User:Jza84/Sandbox5

The English are the people of England, one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. As a nation they are defined as sharing a common English culture, English language, affinity and civic identity. As an ethnic group, the English are conventionally interpreted to be a Germanic people, the lineal descendants of the Angles, Frisians, Jutes and Saxons, Teutonic tribes that migrated to Great Britain from northern Europe following the Roman departure from Britain in the 5th century, and who came to absorb Britain's Celtic, Norse and Scandinavian influences thereafter.

During the Dark Ages, the English (known then in Old English as the Anglecynn) were under the governance of independent Anglo-Saxon petty kingdoms which gradually coalesced into a Heptarchy of seven powerful states, the most powerful of which were Mercia and Wessex. The English unified under a single nation state—the Kingdom of England—in 937 under King Athelstan of Wessex, after the Battle of Brunanburh.

After the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, although initially resistant, the English came to think of themselves as simultaneously English and also British, so much so that the two identities have been embraced and applied indiscriminately. The historical misappropriation of English for British, and vice versa, has been the cause of much displeasure for large sections of the United Kingdom's population, particularly the Irish, Scots and Welsh. As Britons, the contemporary English are subject to British nationality law, but nevertheless remain a distinct population in cultural terms bla bla etc etc (need a rewording and source here of course)

The largest single English population live in England. English diaspora, Anglo-Irish, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-American? For purposes of civil registration and statistical outputs, the English are (broadly) subsumed into the racial classification of White British??? The English have been described as a hidebound, homely and duteous people, whose social class-bound culture is marked by a tradition of competitive sports and games, and distinct regional accents and expressions.