130-517: Lewis Hallam (circa 1714–1756) was an English -born actor and theatre director in the colonial United States . Hallam is thought to have been born in about 1714 and possibly in Dublin . His father Thomas Hallam was also an actor who was killed by actor Charles Macklin in 1736 at the Drury Lane Theatre , allegedly over a wig. Many of his siblings were actors and one was an admiral. Hallam had
260-612: A Council of the North was set up for the northern counties of England. After falling into disuse, it was re-established in 1537 and abolished in 1641. A very short-lived Council of the West also existed for the West Country between 1537 and 1540. In the Anglo-Saxon period, the geld or property tax was first levied in response to Danish invasions but later became a regular tax. The majority of
390-497: A peerage on such basis, meaning a right to sit in the House of Lords , were not to be revived, nor any right of succession based on them. The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 followed the conquest of Wales by Edward I of England . It assumed the lands held by the Princes of Gwynedd under the title " Prince of Wales " as legally part of the lands of England, and established shire counties on
520-663: 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. Although the Roman Empire incorporated peoples from far and wide, genetic studies suggest the Romans did not significantly mix into the British population. The exact nature of
650-712: A child Isabella who was baptised in London in 1746. He and his brother, William had only moderate success in Britain and they decided to try their skills in America. Hallam arrived in North America in 1752 with his theatrical company, organized by his brother William , who was joint owner of the company with him. Lewis had been an actor in William's company in England, but it had failed, prompting
780-627: A geographic area brings protests, especially from the Scotch . 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. 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
910-697: A greater extent than their white counterparts; however, groups such as the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) suggest the emergence of a broader civic and multi-ethnic English nationhood. 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. This perceived rise in English self-consciousness has generally been attributed to
1040-450: 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. 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
1170-529: A local noble or bishop. The last such, the County Palatine of Durham , did not lose this special status until the 19th century. Although all of England was divided into shires by the time of the Norman Conquest, some counties were formed considerably later, up to the 16th century. Because of their differing origins the counties varied considerably in size . The county boundaries were fairly static between
1300-494: A major European war. A Treaty of Union was agreed on 22 July 1706, and following the Acts of Union of 1707 , which created the Kingdom of Great Britain , the independence of the kingdoms of England and Scotland came to an end on 1 May 1707. The Acts of Union created a customs union and monetary union and provided that any "laws and statutes" that were "contrary to or inconsistent with
1430-407: 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%. Research has found that
SECTION 10
#17328585606911560-496: A mere duke, William owed allegiance to Philip I of France , whereas in the independent Kingdom of England he could rule without interference. He was crowned on 25 December 1066 in Westminster Abbey , London. In 1092, William II led an invasion of Strathclyde , a Celtic kingdom in what is now southwest Scotland and Cumbria. In doing so, he annexed what is now the county of Cumbria to England. In 1124, Henry I ceded what
1690-597: 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
1820-402: A parliament being established. 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. Electoral support for English nationalist parties
1950-463: A rise in English self-awareness. 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 ;– and the waning of a shared British national identity with the growing distance between the end of
2080-627: 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. 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. Due to sustained and sometimes mass emigration of
2210-651: 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. 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
2340-457: A series of civil wars over possession of the throne between the House of Lancaster (whose heraldic symbol was the red rose) and the House of York (whose symbol was the white rose), each led by different branches of the descendants of Edward III. The end of these wars found the throne held by the descendant of an initially illegitimate member of the House of Lancaster, married to the eldest daughter of
2470-655: A unitary legislative chamber with a new body, the Council of State becoming the executive. However the Army remained the dominant institution in the new republic and the most prominent general was Oliver Cromwell . The Commonwealth fought wars in Ireland and Scotland which were subdued and placed under Commonwealth military occupation. Meanwhile, relations with the Dutch Republic had deteriorated. Despite initial English support during
2600-542: A veneer of Britishness. 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; Neolithic farmers who migrated from Anatolia during the Neolithic Revolution 9,000 years ago; and Yamnaya Steppe pastoralists who expanded into Europe from the Pontic–Caspian steppe in
2730-464: Is also low, even though there is public support for many of the policies they espouse. 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. 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
