English

The English are an ethnic group native to England. The English identity is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Angelcynn ('race of the Angles').

The English largely descend from two main historical population groups – the people who settled in southern Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans (including Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians), and the partially Romanised Britons already living there. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become the Kingdom of England by the early 10th century, in response to the invasion by the Danes that began in the late 9th century. This was followed by the Norman Conquest and limited settlement of Anglo-Normans in England in the later 11th century.

In modern usage, English usually refers to anyone born or raised in England, regardless of ethnic origin.

Parent ethnicities