Due to Gregory’s a ssumption that the new inhabitants of England were all Angles, the term Rex Anglorum was first used, identifying the ‘English’ as a single gens . 62
When he wished to bestow honours on King Ætheberht and rejoice that the King
“had attained knowledge of heavenly glory”, Gregory addressed him as ‘King of the English’. 63 Honorius gives King Edwin the same title. 64 In the opening of book two
Bede declares that “the English Nation was converted by his [Gregory’s] efforts from
the power of Satan to the faith of Christ… he made our nation into a Church of Christ” 65 suggesting that, at this early point, through the “beliefs of the Church of the English” and unity of doctrine and practice, the ‘English’ were now a united people in faith. 66 Bede does write about the kings of the various Kingdoms, acknowledging that
England began with seven individual and clashing kingdoms, but he also refers to the
‘English race’ and the ’English Nation’ as a collective and describes many people as “Englishmen”. 67 Similarly, Bede refers to “the most noble English kings, Oswiu of Northumbria and Egbert of Kent”, among others, as “English Kings”. 68 For Bede,
regardless of political divisions, the English were a racial group pertaining to the land
of England. From this land- orientated view of identity comes other ‘English’ things.
Bede mentions “custom amongst the English People”, “English territory”, “English Rule” and the “lands of the English”. 69 There are also clear distinctions drawn
between the “English and British races”, even in book five. It is said that “King of the
English, Æthelfrith… made a great slaughter of that nation [the Britons] of heretics”
and the Pictish kingdom is described as “subject to the English”, defining the ‘English’ by p lace and people. 70 Bede also refers to “the English tongue” and makes
references to place names, like “a city which the English call Tiowulgingacæstir ”, in
the ‘English’ language, to highlight an underlying unity of the ‘English’ People through their common vernacular. 71 All this is encapsulated in the very last line of the
Historia - “Here, with God’s help, ends the fifth book of the History of the English
62 Dumville, p. 81; Molyneaux, 1297; Wormold, p. 213 63 Bede, pp. 58-9
64 Bede, p. 101 65 Bede, p. 65 66 Bede, p. 201 67 Bede, pp. 77-80, 116, 162; Dumville, p. 87 68 Bede, pp. 164, 272 69 Bede, pp. 115, 222, 224 70 Bede, pp. 73, 271 71 Bede, pp. 100, 114, 204
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