SECTION 20
#17328585606912860-529: Is now southeast Scotland (called Lothian ) to the Kingdom of Scotland , in return for the King of Scotland's loyalty. This final cession established what would become the traditional borders of England which have remained largely unchanged since then (except for occasional and temporary changes). This area of land had previously been a part of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria . Lothian contained what later became
2990-612: Is usually termed "elite dominance". 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. 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
3120-644: The 1801 union between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The counties of England were established for administration by the Normans , in most cases based on earlier shires established by
3250-590: 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
3380-426: The Anglo-Saxons . They ceased to be used for administration only with the creation of the administrative counties in 1889. Unlike the partly self-governing boroughs that covered urban areas, the counties of medieval England existed primarily as a means of enforcing central government power, enabling monarchs to exercise control over local areas through their chosen representatives – originally sheriffs and later
3510-574: The Bretwalda . Soon after the Norman Conquest of England , however, some Norman lords began to attack Wales. They conquered and ruled parts of it, acknowledging the overlordship of the Norman kings of England but with considerable local independence. Over many years these " Marcher Lords " conquered more and more of Wales, against considerable resistance led by various Welsh princes, who also often acknowledged
3640-544: The British Empire and the present. Many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. 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
3770-632: The English Civil War (1641–45), in which the king was defeated, and to the abolition of the monarchy under Oliver Cromwell during the Interregnum of 1649–1660. After the trial and execution of Charles I in January 1649, the Rump Parliament passed an act declaring England to be a Commonwealth on 19 May 1649. The monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, and so the House of Commons became
3900-752: The English Renaissance and again extended English monarchical power beyond England proper, achieving the full union of England and the Principality of Wales under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 . Henry VIII oversaw the English Reformation , and his daughter Elizabeth I (reigned 1558–1603) the Elizabethan Religious Settlement , meanwhile establishing England as a great power and laying
4030-584: The English language , a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons , when they were known as the Angelcynn , meaning race or tribe of the Angles . Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who invaded Britain around the 5th century AD. The English largely descend from two main historical population groups:
Lewis Hallam - Misplaced Pages Continue
4160-449: The House of Stuart claimed descent from Henry VII via Margaret Tudor . The completion of the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown. Edward III (reigned 1327–1377) transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe; his reign also saw vital developments in legislation and government—in particular
4290-599: The Interregnum of 1649–1660). All English monarchs after 1066 ultimately descend from the Normans , and the distinction of the Plantagenets is conventional—beginning with Henry II (reigned 1154–1189) as from that time, the Angevin kings became "more English in nature"; the houses of Lancaster and York are both Plantagenet cadet branches, the Tudor dynasty claimed descent from Edward III via John Beaufort and James VI and I of
4420-626: The Irish , current estimates indicate that around 6 million people in the UK have at least one grandparent born in the Republic of Ireland. There has been a small black presence in England since the 16th century due to the slave trade , and a small Indian presence since at least the 17th century because of the East India Company and British Raj . Black and Asian populations have only grown throughout
4550-562: The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 ). Wales was incorporated into the Kingdom of England, and henceforth was represented in the Parliament of England . During the 1530s, Henry VIII overthrew the power of the Catholic Church within the kingdom, replacing the pope as head of his own English Church and seizing the Catholic Church's lands, thereby facilitating the creation of a variation of Catholicism that became more Protestant over time. This had
4680-483: The Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with occasional use of Rex Anglie ("King of England"). From John's reign onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie . In 1604 James I , who had inherited the English throne the previous year, adopted the title (now usually rendered in English rather than Latin) King of Great Britain . The Kingdom of England emerged from
4810-413: The Parliament of Ireland , with the aim of restoring such central authority as had been lost throughout the country during the previous two centuries. Calais , the last remaining continental possession of the Kingdom, was lost in 1558, during the reign of Philip and Mary I . Their successor, Elizabeth I , consolidated the new and increasingly Protestant Church of England . She also began to build up
4940-451: 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
5070-559: The United Kingdom . The Kingdom of England was among the most powerful states in Europe during the medieval and early modern periods. Beginning in the year 886 Alfred the Great reoccupied London from the Danish Vikings and after this event he declared himself King of the Anglo-Saxons , until his death in 899. During the course of the early tenth century, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united by Alfred's descendants Edward
