 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922011347/http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gildas_02_ruin_of_britain.htm|url-status=live}} Furthermore, the English language contains no more than a handful of words borrowed from Brittonic sources.[https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/celtpn.htm celtpn] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206051120/https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/celtpn.htm|date=6 December 2007}} However the names of some towns, cities, rivers etc. do have Brittonic or pre-Brittonic origins, becoming more frequent towards the west of Britain.

This view was later re-evaluated by some archaeologists and historians, with a more small-scale migration being posited, possibly based around an elite of male warriors that took over the rule of the country and gradually acculturated the people living there."Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland before the Romans" by Francis Pryor, p. 122. Harper Perennial. {{ISBN|0-00-712693-X}}.Ward-Perkins, Bryan. "Why did the Anglo-Saxons not become more British?" The English Historical Review 115.462 (2000): p. 523Higham, Nicholas J. and Ryan, Martin J. "The Anglo-Saxon World" (Yale University Press, 2013){{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=July 2023}} Within this theory, two processes leading to Anglo-Saxonisation have been proposed. One is similar to culture changes observed in Russia, North Africa and parts of the Islamic world, where a politically and socially powerful minority culture becomes, over a rather short period, adopted by a settled majority. This process is usually termed "elite dominance".Ward-Perkins, Bryan. "Why did the Anglo-Saxons not become more British?" The English Historical Review 115.462 (2000): 513–533. The second process is explained through incentives, such as the Wergild outlined in the law code of Ine of Wessex which produced an incentive to become Anglo-Saxon or at least English speaking.{{cite web |last=Ingham |first=Richard |title=Anglo-Saxons wanted genetic supremacy |website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=19 July 2006 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/07/19/1690600.htm |access-date=7 June 2020 |archive-date=15 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201215223721/https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/07/19/1690600.htm |url-status=live}} 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."Todd, Malcolm. [https://books.google.com/books?id=D3GPUqysfoAC&dq=Anglo-Saxon+Origins%3A+The+Reality+of+the+Myth&pg=PA3 "Anglo-Saxon Origins: The Reality of the Myth"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124200714/https://books.google.com/books?id=D3GPUqysfoAC&pg=PA3&dq=Anglo-Saxon+Origins:+The+Reality+of+the+Myth&num=100&client=firefox-a&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Anglo-Saxon%20Origins%3A%20The%20Reality%20of%20the%20Myth&f=false |date=24 January 2016}}, in Cameron, Keith. "The nation: myth or reality?"bIntellect Books, 1994. Retrieved 21 December 2009.

An emerging view is that the degree of population replacement by the Anglo-Saxons, and thus the degree of survival of the Romano-Britons, varied across England, and that as such the overall settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons cannot be described by any one process in particular. Large-scale migration and population shift seems to be most applicable in the cases of eastern regions such as East Anglia and Lincolnshire,Stefan Burmeister, Archaeology and Migration (2000): " ... immigration in the nucleus of the Anglo-Saxon settlement does not seem aptly described in terms of the 'elite-dominance model.' To all appearances, the settlement was carried out by small, agriculture-oriented kinship groups. This process corresponds more closely to a classic settler model. The absence of early evidence of a socially demarcated elite underscores the supposition that such an elite did not play a substantial role. Rich burials such as are well known from Denmark have no counterparts in England until the 6th century. At best, the elite-dominance model might apply in the peripheral areas of the settlement territory, where an immigration predominantly {{sic|comprised |hide=y|of}} men and the existence of hybrid cultural forms might support it."{{cite web |last=Dark |first=Ken R. |title=Large-scale population movements into and from Britain south of Hadrian's Wall in the fourth to sixth centuries AD |year=2003 |url=https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/GCMS/RMS-2003-03_K._R._Dark,_Large-scale_population_movements_into_and_from_Britan_south_of_Hadrian's_Wall_in_the_fourth_to_sixth_centuries_AD.pdf |access-date=21 February 2022 |archive-date=1 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210601080017/https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/GCMS/RMS-2003-03_K._R._Dark%2C_Large-scale_population_movements_into_and_from_Britan_south_of_Hadrian%27s_Wall_in_the_fourth_to_sixth_centuries_AD.pdf |url-status=live}}Toby F. Martin, The Cruciform Brooch and Anglo-Saxon England, Boydell and Brewer Press (2015), pp. 174–178Catherine Hills, "The Anglo-Saxon Migration: An Archaeological Case Study of Disruption," in Migrations and Disruptions, ed. Brenda J. Baker and Takeyuki Tsuda, pp. 45–48{{cite web |last=Coates |first=Richard |title=Celtic whispers: revisiting the problems of the relation between Brittonic and Old English |url=https://ul.qucosa.de/api/qucosa%3A31804/attachment/ATT-0/|access-date=7 June 2020 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308132851/https://ul.qucosa.de/api/qucosa:31804/attachment/ATT-0/ |url-status=live}} while in parts of Northumbria, much of the native population likely remained in place as the incomers took over as elites.Härke, Heinrich. "Anglo-Saxon Immigration and Ethnogenesis." Medieval Archaeology 55.1 (2011): 1–28.{{cite web |last=Kortlandt |first=Frederik |title=Relative Chronology |year=2018 |url=https://www.kortlandt.nl/publications/art320e.pdf |access-date=7 June 2020 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308144052/https://www.kortlandt.nl/publications/art320e.pdf |url-status=live}} In a study of place names in northeastern England and southern Scotland, Bethany Fox found that the migrants settled in large numbers in river valleys, such as those of the Tyne and the Tweed, with the Britons moving to the less fertile hill country and becoming acculturated over a longer period. Fox describes the process by which English came to dominate this region as "a synthesis of mass-migration and elite-takeover models."{{cite web |last=Fox |first=Bethany |title=The P-Celtic Place Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland |url=https://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox.html |access-date=21 February 2022 |archive-date=28 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128014201/http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox.html |url-status=live}}

{{Further|Vikings|Danelaw}}

File:Ethelred the Unready.jpg from 978 to 1013 and again from 1014 until his death.]]

