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"

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 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 but not central 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 continued to use 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).

Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity originally called England and later England and Wales. Since then, "England" has not officially had a separate identity (until modern times, even the name "England" used in any official sense meant "England/Wales").

Even this "England" lost its political (though not legal) identity in 1707, when the Scottish and "English" Parliaments merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the Act of Union. The union changed its name twice: first on the merger with Ireland ("United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland") and then with the secession of the southern Irish counties to form the Republic of Ireland ("United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"). Throughout these changes, "England" (ie England/Wales) 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 ackowledged 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 of the UK government.

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. However, as England still lacks these, it is not too fanciful to say that the only legal meaning of "England" is The bit of "England and Wales" that is not "Wales".

Despite the lack of official identity, England's much greater size and population (and perhaps the fact that UK institutions had evolved from English ones) have tended to give it a dominant role in the UK. The bulk of English people rarely noticed their lack of a separate identity: because, until recently, they regarded "Great Britain" or "the United Kingdom" as simply synonyms for "England" : this usage can still be found in many older books, and in most foreign languages. Starting in the early 20th century, the rise of nationalism in Wales and, particularly, Scotland has made the English (though not as yet many visitors) realise that this usage is unacceptable. England's football team and its fans use only the "St. George cross", and hence it's use is now becoming increasingly popular among the English people in lieu of the UK flag.

English identity

The broadest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin.

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. Until fairly recently, many English people would have been surprised to be asked "are you English or British?" and might even have responded "What's the difference?". With the increasing awareness that the Scots and Welsh are thinking about the British/Scots British/Welsh issue, English people now recognise that the question at least deserves some thought (and English football fans now wave the Union flag only rarely).

One difficulty for people wondering if they might be English as well as British is that an "English" national identity is often taken to have been appropriated by far right organisations such as the British National Party. 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'.

Subdivisions of England

Main article: Subdivisions of England Also informative: Counties of England

Geographic counties of EnglandHistorically, 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 geographic 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, the official regions are:

North East England North West England Yorkshire and the Humber West Midlands East Midlands

East of England South West England South East England

 Geography of England

A satellite view of England and Wales.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 the central and northern of 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, although this fact is disputed.

Just a few facts about England!