5200-649: 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
5330-402: The lord-lieutenants – and their subordinate justices of the peace . Counties were used initially for the administration of justice , collection of taxes and organisation of the military, and later for local government and electing parliamentary representation. Some outlying counties were from time to time accorded palatine status with some military and central government functions vested in
Lewis Hallam - Misplaced Pages Continue
5460-464: 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
5590-462: 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. 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
5720-552: The 11th century, and there were both English and Danish kings in the period following the unification of England (for example, Æthelred II (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 , and place names that end in -thwaite and -by are Scandinavian in origin. The English population
5850-518: The 16th century Laws in Wales acts and the Local Government Act 1888 . Each shire was responsible for gathering taxes for the central government; for local defence; and for justice, through assize courts . The power of the feudal barons to control their landholding was considerably weakened in 1290 by the statute of Quia Emptores . Feudal baronies became perhaps obsolete (but not extinct) on
5980-482: 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
6110-448: The Angles (called Angulus by Bede ). The name Engla land became England by haplology during the Middle English period ( Engle-land , Engelond ). The Latin name was Anglia or Anglorum terra , the Old French and Anglo-Norman one Engleterre . The standard title for monarchs from Æthelstan until John was Rex Anglorum ("King of the English"). Cnut , a Dane, was the first to call himself "King of England". During
6240-410: 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
6370-425: The Castilian Pero Niño . Though the English won numerous victories, they were unable to overcome the numerical superiority of the French and their strategic use of gunpowder weapons. England was defeated at the Battle of Formigny in 1450 and finally at the Battle of Castillon in 1453, retaining only a single town in France, Calais . During the Hundred Years' War an English identity began to develop in place of
6500-459: The Dutch Republic in its wars against Louis XIV of France. In the Scottish case, the attractions were partly financial and partly to do with removing English trade sanctions put in place through the Alien Act 1705 . The English were more anxious about the royal succession. The death of William III in 1702 had led to the accession of his sister-in-law Anne to the thrones of England and Scotland, but her only surviving child had died in 1700, and
6630-414: The Dutch War of Independence against the Spanish, tensions arose as the Dutch Republic emerged as England's principal commercial and naval rival. By the mid-17th century, it had become the foremost trading nation. In response the English, alarmed by their waning competitiveness, implemented stricter trading policies to curb Dutch dominance. The First Anglo-Dutch War which followed, however, failed to resolve
SECTION 50
#17328585606916760-410: The Elder (reigned 899–924) and Æthelstan (reigned 924–939) to form the Kingdom of the English. In 927, Æthelstan conquered the last remaining Viking kingdom, York , making him the first Anglo-Saxon ruler of the whole of England. In 1016, the kingdom became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great , a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway . The Norman Conquest in 1066 led to
6890-454: The English Act of Settlement 1701 had given the succession to the English crown to the Protestant House of Hanover . Securing the same succession in Scotland became the primary object of English strategic thinking towards Scotland. By 1704, the Union of the Crowns was in crisis, with the Scottish Act of Security allowing for the Scottish Parliament to choose a different monarch, which could in turn lead to an independent foreign policy during
7020-416: 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. 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
7150-404: The English model over those areas. The Marcher Lords were progressively tied to the English kings by the grants of lands and lordships in England. The Council of Wales and the Marches , administered from Ludlow Castle , was initially established by Edward IV of England to govern the lands held under the Principality of Wales in 1472. At the same time the Council of Wales was created in 1472,
7280-578: The English. The establishment of an English parliament has also been backed by a number of Scottish and Welsh nationalists. 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. 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
7410-454: The Grandees in the Army, through the Council of State imposed a new constitutional arrangement under a written constitution called the Instrument of Government . Under the Instrument of Government executive power lay with a Lord Protector (an office to be held for the life of the incumbent) and there were to be triennial Parliaments, with each sitting for at least five months. Article 23 of the Instrument of Government stated that Oliver Cromwell
7540-442: The Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda , a high king over the other kings. The decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful, absorbing the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825. The kings of Wessex increasingly dominated the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at Dore , briefly making Egbert