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.The Age of Athelstan by Paul Hill (2004), Tempus Publishing. {{ISBN|0-7524-2566-8}}{{page needed|date=July 2023}}

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{{efn|Spellings of this name most common in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form Æþelræd.}} (978–1013 and 1014–1016) was English but Cnut (1016–1035) 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,[https://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=d&p=18 Online Etymology Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704080627/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=d&p=18 |date=4 July 2017}} by Douglas Harper (2001), [https://www.etymonline.com/sources.php List of sources used] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008053439/http://etymonline.com/sources.php |date=8 October 2017}}. Retrieved 10 July 2006. and place names that end in -thwaite and -by are Scandinavian in origin.The Adventure of English, Melvyn Bragg, 2003. p. 22.

{{Further|Treaty of Wedmore|Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum}}

The English population was not politically unified until the 10th century. Before then, there were a number of petty kingdoms which gradually coalesced into a heptarchy of seven 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 954.

The nation of England was formed in 12 July 927 by Æthelstan of Wessex after the Treaty of Eamont Bridge,{{Cite web |last=esmeraldamac |date=2012-02-16 |title=The Treaty of Eamont Bridge in 927CE |url=https://esmeraldamac.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/the-treaty-of-eamont-bridge-in-927ce-or-the-first-british-union/ |access-date=2024-02-27 |website=Esmeralda's Cumbrian History & Folklore |language=en}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/athelstan.shtml|title=Athelstan (c. 895–939): Historic Figures|website=BBC |access-date=30 October 2006|archive-date=13 February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213191353/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/athelstan.shtml|url-status=live}}[https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3483029 The Battle of Brunanburh, 937AD] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101111055223/http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3483029 |date=11 November 2010}} by h2g2, BBC website. Retrieved 30 October 2006. 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.A. L. Rowse, The Story of Britain, Artus 1979 {{ISBN|0-297-83311-1}}

{{Further|Normans}}

File:Bayeux Tapestry WillelmDux.jpg, 1066 (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.OED, 2nd edition, s.v. 'English'. 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 its collapse in 1214.

Anglo-Norman and Latin continued to be the two languages used officially by the Plantagenet kings until Edward I came to the throne, when Middle English became used in official documents, but alongside Anglo-Norman and Latin.{{cite web |title=England—Plantagenet Kings |url=https://heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=eras&FileName=britain_3.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101216064812/https://heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=eras&FileName=britain_3.php |archive-date=16 December 2010 |website=Heritage History}}{{Cite book |last=Upward |first=Christopher |title=The History of English Spelling |last2=Davidson |first2=George |date=8 December 2024 |location=England |publication-date=2011 |pages=70–74}} 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.{{cite web |title=British History in depth: The Ages of English |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/lang_gallery_04.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826122902/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/lang_gallery_04.shtml |archive-date=26 August 2017 |access-date=21 August 2017 |website=BBC – History}}

Despite the assimilation of the Normans, the distinction between 'English' and 'French' people survived in some official documents long after it had fallen out of common use, in particular in the legal process 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.OED, s.v. 'Englishry'.

{{Main|History of the formation of the United Kingdom}}

{{Image label begin|overflow-x=visible|image=Flags of the Union Jack.svg|width=350|float=right}}

{{Image label small|x=0.04|y=0.23|scale=350|text=St George's Cross
(England)}}

{{Image label small|x=0.49|y=0.23|scale=350|text=St Andrew's Cross
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{{Image label small|x=0.70|y=0.52|scale=350|text=St Patrick's Cross
(Ireland)}}

{{Image label small|x=0.50|y=0.80|scale=350|text=United Kingdom}}

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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 1535–1542, which incorporated Wales into the English state.{{cite web |url=https://www.iol.ie/~dluby/history.htm |title=Liberation of Ireland |website=Iol.ie |access-date=23 June 2006 |archive-date=15 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615024445/http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/history.htm |url-status=live}} 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.A History of Britain: The British Wars 1603–1776 by Simon Schama, BBC Worldwide. {{ISBN|0-563-53747-7}}.

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.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

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.The English, Jeremy Paxman 1998{{Page needed|date=September 2011}}

{{See also|Historical immigration to Great Britain|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.{{cite web |url=https://www.ejpress.org/digest/in_depth/on_anglo_jewry/ |title=EJP – In Depth – On Anglo Jewry |date=14 July 2006 |access-date=21 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060714100957/https://www.ejpress.org/digest/in_depth/on_anglo_jewry/ |archive-date=14 July 2006}}

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.{{Cite web |url=https://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/life/Geneology/Guillet-Thoreau.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927221059/https://www.walden.org/Institute/thoreau/life/Geneology/Guillet-Thoreau.htm |title=Meredith on the Guillet – Thoreau Genealogy |archive-date=27 September 2007}} 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.[https://www.theguardian.com/britain/article/0,,1871753,00.html More Britons applying for Irish passports] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190105184315/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/sep/13/britishidentity.travelnews |date=5 January 2019 }}, Owen Bowcott, The Guardian, 13 September 2006. Retrieved 9 January 2006.

