England

England is the largest and most populous constituent country and Home Nation 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.

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. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when the Kingdom of Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity England and Wales. England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

"England" is sometimes used incorrectly as a synonym for Great Britain or the United Kingdom, usually arising from innocent confusion over local geopolitical terminology.

History

The earliest record of human activity in England dates back to over 500,000 years ago [1], although the repeated ice ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with advanced megalithic cultures arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from continental western Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons"—a name bestowed by Phoenician traders and an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network.

The Britons were significant players in continental affairs and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius's conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island —roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales—became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent.

Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern-day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, including Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and the Breton language. But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly English areas.

The invaders fell into three main groups: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. Gradually, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another, the most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of England in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted two generations later by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899).

The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the languages of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place names in England and, to a lesser extent, Scotland are derived from Celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover, and Colchester. Several place name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, and coomb for a small deep valley.

From this age, where the majority culture and language came to be that of a Germanic origin – Old English – we can piece together how England came to be created and have the Welsh legacy of their name for England – Lloegr – translated as "lost lands".

Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or that the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British may not have been pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England.^[1] Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.

Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)

File:Elizabeth I (Ermine Portrait).jpg

Queen Elizabeth I

In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings and conquered the existing Kingdom of England. They instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the Middle Ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day.

While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Germano-Romance creole now known as Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time.

England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Great Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman influence in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English, in particular the Wars of Scottish Independence, and serious attempts at conquest were abandoned after the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market.

England also found itself in conflict with France, in particular during the Hundred Years' War. This failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland, and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present).

For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main articles: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England.

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 of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political union. Scotland and Northern Ireland retain separate legal systems. The Duchy of Cornwall and Duchy of Lancaster also retain some unique rights. Wales and Scotland have also gained, in 1999, separate legislatures and significant home rule though ostensibly still answering to London.

All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by the UK Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English MPs to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly, which has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, has become popularly known as the West Lothian question.

Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no national parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from an increasing number for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the Union and an independent England.

The current Labour government initially proposed the establishment of regional administration, on the basis that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 rejected this proposal.

Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by political parties such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support.

Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically speaking it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital.

Subdivisions of England

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

Historically, 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:

Geography

Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England

File:United Kingdom Satellite Image.JPG

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 British 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 traditionally vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol, Sheffield 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. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbours for a list of other potential second largest harbours).

Climate

See main article: Climate of the United Kingdom

England has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round, though the seasons are quite variable in temperature. However, temperatures rarely fall below -5°C (23°F) or rise above 30°C (86°F). The prevailing wind is from the southwest, bringing mild and wet weather to England regularly, from the Atlantic Ocean. It is driest in the east and warmest in the southeast, which is closest to the European continent. Snowfall can occur in Winter and early Spring, though it is not that common away from high ground.

The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 at Brogdale, near Faversham, in Kent. [2]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Edgmond, near Newport, in Shropshire. [3]

Major rivers

View of the River Thames from the terrace at Somerset House, by Antonio Canaletto.

Severn (The longest river in Great Britain)
Thames
Trent
Humber
Ouse
Tyne
Mersey
Dee
Avon

Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom

Major conurbations

The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census)

Greater London (8,278,251)
West Midlands (2,284,093)
Greater Manchester (2,244,931)
Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465)
Tyne and Wear (Newcastle/Sunderland) (1,085,700 (2004 estimate))
Liverpool (816,216)
Nottingham (666,358)
Sheffield (640,720)
Bristol (551,066)
Brighton (461,181)
Portsmouth (442,252)
Leicester (441,213)
Bournemouth/Poole (383,713)
Reading (369,804)
Teesside (365,323)

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of England, Population of England

England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with 50 million inhabitants [4], or 83.7% of the UK's total. The 2001 census records roughly around 9% of England's inhabitants as being non-white in origin [5].

The country's population is 'ageing', with a declining percentage of under 16s and a rising one of over 65s. Population continues to rise and in every year since 1901, with the exception of 1976, there have been more births than deaths [6]. It is also one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands.

There is a debate over the extent to which the population of England (and indeed that of Britain as a whole) is composed of long-standing indigenous stock or descended from various groups of settlers and immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The Cheddar Man has been cited as demonstrating that a substantial proportion of the present day population may be descended from groups that populated the island in prehistory (The Times, 8 March 1997). The often given view of English ethnicity is that it is a mixed one with large influences from various waves of Celts, Norse, Roman and Normandic invasions.

The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This segment of English homogeneous society continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely used internationally.

English identity

The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. It has, however, been a notoriously complicated and controversial identity to delimit [7]. This is partially because inhabitants of England quite commonly refer to themselves as "British" rather than "English"; centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is often assumed English unless specified otherwise). 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 general lack of patriotism in England - St George's Day, the country's national holiday, is barely celebrated [8] - and there is an apathy to the nation outside of the sporting arena. Although a part of England, a small, but noticeable, minority of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves ethnically Cornish first.

English national identity is often taken to have been appropriated by far right organizations such as the British National Party and the English Democrats Party [9]. This radicalizing 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".

This means that English identity is - for better or worse - often closely associated with English nationalism and often with British 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 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-radicalize 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'.

Cultural artefacts that are often seen as 'English' (as opposed to British) are [10]:

English identity is also affected by the divisions in lifestyle between its north and south (see North-South divide in the United Kingdom).

Culture

The culture of England is sometimes difficult to separate clearly from the culture of the United Kingdom, so influential has English culture been on the cultures of the British Isles and, on the other hand, given the extent to which other cultures have influenced life in England. It has also been spread over large parts of the globe due to the British Empire.

