ABSTRACT
For most critics, the concepts of nation and identity are modern ones. Notwithstanding this, in this chapter, we would like to suggest that the roots of English nationalism and identity originate in Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. Produced in 731, this text is one of the oldest and most important sources concerning the history of the Anglo-Saxons and the beginnings of what is now the English territory. We defend that it should be considered the very first attempt at creating an ideal of nationhood, based on biblical history, which, for Bede, defines and characterizes English identity. The conversion to Christianity, as explored by Bede in the mid-eighth century, and its subsequent expansion, played a major role in planting the seeds of English nationalism and the sense of Englishness.