There has been a small black presence in England since the 16th century due to the slave trade,[https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/ Black Presence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224165508/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/ |date=24 December 2021 }}, Asian and Black History in Britain, 1500–1850: UK government website. Retrieved 21 July 2006. and a small Indian presence since at least the 17th century because of the East India Company{{citation|title=Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Traveller and Settler in Britain 1600–1857|first=Michael Herbert|last=Fisher|year=2006|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-81-7824-154-8|pages=111–119, 129–130, 140, 154–156, 160–168, 172, 181}} and British Raj. Black and Asian populations have only 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 World War II rebuilding.[https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/brave_new_world/immigration.htm Postwar immigration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222025218/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/brave_new_world/immigration.htm |date=22 December 2021 }} The National Archives Accessed October 2006

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.{{cite news|url=https://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23386024-ethnic-minorities-more-likely-to-feel-british-than-white-people-says-research.do |title=Ethnic minorities more likely to feel British than white people, says research |work=Evening Standard |date=18 February 2007 |access-date=18 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100211152221/https://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23386024-ethnic-minorities-more-likely-to-feel-british-than-white-people-says-research.do |archive-date=11 February 2010}}

A nationally representative survey published in June 2021 found that a majority of respondents thought that being English was not dependent on race. 77% of white respondents in England agreed that "Being English is open to people of different ethnic backgrounds who identify as English", whereas 14% were of the view that "Only people who are white count as truly English". Amongst ethnic minority respondents, the equivalent figures were 68% and 19%.{{cite news |url=https://www.britishfuture.org/english-identity-open-football-unites/ |title=English identity open to all, regardless of race, finds poll – and Three Lions is the symbol that unites us |publisher=British Future |date=9 June 2021 |access-date=29 October 2021 |archive-date=29 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029154811/https://www.britishfuture.org/english-identity-open-football-unites/ |url-status=live}} Research has found that the proportion of people who consider being white to be a necessary component of Englishness has declined over time.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/30/being-english-not-about-colour-say-majority |title=Now 90% of England agrees: being English is not about colour |work=The Observer |first=Inigo |last=Alexander |date=30 June 2019 |access-date=29 October 2021 |archive-date=29 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029154809/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/30/being-english-not-about-colour-say-majority |url-status=live}}

The 1990s witnessed a resurgence of English national identity.{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/node/8599103?story_id=8599103|title=British identity: Waning|newspaper=The Economist|date=25 January 2007|access-date=9 February 2011|archive-date=29 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629185013/http://www.economist.com/node/8599103?story_id=8599103|url-status=live}} 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.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jan/24/labourleadership.britishidentity |title=When British isn't always best |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=24 January 2007 |access-date=9 February 2011 |archive-date=23 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131223183818/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jan/24/labourleadership.britishidentity |url-status=live}} Today, black and minority ethnic people of England still generally identify as British rather than English to a greater extent than their white counterparts;{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Richard Wyn |last2=Lodge |first2=Guy |last3=Jeffery |first3=Charlie |last4=Gottfried |first4=Glenn |last5=Scully |first5=Roger |last6=Henderson|first6=Ailsa|last7=Wincott |first7=Daniel |title=England and its Two Unions: The Anatomy of a Nation and its Discontents |date=July 2013 |publisher=Institute for Public Policy Research |url=https://www.ippr.org/assets/media/images/media/files/publication/2013/07/england-two-unions_Jul2013_11003.pdf |access-date=7 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107200747/https://www.ippr.org/assets/media/images/media/files/publication/2013/07/england-two-unions_Jul2013_11003.pdf |archive-date=7 November 2014}} however, groups such as the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) suggest the emergence of a broader civic and multi-ethnic English nationhood.{{cite book |last1=Kenny |first1=M |title=The politics of English Nationhood |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0198778721 |pages=192–193}} 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.{{sfn|Kumar|2003|p=262}}{{cite news |url=https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1083305.ece |title=St George unfurls his flag (made in China) once again |work=The Times |location=London |first=Ben |last=Hoyle |date=8 June 2006 |access-date=10 February 2011 |archive-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629103715/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1083305.ece |url-status=dead}}

This perceived rise in English self-consciousness has generally been attributed to the devolution in the late 1990s of some powers to the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales. In policy areas for which the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have responsibility, the UK Parliament votes on laws that consequently only apply to England. Because the Westminster Parliament is composed of MPs from throughout the United Kingdom, this has given rise to the "West Lothian question", a reference to the situation in which MPs representing constituencies outside England can vote on matters affecting only England, but MPs cannot vote on the same matters in relation to the other parts of the UK.{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/82358.stm|title=The West Lothian Question|work=BBC News|date=1 June 1998|access-date=9 February 2011|archive-date=26 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110126133801/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/82358.stm|url-status=live}} Consequently, groups such as the CEP have called for the creation of a devolved English Parliament, claiming that there is now a discriminatory democratic deficit against the English. The establishment of an English parliament has also been backed by a number of Scottish and Welsh nationalists.{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6081130.stm|title=Fresh call for English Parliament|work=BBC News|date=24 October 2006|access-date=9 February 2011|archive-date=18 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120818214348/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6081130.stm|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6197143.stm|title=Welsh nod for English Parliament|work=BBC News|date=20 December 2006|access-date=9 February 2011|archive-date=10 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120810023254/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6197143.stm|url-status=live}} Writer Paul Johnson has suggested that like most dominant groups, the English have only demonstrated interest in their ethnic self-definition when they were feeling oppressed.Paul Johnson is quoted by Kumar {{harv|Kumar|2003|p=266}}

