I was interested to catch the introduction to a television show a few days ago which claimed it would define what it is to be English, thinking it would help in my journey to discovery.
I forget its title now and to be honest it is irrelevant as I would not suggest anyone watch it!
It started out with the boldly arrogant statement: “to be English means to be the best; to have God on your side”
So does this mean, then, that God hates everyone who is not English? Someone had better tell the rest of the Christian world, because I think they are under the impression He loves everyone equally…
And if God truly does love only the English, should we set out to please him by ridding the world of all the non-English?
I’ll just pop to the shed and get my pitchfork, eh?
I watched about ten minutes of this drivellous nonsense before deciding it was probably not going to help me much.
In fact, all I gleaned from what little I tolerated was that to be English is to be arrogant and sanctimonious; so is it any wonder I feel no affiliation to my country of domicile?
I have not been resting on my laurels over this whole subject. Given my deep roots within this place, I took lines of research which would explain the connection I feel to Wales – the hub-creature is in a really dark phase right now, though, so getting to the library to research properly is impossible; regardless I have learned much from my web-based research that has been helpful even if I make the normal assumption that only 30% of what I read online is true.
I am making the assumption that as my ancestors have been based in one area for more than three hundred years, they have maybe always been there. I know it is unwise to assume anything but to be honest although there are people who make claims to have traced their own lineage back into the earliest parts of history I find claims that this might even be possible hard to believe; also there have been DNA-based research programmes which took people who only had to be the third generation in a given area to be indigenous, so when you get beyond nine generations I very much doubt my ancestors ever made a grand hegira from the Far East or any such*
*Although rather interestingly, when I first commenced my genealogical journey, one particular such line were said to have been originated from Romany Gypsies… make of that what you will!
Shortly after discussing this topic recently, I received an email from which the following excerpt comes:
“extensive research into my own Cornish lineage brought up some strong connections between [the Cornish and Devonians] and the people of Wales. You need to go back quite far but knowing how you Devon-ish types are afraid to travel too far it is quite likely that your people have always been in the same place. I would suggest you start your research at the Saxon invasion. Of course, there might be later connections, but this time period makes for an interesting read in terms of the questions you are asking.”
Since I had no clue where to start, this seemed a logical enough suggestion.
Turning the clock back, then, to when the Jutes, Angles and Saxons arrived, settling first on the East Coast and gradually pushing the Britons (known to the invaders as the Wealsc, pronounced Welsh) further west. By the end of the century, only Wales and the Westcountry remain under Briton rule.
Image blatantly stolen from another blog so please click through to give them traffic by way of recompense!
In spite of many battles, the situation remained thus for the most part of the next 200 years or so until Somerset was also lost to the Anglo-Saxons resulting in the separation of the West Welsh of Devon and Cornwall from the Cymru Welsh forces of Wales. In spite of the well-documented battles, Wales was relativaly secure behind Offa’s Dyke, with the armies sending the clear message: “Look after your bloody selves! There is no way we are crossing the damned bridge to come save your asses!”
So it was that the people of Devon and Cornwall built barricades of trestle-tables laden with honour-box market garden stock, homemade jams and chutneys and the obligatory cream teas.
And this proved a decent enough line of defence until the arrival of the more observant Vikings who noted that some of the cream teas looked different, at which point the people of Devon realised that every one of the Cornish-made teas had its jam/cream component inverted and thus started a period of internal skirmishes which allowed the invading forces to penetrate the barrier and led to the Cornish-Welsh gathering up their goods and headed back to their own border. Thus it came to be that Devon was also lost to the invaders; although they had no intention of living here, preferring to rule the county from afar, leading to the advent of Devon as the state for second homes, regular invasions and short periods of intensive plundering occupancy it and Cornwall remain today.
My research has pulled up some other rather interesting statistical points:
This particular image depicting the affiliations across the UK through the English Civil War interested me slightly, much as because it is a period of history I am hugely interested in:
Rather notably, we can see that the regions last to cede to the original European invaders were those most resistant to Parliamentary rule… yes, those darned Europeans and their democratic ways!
I also want to mention the peculiar modern camaraderie between those coming from either the Southwest or Wales in that everyone assumes us all to be quite backward – the mandatory jokes as to whether electricity has reached certain places, do they still eat their young there and of course the instant assumption of incest and bestiality quite aside from the mockery of accents and the implications of abject stupidity. In fact, I once read a review of the comedy of a *particular* Welsh comedian (not naming names, because I don’t want to mess with the search engine thing… but you know the one!) which complained that his comedy couldn’t possibly work outside Wales because he was just “too Welsh” … I disagreed completely… having seen him perform outside Wales, I couldn’t see how other people could not simply equate his thoughts and expressions to their own circumstance… but that was a younger me who did not think as deeply about such things – I realise now that it possibly doesn’t equate to everyone… maybe only to the indigenous people!
I referred briefly at the outset to a DNA study. I want to return just to give a little more detail as I think it makes a good closure to this whole theme:
People from across England and Wales who had lived within a certain range of particular towns for at least three generations were tested. Those throughout England were found mostly to have markers reflected in certain regions of Europe which were laying claim to be the origins of the Jutes, the Angles and the Saxons; the people of Wales lacked this marker. There is no distinction as to where in England those few also void of the European marker were based, but I would like to think maybe they were here in the Southwest. Certainly in my own case it is highly likely that my family far up on the northern-most coast of Devon, hidden behind Exmoor itself were more likely to have been Welsh Britons than European English…
So I think that is where I am right now…
Am I English? Most certainly not.
I am a Briton; an original, indigenous, Celtic Briton… thus am Welsh. Devon-Welsh, but Welsh nonetheless.
I assume…
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