ABSTRACT
I f one were to say ‘no’ to this question about the people who lived in medieval England, the answer could be based on several considerations. It could be argued that since prehistoric times the country had been invaded and settled by successive ethnic groups - Celts, ‘Romans’, Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Danes, Norwegians, Normans, Bretons, French - who sufficiently kept their separate identity to deprive England, during this period, o f any Englishness. Stress could be laid, for instance, on the Danelaw and the evidence, even today, o f its linguistic peculiarities; also on the brutal expro priation o f the Old English aristocracy and higher clergy, in 1066, by Norman, Breton and French conquerors. And the answer ‘no’ could be reinforced by pointing to an indigenous population speaking one language and a ruling class speaking another, its cultural identity still outside this newly conquered land.