John Curtice argues that "In the early years of devolution...there was little sign" of an English backlash against devolution for Scotland and Wales, but that more recently survey data shows tentative signs of "a form of English nationalism...beginning to emerge among the general public".{{cite web|url=https://www.ippr.org/files/images/media/files/publication/2011/05/Is_An_English_Backlash_Emerging_1753.pdf|title=Is an English backlash emerging? Reactions to devolution ten years on|first=John|last=Curtice|publisher=Institute for Public Policy Research|date=February 2010|page=3|access-date=16 April 2018|archive-date=17 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417105306/https://www.ippr.org/files/images/media/files/publication/2011/05/Is_An_English_Backlash_Emerging_1753.pdf|url-status=live}} Michael Kenny, Richard English and Richard Hayton, meanwhile, argue that the resurgence in English nationalism predates devolution, being observable in the early 1990s, but that this resurgence does not necessarily have negative implications for the perception of the UK as a political union.{{cite web|url=https://www.ippr.org/publications/beyond-the-constitution-englishness-in-a-post-devolved-britain|title=Beyond the constitution? Englishness in a post-devolved Britain|first1=Michael|last1=Kenny|first2=Richard|last2=English|first3=Richard|last3=Hayton|publisher=Institute for Public Policy Research|date=February 2008|page=3|access-date=16 April 2018|archive-date=17 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417105327/https://www.ippr.org/publications/beyond-the-constitution-englishness-in-a-post-devolved-britain|url-status=live}} Others question whether devolution has led to a rise in English national identity at all, arguing that survey data fails to portray the complex nature of national identities, with many people considering themselves both English and British.{{sfn|Condor|Gibson|Abell|2006|p=128}} A 2017 survey by YouGov found that 38% of English voters considered themselves both English and British, alongside 19% who felt English but not British.{{Cite web|url=https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2017/01/24/what-makes-person-english-according-english|title=What makes a person English, according to the English | YouGov|website=yougov.co.uk}}

Recent surveys of public opinion on the establishment of an English parliament have given widely varying conclusions. In the first five years of devolution for Scotland and Wales, support in England for the establishment of an English parliament was low at between 16 and 19%, according to successive British Social Attitudes Surveys.{{cite journal|first=Robert|last=Hazell|year=2006|title=The English Question|journal=Publius|volume=36|issue=1|pages=37–56|doi=10.1093/publius/pjj012}} A report, also based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, published in December 2010 suggests that only 29% of people in England support the establishment of an English parliament, though this figure had risen from 17% in 2007.{{cite web |url=https://www.natcen.ac.uk/media/606961/nat%20british%20social%20attitudes%20survey%20summary%207.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601165641/http://www.natcen.ac.uk/media/606961/nat%20british%20social%20attitudes%20survey%20summary%207.pdf |archive-date=1 June 2011 |first1=Rachel |last1=Ormston |first2=John |last2=Curtice |title=Resentment or contentment? Attitudes towards the Union ten years on |publisher=National Centre for Social Research |date=December 2010 |access-date=9 February 2011 }}

One 2007 poll carried out for BBC Newsnight, however, found that 61 per cent would support such a parliament being established.{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6264823.stm |title='Most' support English parliament |publisher=BBC |date=16 January 2007 |access-date=9 February 2011 |archive-date=28 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728040400/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6264823.stm |url-status=live}} Krishan Kumar notes that support for measures to ensure that only English MPs can vote on legislation that applies only to England is generally higher than that for the establishment of an English parliament, although support for both varies depending on the timing of the opinion poll and the wording of the question.{{sfn|Kumar|2010|p=484}} Electoral support for English nationalist parties is also low, even though there is public support for many of the policies they espouse.{{cite journal |first=Colin |last=Copus |title=English national parties in post-devolution UK |journal=British Politics |volume=4 |issue=3 |year=2009 |pages=363–385 |doi=10.1057/bp.2009.12 |s2cid=153712090}} The English Democrats gained just 64,826 votes in the 2010 UK general election, accounting for 0.3 per cent of all votes cast in England.{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/region/48.stm |title=Full England scoreboard |work=Election 2010 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=9 February 2011 |archive-date=9 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209104814/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/region/48.stm |url-status=live}} Kumar argued in 2010 that "despite devolution and occasional bursts of English nationalism – more an expression of exasperation with the Scots or Northern Irish – the English remain on the whole satisfied with current constitutional arrangements".{{sfn|Kumar|2010|p=478}}

{{Main|English diaspora}}

From the earliest times, English people have left England to settle in other parts of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is impossible to identify their numbers, as British censuses have historically not invited respondents to identify themselves as English.[https://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/file5/$file/supporting_information.pdf Scotland's Census 2001: Supporting Information] (PDF; see p. 43) {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926131304/https://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/file5/%24file/supporting_information.pdf |date=26 September 2007}}{{Failed verification|date=September 2022}} However, the census does record place of birth, revealing that 8.1% of Scotland's population,[https://www.scrol.gov.uk/scrol/browser/profile.jsp Scottish Census Results Online Browser]. Retrieved 16 November 2007. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011034257/https://www.scrol.gov.uk/scrol/browser/profile.jsp |date=11 October 2007 }} 3.7% of the population of Northern Ireland[https://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census/pdf/Key%20Statistics%20ReportTables.pdf Key Statistics Report], p. 10. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071127021255/https://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census/pdf/Key%20Statistics%20ReportTables.pdf |date=27 November 2007 }} and 20% of the Welsh population were born in England.[https://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=445 Country of Birth: Proportion Born in Wales Falling] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110824122543/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=445 |date=24 August 2011 }}, National Statistics, 8 January 2004. Similarly, the census of the Republic of Ireland does not collect information on ethnicity, but it does record that there are over 200,000 people living in Ireland who were born in England and Wales.{{cite web|url=https://www.cso.ie/census/documents/PDR%202006%20Tables%2019-30.pdf|title=Table 19 Enumerated population classified by usual residence and sex|website=Webcitation.org|access-date=21 August 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090915011616/http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/PDR%202006%20Tables%2019-30.pdf|archive-date=15 September 2009}}

English ethnic descent and emigrant communities are found primarily in the Western world, and settled in significant numbers in some areas. Substantial populations descended from English colonists and immigrants exist in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

