England
England is the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom. It accounts for more than 83% of the total UK population, occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the North Sea, Irish Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and English Channel.
Brief history of the term "England"
See also: List of meanings of countries' names
England is named after the Angles (Old English genitive case, "Engla" - hence, Old English "Engla Land"), one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. This is also the origin of its Latin name, Anglia. Originally, England was a geographical term rather than a state, until the separate kingdoms were unified under the king of Wessex in the 10th century. Briefly, the unified England became part of a Danish empire under Cnut, then regained independence for a short period, before being conquered by the Duke of Normandy in 1066.
The next few hundred years saw England as an important part of expanding and dwindling empires based in France, with the "King of England" being a subsidiary title of a succession of French-speaking Dukes of territories in (what is now) France. Only when English kings realised that their losses in France meant that England was now their richest and most important possession did they accept the same "nationality" and language as their subjects in England. They used England as a source of troops to enlarge their personal holdings in France for many years (Hundred Years War); in fact the English crown did not relinquish its last foothold on mainland France until Calais was lost during the reign of Mary Tudor (the Channel Islands are still crown dependencies, though not part of the UK).
The Principality of Wales, under the control of English monarchs from the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Wales shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity originally called England and later England and Wales.
When the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland merged to form the unified Kingdom of Great Britain under the Acts of Union in 1707, both England and Scotland lost their political, (though not legal), identities. This union has subsequently changed its name twice: firstly on the merger with the Kingdom of Ireland following the Act of Union in 1800 creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, and then following the secession from the union of the Irish Free State under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Throughout these changes, England retained a separate legal identity from its partners, (with a separate legal system from those in Northern Ireland and Scotland), and eventually the strong feelings of the Welsh were acknowledged when it was decided that the name would henceforth be "England and Wales". Wales gained even more of an identity when, (like Scotland), it gained its own department within the UK government, the Welsh Office.
In 1999, the "singleness" of "England and Wales" was blurred even further when Wales, like Scotland, gained a semi-independent legislature (Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly) and an executive accountable to it.
Despite the lack of official identity, England's much greater size and population, (and perhaps the fact that most UK institutions had evolved from English ones), have tended to give it a dominant role in the UK.
See also British Isles (terminology).
Current politics
The Scottish and Welsh governing institutions were created by the UK (Scottish, Welsh, English and Northern Irish) parliament along with strong support from the majority of people of Scotland and Wales, and are not yet independent of Britain — However, this gave each country a seperate and distinct political identity, leaving England (89% of the U.K population) as the only part of Britain directly ruled in nearly all matters by the British government in London. In Cornwall, a region of England claiming a distinct naitonal identity, there has been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by nationalist parties such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected more than 150,000 signatures in support.
- Regarding parliamentary matters, a long-standing anomaly called the West Lothian question has come to the fore. Before Scottish devolution, purely-Scottish matters were debated at Westminster, but under a subject to a convention that only Scottish MPs could vote on them. The "Question" was that there was no "reverse" convention: Scottish MPs could and did vote on issues relating only to England and Wales. Welsh devolution has removed the anomaly for Wales, but not for England : Scottish and Welsh MPs can vote on English issues, but Scottish and Welsh issues are not debated at Westminster at all.
- As far as administration goes, England's affairs are managed by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament, a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage, and the Regional Development Authorities (a kind of nascent executive for each English Region).
There are calls for a devolved English Parliament, and some English people go further and support their Scottish and Welsh Nationalists in calling for the dissolution of the Union entirely. However, the approach favoured by the current Labour government was (on the basis that England is too large to be governed as a single sub-state entity) to propose the devolution of power to the English Regions. Lord Vancloner claimed a devolved English parliament would dwarf the rest of the United Kingdom. Referendums would decide whether people wanted to vote for regional assemblies to watch over the work of the non-elected RDAs.
During the campaign, a common criticism of the proposals was that England "did not need another layer of bureaucrats". On the other hand, many said that they were not decentralising enough, and amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government, and no real power given to the regions, which would not even gain the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament (note: Welsh powers are now being expanded). They said that power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Late in the process, responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. However, a referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 rejected this proposal, and plans for referendums in other Regions ((such as Yorkshire) were shelved.