England has produced many famous authors including William Shakespeare, arguably the most famous in the history of the English language. This tradition has continued with the likes of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf, who are all often considered among the greatest writers of their time^{[citation needed]}. Among these, stand the likes of many great English poets such as Lord Byron, John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and many others. Also, Britain remained a central figure of literacy excellence throughout the past few centuries, notably Romanticism and Modernists.

Composers from England did not achieve the same recognition in comparison to their literary counterparts and were often overshadowed by European composers. However, in popular music English bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who have achieved success only rivaled by U.S. music. England is also credited for being the birth place of many pop culture movements, notably punk and acid house.

Languages

Beowulf is one of the oldest surviving epic poems in what is identifiable as a form of the English language.

As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). (However, the English language does vary slightly in different places.) An Indo-European language in the Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived.

Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies. (Some survive to this day.) But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words.

The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales).

The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced a draft strategy to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border.

Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 250,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language [11], but does not give statistics specific to England. Unlike Cornish, BSL is an official language of the UK although most British government departments and hospitals still do not cater to deaf people. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters.

Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, with Bengali, Punjabi, Greek, Turkish and Cantonese being the most common languages that people living in Britain consider their first language. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in big cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances.

Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany.

Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are a large number of distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country. Use of foreign non-standard varieties of English (such as Caribbean English) is also widespread.

Nomenclature

The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country.

The majority of European languages use names similar to "England":

"England" (Danish, German, Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian)
"Engeland" (Dutch)
"Inglismaa" (Estonian)
"Angleterre" (French)
"Anglio", "Anglujo" (Esperanto)
"Англия" (Angliya) (Russian, Bulgarian)
"Anglia" (Poland)
"Anglaterra" (Catalan)
"İngiltere" (Turkish)
"Inghilterra" (Italian)
"Ingilterra" (Maltese, Egyptian)
"Англија" (Macedonian)
"Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
"Anglia" (Latin, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Albanian)
"Anglija" (Slovene, Lithuanian, Ukrainian)
"Engleska" (Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Serbo-Croatian)
"Αγγλία" ("Anglía") (Greek)
"Englanti" (Finnish)

The Celtic names are quite different:

"Bro-Saoz" (Breton)
"Pow Sows" (Cornish)
"Sasana" (Irish)
"Sasainn" (Scottish Gaelic)
"Lloegr" (Welsh) — but "Saeson" for the inhabitants.
"Sostyn" (Manx)

Except for Lloegr, which is an ancient geographic term, these names are all derived from the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes which arrived at about the same time as the Angles.

The names in Asian languages:

"ﻥﺎﺘﺴﻠﮝﻨﺍ"("Inglistan" "Appears backwards. Should be right to left.") (Farsi)
"Inggris" (Indonesian) (Also means "English" or "Britain")

See: Wiktionary:England for a further list of non-English names for England.

"England" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the entire United Kingdom, the island of Great Britain, or the British Isles. This will offend people from other parts of the UK. Frequently the English use the less-specific "Britain" or "the UK", even when "England" is technically correct and commonly also use "England" when "Britain" would be correct.

Alternative names include:

the slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign"
"Albion", an ancient name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century. Supposedly referring to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover, this term has also been interpreted as a relative of Alba, today the Scots Gaelic name for Scotland. Whatever its origins, "Albion" originally referred to the whole island of Great Britain and is still sometimes seen that way today — but is more often used for England.
More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle...this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations respectively from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time).

The inhabitants of England are the English. The slang terms sometimes used for them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.

Symbols and insignia

File:England crest.png

The logo of the England national football team combines the Three Lions with the Tudor rose.

The two traditional symbols of England are the St. George's cross (the English flag) and the Three Lions coat of arms (see above), both derived from the great Norman powers that formed the monarchy – the Cross of Aquitaine and the Lions of Anjou. The three lions were first definitely used by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) in the late 12th century (although it is also possible that Henry I may have bestowed it on his son Henry before then). Historian Simon Schama has argued that the Three Lions are the true symbol of England because the English throne descended down the Angevin line.

A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became associated with St George and England, along with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Jack (more properly known as the Union Flag, except when used at sea) which English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606, was adopted for all purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of England no longer has much of an official role, but it is widely flown by Church of England properties and at sporting events. (Paradoxically, the latter is a fairly recent development; until the late 20th century, it was commonplace for fans of English teams to wave the Union Flag, rather than the St George's Cross).

The rose is widely recognised as the national flower of England and is used in a variety of contexts. Predominantly, this is a red rose (which also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of the English Rugby Union team. However, a white rose (which also symbolises Yorkshire) or a "Tudor rose" (symbolising the end of the War of the Roses) may also be used on different occasions.

The Three Lions badge performs a similar role for the English national football team and English national cricket team.

National anthems

Although England does not have an official anthem of its own, the following are widely regarded as English national hymns:

"Jerusalem:" Words by William Blake, Music by Hubert Parry
"I Vow to Thee, My Country": Words by Cecil Spring-Rice, Music by Gustav Holst
"Land of Hope and Glory": Words by A C Benson, Music by Edward Elgar (although this refers to all of Great Britain, not only England)
"Nimrod": Music by Edward Elgar

To a lesser extent, Heart of Oak, the unofficial Royal Navy anthem has also been proposed. Music by Dr. William Boyce (1711-1779). English words by the famous actor David Garrick (1716-1779) in 1759.

"God Save The Queen" (the national anthem for the UK as a whole) is usually played for English sporting events (e.g. football matches), although "Land of Hope and Glory" has also been used as the English anthem for the Commonwealth Games. "Rule Britannia" despite being a song about Britain as a whole was often used for the English national football team when they play against another of the home nations but more recently "God Save The Queen" has been used by both the rugby and football teams.