7670-406: The House of York: Henry VII and Elizabeth of York . Wales retained a separate legal and administrative system, which had been established by Edward I in the late 13th century. The country was divided between the Marcher Lords , who gave feudal allegiance to the crown, and the Principality of Wales . Under the Tudor monarchy, Henry VIII replaced the laws of Wales with those of England (under
7800-576: The Iberian Bell Beakers, but appeared to be an offshoot of the Corded Ware single grave people, as developed in Western Europe. 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. 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
7930-405: The Kingdom by the name of Great Britain', forming the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Parliament of Great Britain . The Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn , originally names of the Angles . They called their land Engla land , meaning "land of the English", by Æthelweard Latinized Anglia , from an original Anglia vetus , the purported homeland of
SECTION 60
#17328585606918060-399: The Kingdom of Scotland. Despite the Union of the Crowns , the kingdoms remained separate and independent states: a state of affairs which lasted for more than a century. The Stuart kings overestimated the power of the English monarchy, and were cast down by Parliament in 1645 and 1688. In the first instance, Charles I 's introduction of new forms of taxation in defiance of Parliament led to
8190-420: The Normans continued collecting the geld regularly. They also introduced new sources of revenue based on concepts of feudalism . The king was entitled to collect a feudal aid when his eldest son was knighted, his eldest daughter married, or if the king needed to pay his own ransom. The heir to a fief was also required to pay the king a feudal relief before he could take possession of his inheritance. The king
8320-536: The North American venture. The new company landed at Yorktown, Virginia . The company began their performances in Williamsburg , then the capital of Virginia Colony . Here they hired a large wooden structure, which was roughly altered to suit their purposes. It was so near the forest that the players were able to shoot wild fowl from the windows of the building. Their opening performance was George Granville 's The Jew of Venice, which Hallam billed as Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice , on September 15, 1752. Music
8450-404: The Scottish capital, Edinburgh . This arrangement was later finalized in 1237 by the Treaty of York . The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land from the Irish, over which the Kingdom of England then claimed sovereignty, all allegedly sanctioned by the Papal bull Laudabiliter . At
8580-504: 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. 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. A nationally representative survey published in June 2021 found that
8710-400: 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". In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago, "England"
8840-415: 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
8970-493: The United Kingdom . The majority of people living in England are British citizens. In the Acts of Union 1707 , the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland merged to become the Kingdom of Great Britain . Over the years, English customs and identity have become fairly closely aligned with British customs and identity in general. The demonyms for men and women from England are Englishman and Englishwoman. England itself has no devolved government. The 1990s witnessed
9100-428: The United Kingdom. Wales was annexed by England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 , which incorporated Wales into the English state. 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. In 1707, England formed a union with Scotland by passing an Act of Union in March 1707 that ratified
9230-471: The United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. 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. However, demographers regard this as an undercount, as
9360-556: The West Germanic tribes, including the Angles, Saxons , and Jutes who settled in Southern Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans , and the partially Romanised Celtic Britons who already lived there. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons , they founded what was to become the Kingdom of England by the 10th century, in response to the invasion and extensive settlement of Danes and other Norsemen that began in
9490-679: The abolition of feudal tenure during the Civil War , as confirmed by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660 passed under the Restoration which took away knight-service and other legal rights. Tenure by knight-service was abolished and discharged and the lands covered by such tenures, including once-feudal baronies, were henceforth held by socage ( i.e. , in exchange for monetary rents). The English Fitzwalter Case in 1670 ruled that barony by tenure had been discontinued for many years and any claims to
9620-474: 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
9750-559: The battle with the Norwegians. The armies of Harold and William faced each other at the Battle of Hastings (14 October 1066), in which the English army, or Fyrd , was defeated, Harold and his two brothers were slain, and William emerged as victor. William was then able to conquer England with little further opposition. He was not, however, planning to absorb the Kingdom into the Duchy of Normandy . As
9880-561: The cases of eastern regions such as East Anglia and Lincolnshire, while in parts of Northumbria, much of the native population likely remained in place as the incomers took over as elites. 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
