The British

The English people were formed as a result of mixing and prolonged assimilation of diverse ethnic elements. One of the oldest inhabitants of the British Isles was the Celtic tribes ( Britons and others), who settled here around the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. In the V — VI centuries. n e. ( Anglo-Saxon period ) Germanic tribes — Angles , Saxons , Utes — migrated from the mainland to the islands. They partly assimilated the Celts, partly drove them to the mountains of Scotland , Wales and Cornwall .

Developed in the 7th – 10th centuries on the basis of Germanic and Celtic tribes, the Anglo-Saxon people were significantly influenced by the Scandinavians ( Danes , Norwegians ) who conquered in the 8th – 9th centuries. some areas of England.

The most important event in the ethnic history of the British is the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The Franco-Norman barons occupied the dominant position in the country; French became the official language, although the people continued to speak their Anglo-Saxon language . Quickly enough (by the beginning of the XII century) the Anglo-Saxons and Normans merged into a single English national community. In the XVI century. the common English spoken and literary language. The English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century completed mainly the formation of the English nation .

In the XVII — XIX centuries. many British migrated to the colonies captured by England and became one of the main components in the formation of a number of nations - US Americans , Anglo-Canadians , Australians , New Zealanders .

90% of the British live in cities . Mostly in private homes. Families are nuclear; many childless couples. The population is concentrated in the seven largest conurbations , the largest of which is Greater London (about 7 million people). The layout of cities is most often radial, in the center - the square and the cathedral . Gothic cathedrals are very characteristic.

There are two types of rural settlements - villages in the east and farms or farms in the west. Roofs of houses are usually high, gable, steep, made of tiles or slate . The houses are frame, made of stone, pebbles, limestone slabs, the later type of houses are made of brick.

Characteristic low-rise construction, the vertical arrangement of apartments (on two floors).

In English architecture of the XVII-XVIII centuries, Dutch influence is noticeable. Until that time, due to the inveterate conservatism of the British, Gothic had been holding for a very long time.

Clothing

The national English costume took shape in the 18th century. It is characterized by the severity and simplicity of the lines, soft and calm tones. The type of English costume influenced the formation of a pan-European men's costume. Sportswear is now popular. Elements from the Middle Ages and the New Age are preserved in the clothing of judges, guards, students, parliamentarians.

Food

The traditional food is meat ( roast beef , beef steak , bacon , fish dishes). Puddings (they can be from different products) and oatmeal are also popular.

Names

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in Russia and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States, the Englishman bore the ironic nickname " John Bull ." In the article about N. Polevoy’s novel “The Oath at the Sepulcher”, the Decembrist A. A. Bestuzhev writes: “The steamer John Bull has been smoking near the embankment for a long time ... Hear, they ring for the third time! ..” ^[5] . In the novel "The Mysterious Island" Jules Verne put into the mouth of the sailor Pencroff a dismissive and cocky address to the English: "Descendants of John Bull!".

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  “The Arrival of the First Ancestors of the British from Germany to Great Britain”: a bizarre depiction of Anglo-Saxon migration — an event central to the English national myth . From The Restoration of the Intelligence of (1605)

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  Reconstruction of the in Sutton Hoo , East of England .

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  South Great Britain in 600 AD e. after the Anglo-Saxon settlement, showing the division of England into several small kingdoms .

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  King Harold II of England (right) in a Norman court, Tapestry from Bayeux

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  George Washington , known as the "Father of his country" and the first President of the United States , had English ancestors. ^[6]

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  Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin , Australia's 1st and 2nd Prime Ministers , both had English parents.

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  William Henry Hudson is an Argentinean writer, naturalist, and ornithologist of English descent.

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  English peasants, photograph of Peter Henry Emerson . 1886 year

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  Hampshire Countryside Cottage, Early 20th Century

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  The crowd celebrates St. George's Day at an event on Trafalgar Square in 2010.

• English diaspora
• Germans

• Mayol E., Milstead D. These Strange English = The Xenophobic Guide to the English. - M .: Egmont Russia Ltd., 2001 .-- 72 p. - ISBN 5-85044-301-0 .