Subdivisions of England
Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England (such as the Kingdoms of Sussex and Kent) and further Medieval reorganisations (sometimes using duchies such as Lancashire and Cornwall). These historical county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The counties each had a county town and many county names were drawn from these (for example Nottinghamshire, from Nottingham).
Since the latter part of the 19th Century there has been a series of local government reorganisations. The solution to the emergence of large urban areas was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities (an example being Greater Manchester). In the 1990s reform of local government, there began the creation of unitary authorities, where districts gained the administrative status of a county. Today, there exists some confusion between the ceremonial counties (which do not necessarily form an administrative unit) and the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties.
Non-metropolitan counties (or "shire counties") are divided into one or more districts. At the very lowest level, England is divided into parishes, though these are not to be found everywhere (many urban areas for example are unparished). Parishes are prohibited from existing in Greater London.
England is now also divided into 9 regions, which do not have an elected authority and exist to co-ordinate certain local government functions across a wider area. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city.
Other than London (Region 1 on the map), the official regions are:
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Geography
England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap.
Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use.
The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. However, by any definition London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham now vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in central and northern England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Bristol, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and Hull.
The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, directly links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel.
The largest natural harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Some regard it as the second largest harbour in the world, after Sydney Australia, although this fact is disputed (see harbours for a list of other large natural harbours).
Climate
England has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round, though the seasons are quite variable in temperature. However, temperatures rarely fall below −5°C (23°F) or rise above 30°C (86°F). The prevailing wind is from the southwest, bringing mild and wet weather to England regularly from the Atlantic Ocean. It is driest in the east and warmest in the southeast, which is closest to the European mainland. Snowfall can occur in Winter and early Spring, though it is not that common away from high ground.
The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 at Brogdale, near Faversham, in Kent. [1]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is −26.1 °C (−15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Edgmond, near Newport, in Shropshire. [2]
Major rivers
- Severn (the longest river in Great Britain)
- Thames
- Trent
- Humber
- Tyne
- Tees
- Ribble
- Ouse
- Mersey
- Dee
- Avon
Major conurbations
The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census)
- Greater London (8,278,251)
- West Midlands (2,284,093)
- Greater Manchester (2,244,931)
- West Yorkshire (1,499,465)
- Liverpool (816,216)
- Tyneside (756,765)
- Nottingham (666,358)
- Sheffield (640,720)
- Bristol (551,066)
- Brighton (461,181)
- Portsmouth (442,252)
- Leicester (441,213)
- Coventry (436,000)
- Bournemouth/Poole (383,713)
- Reading (369,804)
Demographics
England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with 50 million inhabitants [3], or 83.7% of the UK's total. The 2001 census records roughly around 9% of England's inhabitants as being non-white in origin [4].
The country's population is 'ageing', with a declining percentage of the population under age 16 and a rising one of over 65. Population continues to rise and in every year since 1901, with the exception of 1976, there have been more births than deaths [5]. England is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands.
There is a debate over the extent to which the population of England (and indeed that of Britain as a whole) is composed of long-standing indigenous stock or descended from various groups of settlers and immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The Cheddar Man has been cited as demonstrating that a substantial proportion of the present day population may be descended from groups that populated the island in prehistory (The Times, 8 March 1997). The often given view of English ethnicity is that it is a mixed one with large influences from various waves of Celtic, Norse, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman invasions.
The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
English identity
The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. It has, however, been a notoriously complicated and controversial identity to delimit [6].
Centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is often assumed English unless specified otherwise). The English frequently include their neighbours in the general term "British" while the Scots and Welsh tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. This reflects a more subtle form of patriotism in England - St George's Day, the country's national holiday, is barely celebrated [7] - and there is an apathy to the nation outside the sporting arena. Although a part of England, a small, but noticeable, minority of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves ethnically Cornish first.
English national identity is often taken to have been appropriated by far right organizations such as the British National Party and the English Democrats Party [8]. This radicalising of identity is often seen to be a problem. The English musician Morrissey expressed this sentiment in the lyrics of his 2004 single "Irish Blood, English Heart", having been criticised as being racist when he aligned himself to the English flag in the 1990s: "I've been dreaming of a time when / To be English is not to be baneful / To be standing by the flag / Not feeling shameful / Racist or partial". Presumably controversies like this arise because "English" is for some reason seen as an ethnicity, while "British" is a simple statement of fact: it is often said that English-born people who self-identify as black are proud to be "black British" but do not feel able to say "black English".