10010-510: The commercial issues. In April 1653 Cromwell and the other Grandees of the New Model Army , frustrated with the members of the Rump Parliament who would not pass legislation to dissolve the Rump and to allow a new more representative parliament to be elected, stopped the Rump's session and declared the Rump dissolved. After an experiment with a Nominated Assembly ( Barebone's Parliament ),
10140-574: The company had gone to perform. His widow, the actor Sarah Hallam Douglass (d. Philadelphia, 1773), married David Douglass , with whom she formed the American Company in 1758. Her son by Lewis, Lewis Hallam Jr. , became an actor in his mother and step-father's company. This article about an American theatre actor is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . English people Modern ethnicities The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England , who speak
10270-472: The complex nature of national identities, with many people considering themselves both English and British. 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. 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
10400-585: The context of Indo-European migrations 5,000 years ago. 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 . This population lacked genetic affinity to some other Bell Beaker populations, such as
10530-651: The continental possessions of the Duchy to Philip II of France in 1204 and decisively after the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. A few remnants of Normandy , including the Channel Islands , remained in John's possession, together with most of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Up until the Norman Conquest of England, Wales had remained for the most part independent of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms , although some Welsh kings did sometimes acknowledge
10660-680: The death of Harthacnut in June 1042. He was the son of Canute and Emma of Normandy (the widow of Æthelred the Unready) and had no heirs of his own; he was succeeded by his half-brother, Æþelræd's son, Edward the Confessor . The peace lasted until the death of the childless Edward in January 1066. His brother-in-law was crowned King Harold , but his cousin William the Conqueror , Duke of Normandy, immediately claimed
10790-602: 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. Over time
10920-665: The disastrous Raid on the Medway and forced the humiliated Charles in to an unfavourable peace treaty . The treaty eliminated a number of long-standing issues, and in the long-term made it possible for the two countries to unite against the expansionist policies pursued by Louis XIV of France . In the short-term however, Charles' desire to avenge this setback led to the Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1672. Despite attaining French support this time, Dutch naval successes made Parliament unwilling to support Charles' war effort any further, and he
11050-495: The effect of aligning England with Scotland, which also gradually adopted a Protestant religion, whereas the most important continental powers, France and Spain, remained Roman Catholic. The "Tudor conquest" (or reconquest ) of Ireland' took place under the Tudor dynasty. Following a failed rebellion against the crown by Silken Thomas , the Earl of Kildare , in the 1530s, Henry VIII was declared King of Ireland in 1542 by statute of
11180-595: The establishment of an English parliament was low at between 16 and 19%, according to successive British Social Attitudes Surveys . 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. One 2007 poll carried out for BBC Newsnight , however, found that 61 per cent would support such
11310-416: 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". It is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. The words "English" and "British" are often incorrectly used interchangeably, especially outside
11440-724: The evolution of the English Parliament . From the 1340s, English claims to the French throne were held in pretense, but after the Hundred Years' War and the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses in 1455, the English were no longer in any position to pursue their French claims and lost all their land on the continent, except for Calais . After the turmoils of the Wars of the Roses, the Tudor dynasty ruled during
11570-494: The first king to reign over a united England. In 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that "all of the English people ( all Angelcyn ) not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred." Asser added that "Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly ... and made it habitable once more." Alfred's restoration entailed reoccupying and refurbishing
11700-668: The foundations of the British Empire via colonization of the Americas . The accession of James VI and I in 1603 resulted in the Union of the Crowns , with the Stuart dynasty ruling the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland . Under the Stuarts, England plunged into civil war , which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established
11830-449: The general public". 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. Others question whether devolution has led to a rise in English national identity at all, arguing that survey data fails to portray
11960-478: The gradual unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy : East Anglia , Mercia , Northumbria , Kent , Essex , Sussex , and Wessex . The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general. The English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in 927. During
12090-515: The index of inconsistency 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 or if of mixed European ancestry, identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group. 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. This