{{Main|English Americans}}

File:Gilbert Stuart Williamstown Portrait of George Washington.jpg, known as the "Father of His Country", and first President of the United States, had English ancestors.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RMhYAAAAMAAJ&q=english+ancestry+of+george+washington |title=An examination of the English ancestry of George Washington, setting forth the evidence to connect him with the Washingtons of Sulgrave and Brington |publisher=Boston, Printed for the New England historic genealogical society |year=1889 |access-date=18 December 2019 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203000927/https://books.google.com/books?id=RMhYAAAAMAAJ&q=english+ancestry+of+george+washington |url-status=live |via=Google Books}}]]

In the 2020 United States census, English Americans were the largest group in the United States with 46.5 million Americans self-identifying as having some English origins (many combined with another heritage) representing (19.8%) of the White American population. This includes 25.5 million (12.5%) who were "English alone" - one origin.{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/detailed-race-ethnicities-2020-census.html|title=Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census|publisher=United States census|date= September 21, 2023|access-date= December 23, 2023}} However, demographers regard this as an undercount, as the index of inconsistency{{clarify|date=November 2020}} is high, and many, if not most, people from English stock have a tendency (since the introduction of a new 'American' category and ignoring the ancestry question in the 2000 census) to identify as simply Americans[https://books.google.com/books?id=SVoAXh-dNuYC&dq=Sharing+the+dream:+white+males+in+multicultural+America++english+ancestry&pg=PA57 Sharing the Dream: White Males in a Multicultural America] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016002633/https://books.google.com/books?id=SVoAXh-dNuYC&pg=PA57&dq=Sharing+the+dream:+white+males+in+multicultural+America++english+ancestry&cd=1 |date=16 October 2015 }} By Dominic J. Pulera.Reynolds Farley, 'The New Census Question about Ancestry: What Did It Tell Us?', Demography, Vol. 28, No. 3 (August 1991), pp. 414, 421.Stanley Lieberson and Lawrence Santi, 'The Use of Nativity Data to Estimate Ethnic Characteristics and Patterns', Social Science Research, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1985), pp. 44–46.Stanley Lieberson and Mary C. Waters, 'Ethnic Groups in Flux: The Changing Ethnic Responses of American Whites', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 487, No. 79 (September 1986), pp. 82–86. or if of mixed European ancestry, identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group.Mary C. Waters, Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), p. 36.

Prior to this, in the 2000 census, 24,509,692 Americans described their ancestry as wholly or partly English. In addition, 1,035,133 recorded British ancestry.[https://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/tablist.html US Census 2000 data] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118082243/http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/tablist.html |date=18 January 2017 }}, table PHC-T-43. This was a numerical decrease from the census in 1990 where 32,651,788 people or 13.1% of the population self-identified with English ancestry.{{cite web|title=1990 Census of Population Detailed Ancestry Groups for States|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/cp-s/cp-s-1-2.pdf|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=30 November 2012|date=18 September 1992|archive-date=27 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727091052/https://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/cp-s/cp-s-1-2.pdf|url-status=live}}

In 1980, over 49 million (49,598,035) Americans claimed English ancestry, at the time around 26.3% of the total population and largest reported group which, even today, would make them the largest ethnic group in the United States.{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/pc80-s1-10/tab02.pdf|work=1980 United States census|title=Table 2: Persons Who Reported at Least One Specific Ancestry Group for the United States: 1980|access-date=20 December 2017|archive-date=4 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604160009/http://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/pc80-s1-10/tab02.pdf|url-status=live}} Scots-Irish Americans are descendants of Lowland Scots and Northern English (specifically: County Durham, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland) settlers who colonised Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century.

Americans of English heritage are often seen, and identify, as simply "American" due to the many historic cultural ties between England and the U.S. and their influence on the country's population. Relative to ethnic groups of other European origins, this may be due to the early establishment of English settlements; as well as to non-English groups having emigrated in order to establish significant communities.[https://books.google.com/books?id=SoOXrMVp5BsC&dq=english+ancestry+united+states&pg=PA37 From many strands: ethnic and racial groups in contemporary América] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160110054549/https://books.google.com/books?id=SoOXrMVp5BsC&pg=PA37&dq=english+ancestry+united+states&cd=2#v=onepage&q=english%20ancestry%20united%20states&f=false |date=10 January 2016 }} by Stanley Lieberson

{{Main|English Canadians}}

In the Canada 2016 Census, 'English' was the most common ethnic origin (ethnic origin refers to the ethnic or cultural group(s) to which the respondent's ancestors belong{{cite web |url=https://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Reference/dict/pop040.htm |title=Ethnic Origin |website=2001 Census |publisher=Statistics Canada |date=4 November 2002 |access-date=8 January 2009 |archive-date=13 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213045202/https://www12.statcan.ca/English/census01/products/reference/dict/pop040.htm }}) recorded by respondents; 6,320,085 people or 18.3% of the population self-identified themselves as wholly or partly English. On the other hand, people identifying as Canadian but not English may have previously identified as English before the option of identifying as Canadian was available.{{cite book |url-status=dead |url=https://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/analysis/ethnicorigin/pdf/97-562-XIE2006001.pdf |title=Canada's Ethnocultural Mosaic, 2006 Census |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325070623/https://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/analysis/ethnicorigin/pdf/97-562-XIE2006001.pdf |archive-date=25 March 2009 |page=7 |quote=the presence of the Canadian example has led to an increase in Canadian being reported and has had an impact on the counts of other groups, especially for French, English, Irish and Scottish. People who previously reported these origins in the census had the tendency to now report Canadian. |date=April 2008 |isbn=978-0-662-48324-3 |last1=Chui |first1=Tina |publisher=Statistics Canada }}

{{Main|English Australians}}

File:EBarton2.jpg and Alfred Deakin, 1st and 2nd Prime Minister of Australia both had English parents.]]