This means that English identity is - for better or worse - often closely associated with English nationalism. Some English nationalists claim that the 'original culture' of England is comprised of legacies of Brythonic tribes of Celts and Anglo-Saxons appearing in waves of gradual migration. It also is seen as being influenced by the Scandinavian legends such as Beowulf and the Norman Conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a common early location for English identity.
Attempts have been made to de-radicalise English identity. Modern English identity is often built around its sports, one field in which the British Home Nations often compete individually. In particular the English Association football team, Rugby Union team and Cricket team often cause increases in the popularity of 'Englishness'.
English identity is also affected by the divisions in lifestyle between its north and south (see North-South divide in the United Kingdom).
Culture
The culture of England is sometimes difficult to separate clearly from the culture of the United Kingdom, so intertwined are its composite nations.
England has produced a wealth of significant literary figures including William Shakespeare, arguably the most famous in the history of the English language, Daniel Defoe, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell and Harold Pinter. Others, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling have been among the best-selling novelists of the last century. Among the poets, Geoffrey Chaucer, Lord Byron, John Keats, John Milton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and many others remain read and studied around the world.
Composers from England have often not achieved recognition as broad as that earned by their literary counterparts, and particularly during the nineteenth century were overshadowed in international reputation by other European composers; however, the work of earlier composers such as Henry Purcell and Thomas Tallis is still frequently performed today, and a revival of England's musical status began during the twentieth century with the prominence of composers such as Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst and Benjamin Britten.
In popular music, English bands such as The Beatles,Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Black Sabbath, The Who, Iron Maiden, The Sex Pistols and Pink Floyd have all been cited as among the most influential and best-selling Rock bands of all time[citation needed]. England is also credited with being the birthplace of many pop-culture movements such as punk and acid house[citation needed].
London in particular is an internationally important venue for theatre. England also has a small film industry, while the BBC (and, latterly, other organisations) are well-regarded in television production.
Significant figures in English art range from William Blake, William Hogarth, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable in the 18th and early 19th centuries, through to the influential William Morris in the late 19th, to names such as David Hockney and Damien Hirst in the present day.
Sport
Sport is very popular in England. The country, during the nineteenth century, was the location of the codification of a number of modern sports, including association football, rugby football (both the union and league codes), cricket, tennis and badminton. Of these, association football remains the country's most popular spectator sport. England contains more UEFA grade A stadiums than any other[citation needed], and is home to some of the sport's top clubs such as Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. The England national football team are considered one of the game's superpowers, having won the World Cup in 1966 when it was hosted in England: although they have not won it since.
The England national rugby union team and England cricket team are often among the best in the world, with the rugby union team winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Rugby union clubs such as Leicester Tigers have had success in the Europe-wide Heineken Cup. At rugby league, the England national rugby league team are to compete more regularly after 2006, when England will become a full test nation in lieu of the Great Britain national rugby league team, when that team is retired after the 2006 Rugby League Tri-Nations.
Languages
As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in the Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived.
Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies, some of which survive to this day. But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words.
The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales).
The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced a draft strategy to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border.
Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 250,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language [9], but does not give statistics specific to England. Unlike Cornish, BSL is an official language of the UK although most British government departments and hospitals still do not cater to deaf people. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters.
Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, with Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Polish, Greek, Turkish and Cantonese being the most common languages that people living in Britain consider their first language. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in big cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances.
Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany.
Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are a large number of distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country. Use of foreign non-standard varieties of English (such as Caribbean English) is also widespread.
Nomenclature
The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country.
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The majority of European languages use names similar to "England":
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The Celtic names are quite different:
Except for Lloegr, which is an ancient geographic term, these names are all derived from the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes which arrived at about the same time as the Angles. The names in Asian languages:
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See: Wiktionary:England for a further list of non-English names for England.
"England" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the entire United Kingdom or the island of Great Britain. Frequently the English use the less-specific "Britain" or "the UK", even when "England" is technically correct and commonly also use "England" when "Britain" would be correct.