12220-469: The king's income derived from the royal demesne and the annual " farm " from each shire (the fixed sum paid by sheriffs for the privilege of administering and profiting from royal lands). Kings also made income from judicial fines and regulation of trade. People owed the king service in the form of the trinoda necessitas — fyrd service, burh building, and bridge building. After the Conquest of 1066,
12350-548: The kingdom's naval strength, on the foundations Henry VIII had laid down. By 1588, her new navy was strong enough to defeat the Spanish Armada , which had sought to invade England to halt English support for the Dutch rebels and to put a Catholic monarch on the throne in her place. The House of Tudor ended with the death of Elizabeth I on 24 March 1603. James I ascended the throne of England and brought it into personal union with
12480-415: The late 9th century. This was followed by the Norman Conquest and limited settlement of Normans in England in the late 11th century and a sizeable number of French Protestants who emigrated between the 16th and 18th centuries. Some definitions of English people include, while others exclude, people descended from later migration into England. England is the largest and most populous country of
12610-456: 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. 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
12740-532: 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." 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
12870-532: The nearly deserted Roman walled city, building quays along the Thames , and laying a new city street plan. During the following years Northumbria repeatedly changed hands between the English kings and the Norwegian invaders, but was definitively brought under English control by Eadred in 954, completing the unification of England. At about this time, Lothian , a portion of the northern half of Northumbria ( Bernicia ),
13000-453: 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. The Norman dynasty ruled England for 87 years until
13130-487: The number of hides they owned. After the Norman Conquest, the king's household troops remained central to any royal army. The Anglo-Saxon fyrd also remained in use. But the Normans also introduced a new feudal element to the English military. The king's tenants-in-chief (his feudal barons ) were obligated to provide mounted knights for service in the royal army or to garrison royal castles . The total number of knights owed
13260-404: The overlordship of the Norman kings of England. Edward I defeated Llywelyn ap Gruffudd , and so effectively conquered Wales, in 1282. He created the title Prince of Wales for his heir, the future Edward II , in 1301. Edward I's conquest was brutal and the subsequent repression considerable, as the magnificent Welsh castles such as Conwy , Harlech , and Caernarfon attest. Edward III
13390-413: The period, and describes the slaughter and starvation of native Britons by invading tribes ( aduentus Saxonum ). Furthermore, the English language contains no more than a handful of words borrowed from Brittonic sources. 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
13520-664: The population of Northern Ireland and 20% of the Welsh population were born in England. 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 . 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
13650-580: The precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament. This concept became legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its successor state the United Kingdom, functioned in effect as a constitutional monarchy . On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707 , the parliaments, and therefore Kingdoms, of both England and Scotland were mutually abolished. Their assets and estates united 'for ever, into
13780-410: The previous division between the Norman lords and their Anglo-Saxon subjects. This was a consequence of sustained hostility to the increasingly nationalist French, whose kings and other leaders (notably the charismatic Joan of Arc ) used a developing sense of French identity to help draw people to their cause. The kingdom had little time to recover before entering the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487),
13910-459: The proportion of people who consider being white to be a necessary component of Englishness has declined over time. The 1990s witnessed a resurgence of English national identity. 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. Today, black and minority ethnic people of England still generally identify as British rather than English to
14040-723: The reign of Æthelred the Unready (978–1016), a new wave of Danish invasions was orchestrated by Sweyn I of Denmark , culminating after a quarter-century of warfare in the Danish conquest of England in 1013. But Sweyn died on 2 February 1014, and Æþelræd was restored to the throne. In 1015, Sweyn's son Cnut (commonly known as Canute) launched a new invasion. The ensuing war ended with an agreement in 1016 between Canute and Æþelræd's successor, Edmund Ironside , to divide England between them, but Edmund's death on 30 November of that year left England united under Danish rule. This continued for 26 years until
14170-500: The rule of the country and gradually acculturated the people living there. 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
14300-485: 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. 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
14430-567: 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. 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
14560-598: 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." 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