From the beginning of the colonial era until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of settlers to Australia were from the British Isles, with the English being the dominant group. Among the leading ancestries, increases in Australian, Irish and German ancestries and decreases in English, Scottish and Welsh ancestries appear to reflect such shifts in perception or reporting. These reporting shifts at least partly resulted from changes in the design of the census question, in particular the introduction of a tick box format in 2001.{{cite web |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/af5129cb50e07099ca2570eb0082e462!OpenDocument |title= Population characteristics: Ancestry of Australia's population |publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics |work=4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 2003 |access-date=21 August 2017 |date=3 June 2003 |archive-date=3 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903141424/http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/af5129cb50e07099ca2570eb0082e462!OpenDocument |url-status=live}} English Australians have more often come from the south than the north of England.J. Jupp, The English in Australia, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 103

Australians of English descent, are both the single largest ethnic group in Australia and the largest 'ancestry' identity in the Australian census.{{cite web |url=https://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/036 |title=Census 2016: Summary of result – Population by states and territories, 2011 and 2016 Census |work=Australian Bureau of Statistics |publisher=Australian Government |access-date=21 February 2022 |archive-date=20 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620052901/http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/036 |url-status=live}} In the 2016 census, 7.8 million or 36.1% of the population identified as "English" or a combination including English, a numerical increase from 7.2 million over the 2011 census figure. The census also documented 907,572 residents or 3.9% of Australia as being born in England, and are the largest overseas-born population.[https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Cultural%20Diversity%20Data%20Summary~30 Census of Population and Housing: Reflecting Australia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007045837/https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Cultural%20Diversity%20Data%20Summary~30 |date=7 October 2021}} – Ancestry 2016

{{see also|English New Zealanders|Pākehā settlers}}

English ancestry is the largest single ancestry New Zealanders share. Several million New Zealanders are estimated to have some English ancestry{{Cite web |url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/NewZealandPeoples/English/en |title=English – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand |date=20 September 2008 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920092946/http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/NewZealandPeoples/English/en |archive-date=20 September 2008 }} From 1840, the English comprised the largest single group among New Zealand's overseas-born, consistently being over 50 percent of the total population.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFF8ynVL4wIC&q=new+zealand+foundational+culture+was+english&pg=PA151 |title=Locating the English Diaspora 1500–2010 |first1=Tanja |last1=Bueltmann |first2=David T. |last2=Gleeson |first3=Donald M. |last3=MacRaild |date=2010 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1846318191 |access-date=27 March 2020 |archive-date=14 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814111713/https://books.google.com/books?id=YFF8ynVL4wIC&q=new+zealand+foundational+culture+was+english&pg=PA151 |url-status=live |via=Google Books}}

Despite this, after the early 1850s, the English-born slowly fell from being a majority of the colonial population. In the 1851 census, 50.5% of the total population were born in England, this proportion fell to 36.5% (1861) and 24.3% by 1881. New Zealand's foundational culture was English, given the strong representation in the mid and late-nineteenth century with the English being the largest in migration inflows.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFF8ynVL4wIC&q=new+zealand+foundational+culture+was+english&pg=PA151|title=Locating the English Diaspora 1500-2010|first1=Tanja|last1=Bueltmann|first2=David T.|last2=Gleeson|first3=Donald M.|last3=MacRaild|year=2012|publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=9781846318191}}

In the 2013 census, there were 215,589 English-born representing 21.5% of all overseas-born residents or 5 percent of the total population and the most-common birthplace outside New Zealand.{{cite web |url=https://www.nbr.co.nz/sites/default/files/2013%20Census%20QuickStats%20about%20culture%20and%20identity.pdf |title=Birthplace (detailed) For the census usually resident population count 2001, 2006, and 2013 Censuses Table 11 |access-date=27 March 2020 |archive-date=8 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200208223922/https://www.nbr.co.nz/sites/default/files/2013%20Census%20QuickStats%20about%20culture%20and%20identity.pdf |url-status=live}}

In the recent 2018 census, 210,915 were born in England or 4.49% of the total population, a slight decrease from 2013.{{cite web|url=https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/2018-census-population-and-dwelling-counts|title=2018 Census population and dwelling counts|website=Stats NZ|date=23 Sep 2019|access-date=5 January 2021|df=dmy-all}}

{{Main|English Argentines}}

File:William Henry Hudson.png was an Argentine author, naturalist, and ornithologist of English origin.]]

English settlers arrived in Buenos Aires in 1806 (then a Spanish colony) in small numbers, mostly as businessmen, when Argentina was an emerging nation and the settlers were welcomed for the stability they brought to commercial life. As the 19th century progressed, more English families arrived, and many bought land to develop the potential of the Argentine pampas for the large-scale growing of crops. The English founded banks, developed the export trade in crops and animal products and imported the luxuries that the growing Argentine middle classes sought.{{cite news |title=Emigration of Scots, English and Welsh-speaking people to Argentina in the nineteenth century |publisher=British Settlers in Argentina – studies in 19th and 20th century emigration |url=https://www.argbrit.org/ |access-date=8 January 2008 |archive-date=30 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080130010420/http://www.argbrit.org/ |url-status=live}}

As well as those who went to Argentina as industrialists and major landowners, others went as railway engineers, civil engineers and to work in banking and commerce. Others went to become whalers, missionaries and simply to seek out a future. English families sent second and younger sons, or what were described as the black sheep of the family, to Argentina to make their fortunes in cattle and wheat. English settlers introduced football to Argentina. Some English families owned sugar plantations.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

{{Main|English Chileans}}

Since the Port of Valparaíso opened its coasts to free trade in 1811, the English began to congregate in Valparaíso. The English eventually numbered more than 32,000 during the port of Valparaíso's boom period during the saltpeter bonanza at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

{{Main|Culture of England}}

The culture of England is sometimes difficult to separate clearly from the culture of the United Kingdom,{{cite web |last=Carr |first=Raymond |title=The invention of Great Britain: A review of The Making of English Identity by Krishnan Kumar |work=The Spectator |location=UK |year=2003 |url=https://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200304/ai_n9229004/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111145323/https://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200304/ai_n9229004/|archive-date=11 November 2011}} so influential has English culture been on the cultures of the British Isles and, on the other hand, given the extent to which other cultures have influenced life in England.