Alternative names include:
- the slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign" (which coincidentally resembles "Britain")
- "Albion", an ancient name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century. Supposedly referring to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover, this term has also been interpreted as a relative of Alba, today the Scots Gaelic name for Scotland. Whatever its origins, "Albion" originally referred to the whole island of Great Britain and is still sometimes seen that way today — but is more often used for England.
- More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle...this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations respectively from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time).
The inhabitants of England are the English. The slang terms sometimes used for them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.
Symbols and insignia
The two traditional symbols of England are the St George's cross (the English flag, originally flag of Genoa ad then adopted by English ships to benefit from the protection of the powerful Geonoese fleet) and the Three Lions coat of arms (see above), both derived from the great European powers that formed the monarchy – the Cross of Aquitaine and the Lions of Anjou. The three lions were first definitely used by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) in the late 12th century (although it is also possible that Henry I may have bestowed it on his son Henry before then). Historian Simon Schama has argued that the Three Lions are the true symbol of England because the English throne descended down the Angevin line.
The flag of Genoa was adopted by England and the City of London in 1190 for their ships entering the Mediterranean to benefit from the protection of the powerful Geonoese fleet. The maritime Republic of Genoa was rising and going to become, together with its rival Venice, one of the most important powers in the world. The English Monarch paid an annual tribute to the Doge of Genoa for this privilege.
A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became associated with St George and England, along with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Jack (more properly known as the Union Flag, except when used at sea) which English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606, was adopted for all purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of England no longer has much of an official role, but it is widely flown by Church of England properties and at sporting events. The Flag of St. George has gained popularity in recent years, and is widely seen flown out of houses, or on cars during important football tournaments in which England is competing. (Paradoxically, the latter is a fairly recent development; until the late 20th century, it was commonplace for fans of English teams to wave the Union Flag, rather than the St George's Cross).
The rose is widely recognised as the national flower of England and is used in a variety of contexts. Predominantly, this is a red rose (which also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of the England national rugby union team. However, a white rose (which also symbolises Yorkshire) or a "Tudor rose" (symbolising the end of the War of the Roses) may also be used on different occasions.
The Three Lions badge performs a similar role for the English national football team and English national cricket team.
National anthems
Although the UK as a whole has "God Save The Queen" as the national anthem, England does not as yet have an official anthem of its own. The following though are widely regarded as English national hymns:
- "Jerusalem": Words by William Blake, Music by Hubert Parry is the official anthem of English cricket, and widely considered the overwhelming favourite to be confirmed as the English National Anthem at some point in the future.
- "I Vow to Thee, My Country": Words by Cecil Spring-Rice, Music by Gustav Holst
- "Land of Hope and Glory": Words by A C Benson, Music by Edward Elgar (although this refers to all of the United Kingdom, not only England)
- "Nimrod": Music by Edward Elgar
To a lesser extent, Heart of Oak, the unofficial Royal Navy anthem has also been proposed. Music by Dr. William Boyce (1711-1779). English words by the famous actor David Garrick (1716-1779) in 1759.
"God Save The Queen" (the national anthem for the UK as a whole) is usually played for English sporting events (e.g. football matches) against teams from outside the UK (although "Land of Hope and Glory" has also been used as the English anthem for the Commonwealth Games and the England national rugby league team). "Jerusalem" has been sung before England cricket matches. "Rule Britannia" (Britannia being the Roman name for England and Wales combined but also a personification of the United Kingdom) was often used in the past for the English national football team when they played against another of the home nations but more recently "God Save The Queen" has been used by both the rugby union and football teams. Upon hearing the orchestral version for the first time, King George V said that he preferred that "Jerusalem" replace "God Save The King" as the English National Anthem.
See also
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
- Template:Wikitravel
- History_of_England
- English law
- English people
- List of monarchs of England – Kings of England family tree
- List of English people
- Angeln (region in northern Germany, presumably the origin of the Angles after whom England is named)
- UK topics
- List of not fully sovereign nations
References
External links
- Office for National Statistics
- The official website of the English Tourist Board — Enjoy England
- BBC Nations: articles on England and her neighbours
- Campaign for an English Parliament: campaigning for devolution.