Englishness identified

"In the seventeenth century the English were often depicted as a nation of barbarians, fanatics, and king-killers. Two hundred years later they were more likely to be seen as the triumphant possessors of a unique political stability, a vigorous industrial revolution, and a world-wide empire. These may have been British achievements, but the virtues which brought about this transformation tended to be perceived as being specifically English. Ideas of what constituted Englishness changed from a stock notion of waywardness and unpredictability to one of discipline and dedication. The evolution…