14690-592: The terms" of the Acts would "cease and become void". The English and Scottish Parliaments were merged into the Parliament of Great Britain , located in Westminster , London. At this point England ceased to exist as a separate political entity, and since then has had no national government . The laws of England were unaffected, with the legal jurisdiction continuing to be that of England and Wales , while Scotland continued to have its own laws and law courts. This continued after
14820-574: The throne for himself. William launched an invasion of England and landed in Sussex on 28 September 1066. Harold and his army were in York following their victory against the Norwegians at the Battle of Stamford Bridge (25 September 1066) when the news reached him. He decided to set out without delay and confront the Norman army in Sussex so marched southwards at once, despite the army not being properly rested following
14950-458: The time, Gaelic Ireland was made up of several kingdoms, with a High King claiming lordship over most of the other kings. The Duchy of Aquitaine came into personal union with the Kingdom of England upon the accession of Henry II , who had married Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine . The Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy remained in personal union until John Lackland , Henry II's son and fourth-generation descendant of William I, lost
15080-535: The transfer of the English capital city and chief royal residence from the Anglo-Saxon one at Winchester to Westminster , and the City of London quickly established itself as England's largest and principal commercial centre. Histories of the Kingdom of England from the Norman Conquest of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties: Norman/Angevin 1066–1216, Plantagenet 1216–1485, Tudor 1485–1603 and Stuart 1603–1707 (interrupted by
15210-433: The whole satisfied with current constitutional arrangements". 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. However, the census does record place of birth, revealing that 8.1% of Scotland's population, 3.7% of
15340-454: 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. Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the early tenth century, when it was unified from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms , until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain , which would later become
15470-575: Was again forced to make peace. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, an attempt by James II to reintroduce Roman Catholicism—a century after its suppression by the Tudors—led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which he was exiled by the Dutch prince William of Orange . William and his wife Mary were subsequently crowned by Parliament. William reoriented England's foreign policy to support
15600-402: Was also entitled to his vassals military service, but vassals could pay scutage instead. In the Anglo-Saxon period, England had no standing army. The king and magnates retained professional household troops ( see housecarl ), and all free men were obligated to perform military service in the fyrd . In addition, holders of bookland were obligated to provide a certain number of men based on
15730-534: Was ceded to the Kingdom of Scotland . On 12 July 927 the monarchs of Britain gathered at Eamont in Cumbria to recognise Æthelstan as king of the English. The title "King of the English" or Rex Anglorum in Latin, was first used to describe Æthelstan in one of his charters in 928. The standard title for monarchs from Æthelstan until John was "King of the English". England has remained in political unity ever since. During
15860-590: 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 , 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. The Norman conquest of England during 1066 brought Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule of England to an end, as
15990-433: Was interpreted as reflecting the legacy of French migration under the Normans. 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. The first people to be called "English" were
16120-738: Was introduced during the 1st millennium. 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. 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
16250-405: 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
16380-568: Was recalled and there was a second period where the executive power lay with the Council of state. But this restoration of Commonwealth rule, similar to that before the Protectorate, proved to be unstable, and the exiled claimant, Charles II , was restored to the throne in 1660. In 1665 the unresolved commercial issues with the Dutch led to the Second Anglo-Dutch War , which culminated in
16510-464: 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
16640-713: Was supplied by a single player on a harpsichord . From Williamsburg, the troupe traveled to Annapolis and Philadelphia . In 1753, Hallam took over the first theater in Manhattan , the Theatre on Nassau Street , from September 17, 1753, to March 18, 1754. They moved to Philadelphia and opened The Fair Penitent and Miss in Her Teens on April 15, 1754. The group then performed in Charleston, South Carolina . Hallam died in Jamaica , where
16770-463: Was the first English king to have a claim to the throne of France . His pursuit of the claim resulted in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), which pitted five kings of England of the House of Plantagenet against five kings of France of the Capetian House of Valois . Extensive naval raiding was carried out by all sides during the war, often involving privateers such as John Hawley of Dartmouth or
16900-564: Was to be the first Lord Protector. The Instrument of Government was replaced by a second constitution (the Humble Petition and Advice ) under which the Lord Protector could nominate his successor. Cromwell nominated his son Richard who became Lord Protector on the death of Oliver on 3 September 1658. Richard proved to be ineffectual and was unable to maintain his rule. He resigned his title and retired into obscurity. The Rump Parliament
#690309