{{Main|Religion in England}}

File:Wells Cathedral West Front Exterior, UK - Diliff.jpg, Somerset]]

The established religion of the realm is the Church of England, whose titular head is Charles III although the worldwide Anglican Communion is overseen by the General Synod of its bishops under the authority of Parliament. 26 of the church's 42 bishops are Lords Spiritual, representing the church in the House of Lords. In 2010, the Church of England counted 25 million baptised members out of the 41 million Christians in Great Britain's population of about 60 million;{{cite news |url=https://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1386939.ece |location=London |work=The Times |first=Ruth |last=Gledhill |title=Catholics set to pass Anglicans as leading UK church |date=15 February 2007 |access-date=18 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110918151400/https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1386939.ece |archive-date=18 September 2011}}{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11297461|title=How many Catholics are there in Britain? |date=15 September 2010 |access-date=18 February 2015 |work=BBC |location=London |archive-date=27 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327235820/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11297461 |url-status=live}} around the same time, it also claimed to baptise one in eight newborn children.{{cite web |url=https://www.churchofengland.org/media/1333106/2009churchstatistics.pdf |title=2009 Church Statistics |publisher=Church of England |date=2009 |access-date=21 February 2022 |archive-date=8 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408100014/https://www.churchofengland.org/media/1333106/2009churchstatistics.pdf }} Generally, anyone in England may marry or be buried at their local parish church, whether or not they have been baptised in the church.See the pages linked from {{cite web|url=https://www.cofe.anglican.org/lifeevents/|title=Life Events|publisher=Church of England|access-date=31 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101122050046/https://www.cofe.anglican.org/lifeevents/|archive-date=22 November 2010}}. Actual attendance has declined steadily since 1890,{{cite book|first=Peter J.|last= Bowler|title=Reconciling science and religion: the debate in early-twentieth-century Britain|location=Chicago|publisher=University of Chicago Press|date=2001|page=194}}. with around one million, or 10% of the baptised population attending Sunday services on a regular basis (defined as once a month or more) and three million -roughly 15%- joining Christmas Eve and Christmas services.{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/facts-stats.aspx|title=Facts and Stats|publisher=Church of England|access-date=21 February 2022|archive-date=27 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927233703/https://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/facts-stats.aspx|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/facts-stats/research-statistics.aspx|title=Research and Statistics|publisher=Church of England|access-date=9 May 2012|archive-date=8 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508151433/http://churchofengland.org/about-us/facts-stats/research-statistics.aspx|url-status=live}}.

File:St George's Day 2010 - 14.jpg at an event in Trafalgar Square in 2010.]]

Saint George is recognised as the patron saint of England, and the flag of England consists of his cross. Before Edward III, the patron saint was St Edmund; and St Alban is also honoured as England's first martyr.

A survey carried out in the end of 2008 by Ipsos MORI on behalf of The Catholic Agency For Overseas Development found the population of England and Wales to be 47.0% affiliated with the Church of England, which is also the state church, 9.6% with the Roman Catholic Church and 8.7% were other Christians, mainly Free church Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians. 4.8% were Muslim, 3.4% were members of other religions, 5.3% were agnostics, 6.8% were atheists and 15.0% were not sure about their religious affiliation or refused to answer to the question.{{Cite journal |date=November 2009 |title=Understanding the 21st Century Catholic Community |url=https://www.catholicvoices.org.uk/sites/default/files/Cafod%20Research.pdf |journal=CAFOD, Ipsos MORI |access-date=31 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915130148/https://catholicvoices.org.uk/sites/default/files/Cafod%20Research.pdf |archive-date=15 September 2016 }}

Religious observance of St George's Day (23 April) changes when it is too close to Easter. According to the Church of England's calendar, when St George's Day falls between Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it is moved to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter.{{cite web |url=https://www.lawandreligionuk.com/2019/04/24/st-georges-day-church-and-state/ |title=St George's Day: Church and State |first=David |last=Pocklington |date=24 April 2019 |access-date=18 December 2019 |archive-date=18 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218031818/https://www.lawandreligionuk.com/2019/04/24/st-georges-day-church-and-state/ |url-status=live}}

{{See also|Old English|English language in England}}

[[File:Local pronunciations of bath in England.jpg|thumb|Map showing phonological variation within England of the vowel in bath, grass, and dance:

{{legend|#4F4F4F|'a' {{IPA|[ä]|cat=no}}}}

{{legend|#819049|'aa' {{IPA|[æː]}}}}

{{legend|#D56371|'ah' {{IPA|[ɑː]}}}}

{{legend|#9C4B29|anomalies}}]]

English people traditionally speak the English language, a member of the West Germanic language family. The modern English language evolved from Middle English (the form of language in use by the English people from the 12th to the 15th century); Middle English was influenced lexically by Norman-French, Old French and Latin. In the Middle English period Latin was the language of administration and the nobility spoke Norman French. Middle English was itself derived from the Old English of the Anglo-Saxon period; in the Northern and Eastern parts of England the language of Danish settlers had influenced the language, a fact still evident in Northern English dialects.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

