This is what Macaulay argues at the beginning of his History- that losing France was what made England England again rather than a captive vassal of the Normanshttps://mobile.twitter.com/toad_spotted/status/918903001384964096 …
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This is what Macaulay argues at the beginning of his History- that losing France was what made England England again rather than a captive vassal of the Normanshttps://mobile.twitter.com/toad_spotted/status/918903001384964096 …
"Again" being key. As @holland_tom, not exactly Mr Fascist-Nationalist, stresses in his recent biography of Athelstan, he helped to "fashion a nation that endures to this day." Read more athttps://www.penguin.co.uk/books/280198/athelstan-penguin-monarchs/#LJfCqsI8doCKDPCY.99 …
I found this rewriting of history to make everyone an Anywherer, with no links to the soil, fellow people, language veeery interesting and timely 
“They didn’t think think of themselves as one entity...” Lots of ppl didn’t think about stuff in modern terms, but c’mon, they knew they WERE different from their neighbors through language, customs or stories & most would fight to protect/because of the said differences.
How can anyone read Henry V and not think that he English had national identity ? Ok that doesn’t necessarily mean 14thc people thought that way, but 17thc certainly did.
If Middle English can be considered English. I guess we can be grateful the elite didn't slip into Latin, the other language of the state, but then again, nobody with a modicum of personality likes latin.
Yet the English speaking world still taught Latin in schools until maybe 1960 or 70. Can't beat the Romans!
Ehh, a little more than a generation (the literature guys were ahead of the trend; Anglo-Norman was still basically the legal and royal language til the 15th century), but yes.
Yup, and one Henry VI's biggest mistakes (if not the biggest) was marrying a French-speaking princess from Anjou who never understood the nationalist dynamic that took place over preceding 100 years. When Henry went cuckoo, Margaret was seen as a usurping foreigner.
I believe Henry V had more French blood in.his veins than the French dauphin
I'm somehow reminded of the Blackadder scene where George IV speaks of needing to connect with the British people as one of them. After he leaves, Edmund declares, "You're not. You're German!"
Took ‘em long enough to assimilate.
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