From 449 AD: The Coming of the English to 1901 AD:  The end of the Victorian Era This is a ‘long’ article and is very useful for orientating students and teachers by way of a time frame. It is easy to find dates and periods.

Content:

References:  The various works of Stephen Pollington, Eileen Powers, G M Trevelyan.

"Consider all that lies in that one word-  Past!  What a pathetic, sacred, in every sense poetic, meaning is implied in it; a meaning growing ever the clearer and farther we recede in time – the more of that same Past we have to look through! History after all is the true poetry. And Reality, if rightly interpreted, is grander that Fiction."   Scott.

In this section of England and English History we look at English social history. From the Anglo-Saxons through to the ages of Chaucer – Caxton – Elizabeth I - Dr Johnson and William Cobbett. English people of huge standing.  

Firstly we must set the scene. England was a NATION before most others. A Nation being a definable people within the borders of a COUNTRY and governed by a STATE. When King Athelstan of the West Saxons beat the Irish, Scots, Welsh, Strathclyde Brythons and Dublin Vikings at the Battle of Brunanburgh in 937 AD, he confirmed the formation of England as a nation of ethnic English within a country and a state ruled form Winchester. The dream of his Great Uncle Alfred and his formidable daughter Æthelfleada. But the English were a nation people long before then. The Roman historian Tacitus first mentions the Engle (the early term for the English) in 98 AD.

When English ‘Goddams’ (as Joan of Arc called them) invaded France in the Hundred Years War 1337-1453 AD, France was still not a nation. The Germans (The Allemande - ‘All Men’ - or the ‘Brotherhood’,) were not yet united, and Italy was not invented. The USA, and other countries we rate as Superpowers were not in existence, as we know them now.

England is old. English history is long and yes – glorious. But its Monarchs, heroes, and battles are just one part. English social history contains much of the rest of the story. As with English Folklore, English Folk Art, English Folk Dance, English Folk Music. But quite simply. English social history has influenced the world. The whole world. Most wear the English Edwardian suit. English legal culture and education and the English language predominate. India and the United States and all the Anglo-American world uses English common law as the bedrock of its legal systems. English hegemony in this world has already happened. It will morph, but it already is Past. And will be the future.