There were once many different dialects of modern English in England, which were recorded in projects such as the English Dialect Dictionary (late 19th century) and the Survey of English Dialects (mid 20th century), but there has been widespread dialect levelling in recent time as a result of education, the media and socio-economic pressures.Wolfgang Vierick (1964), Der English Dialect Survey und der Linguistic Survey of Scotland – Arbeitsmethoden und bisherige Ergebnisse, Zeitschrift für Mundartforschung 31, 333–335 in {{cite book |last=Shorrocks |first=Graham |year=1999 |title=A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area, Part 1 |location=Frankfurt am Main |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=3-631-33066-9 |page=58}}

Cornish, a Celtic language, is one of three existing Brittonic languages; its usage has been revived in Cornwall. Historically, another Brittonic Celtic language, Cumbric, was spoken in Cumbria in North West England, but it died out in the 11th century although traces of it can still be found in the Cumbrian dialect. Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. Through newspapers, books, the telegraph, the telephone, phonograph records, radio, satellite television, broadcasters (such as the BBC) and the Internet, as well as the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, Modern English has become the international language of business, science, communication, sports, aviation, and diplomacy.{{sfn|The Routes of English}}

{{Main|English literature}}

{{Original research section|date=February 2020}}{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2020}}

File:Portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer (4671380) (cropped) 02.jpg, he is best known for The Canterbury Tales.]]

English literature begins with Anglo-Saxon literature, which was written in Old English and produced epic works such as Beowulf and the fragmentary The Battle of Maldon, The Seafarer and The Wanderer. For many years, Latin and French were the preferred literary languages of England, but in the medieval period there was a flourishing of literature in Middle English; Geoffrey Chaucer is the most famous writer of this period.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

The Elizabethan era is sometimes described as the golden age of English literature with writers such as William Shakespeare, Thomas Nashe, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Other famous English writers include Jane Austen, Arnold Bennett, Rupert Brooke, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, George Orwell and the Lake Poets.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In 2003, the BBC carried out a UK survey entitled The Big Read in order to find the "nation's best-loved novel" of all time, with works by English novelists J. R. R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Philip Pullman, Douglas Adams and J. K. Rowling making up the top five on the list.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml |work=BBC |title=The Big Read – Top 100 Books |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031065136/http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml |archive-date=31 October 2012 |access-date=27 November 2010}}

{{portal|England}}

{{Div col}}

• English diaspora
• British people
• List of English people
• Old English (Ireland)
• Celtic peoples
• Culture of England
• English art
• Architecture of England
• English folklore
• English nationalism
• Manx people
• Genetic history of Europe
• European ethnic groups
• Modern immigration to the United Kingdom
• Population of England  (historical estimates)
• 100% English  (Channel 4 TV programme, 2006)
• Social history of the United Kingdom (1945–present)
• White British

{{div col end}}

Language:

{{Div col}}

• Anglicisation
• English language
• English-speaking world
• Old English
• Middle English
• Early Modern English
• Cumbric language
• Cornish language
• Brythonic language

{{div col end}}

Diaspora:

{{Div col}}

• British diaspora in Africa
• Anglo-Burmese
• Metis people
• Anglo-Indian
• Anglo-Irish
• Anglo-Scot
• English American
• English Argentine
• English Australian
• English Brazilian
• English Chilean
• English Canadian
• New Zealand European

{{div col end}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist|35em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Cite web |url=https://www.pricegen.com/english_genealogy.html |title=Expert Links: English Family History and Genealogy |website=Price and Associates: Professional Genealogy and Family History Services |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210171214/https://www.pricegen.com/english_genealogy.html |archive-date=10 December 2008}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Condor |first1=Susan |url=https://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/uploads/SusanCondor20080120T164935.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921055829/http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/uploads/SusanCondor20080120T164935.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 September 2011 |first2=Stephen |last2=Gibson |first3=Jackie |last3=Abell |year=2006 |title=English identity and ethnic diversity in the context of UK constitutional change |journal=Ethnicities |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=123–158 |doi=10.1177/1468796806063748 |s2cid=145498328 }}
• {{cite book |last=Fox |first=Kate |title=Watching the English |year=2004 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=978-0-340-81886-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/watchingenglishh00foxk |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Kumar |first=Krishan |author-link=Krishan Kumar (sociologist) |title=The Making of English National Identity |year=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-77736-0}}
• {{cite journal |last=Kumar |first=Krishan |author-link=Krishan Kumar (sociologist) |year=2010 |title=Negotiating English identity: Englishness, Britishness and the future of the United Kingdom |journal=Nations and Nationalism |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=469–487 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-8129.2010.00442.x}}
• {{cite book |last=Paxman |first=Jeremy |author-link=Jeremy Paxman |title=The English |year=1999 |publisher=Penguin Books Ltd |isbn=978-0-14-026723-5 |ref=none}}
• {{cite web |title=The Routes of English |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/storysofar/programme4_6.shtml |date=1 August 2015 |website=BBC |ref={{harvid|The Routes of English}} |access-date=9 August 2015 |archive-date=24 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024081346/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/storysofar/programme4_6.shtml |url-status=live }}
• {{cite book |last=Young |first=Robert J.C. |title=The Idea of English Ethnicity |year=2008 |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |isbn=978-1-4051-0129-5 |author-link=Robert J.C. Young |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ideaofenglisheth0000youn |ref=none}}

{{refend}}

; Diaspora

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• {{cite book |editor1-last=Bueltmann |editor1-first=Tanja |editor2-last=Gleeson |editor2-first=David T. |editor3-last=MacRaild |editor3-first=Donald M. |title=Locating the English Diaspora, 1500–2010 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |date=2012 |isbn=9781781387061}}

{{refend}}

• {{Wikiquote-inline}}

{{England topics}}

{{British peoples}}

{{British Isles}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:English People}}

Category:Ethnic groups in England

Category:Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom