English national identity was established during the Early Middle Ages, as the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were forged into a new nation state

Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...

. However, from the Union

Treaty of Union

The Treaty of Union is the name given to the agreement that led to the creation of the united kingdom of Great Britain, the political union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which took effect on 1 May 1707...

 in the eighteenth century the terms 'English' and 'British' began to be seen as interchangeable, and today some argue that Englishness and Britishness

Britishness

Britishness is the state or quality of being British, or of embodying British characteristics, and is used to refer to that which binds and distinguishes the British people and forms the basis of their unity and identity, or else to explain expressions of British culture—such as habits, behaviours...

 are synonymous.

Englishness and Britishness

As Macphee and Poddar argue in their book Empire and After, that even though for many outside the borders of the British isles Englishness and Britishness may seem like two synonymous expressions, the two are not identical and their relation to each other is for the most part is highly complex. Englishness is often a response to different national identities within Britain such as Scottishness, Irishness, Welshness. However this does not necessarily entail that it is appropriate to call the people living in England as English. For many, Englishness connotes e.g. “whiteness” and people other than white descendants (especially citizens from former British colonies) may feel that the more open term Britishness is to be preferred. It could therefore be said that Englishness is a response to the internal local pressure from other countries in Britain while Britishness developed as a reaction towards the global community. Though the designation of the two terms is not as simple since they are invariably conflated, they are both tied into the identity of the British nation and empire, since these last two are altering considerably as Englishness and Britishness do too. Thus the slippage between the two words can be seen as a play between these changing dynamics.

See also

• Culture of England
  Culture of England
  The culture of England refers to the idiosyncratic cultural norms of England and the English people. Because of England's dominant position within the United Kingdom in terms of population, English culture is often difficult to differentiate from the culture of the United Kingdom as a whole...
  
  
• English nationalism
  English nationalism
  English nationalism refers to a nationalist outlook or political stance applied to England. In a general sense, it comprises political and social movements and sentiment inspired by a love for English culture, language and history, and a sense of pride in England and the English people...
  
  
• Social history of England
• National identity
  National identity
  National identity is the person's identity and sense of belonging to one state or to one nation, a feeling one shares with a group of people, regardless of one's citizenship status....
  
  
• Scottish national identity
  Scottish national identity
  Scottish national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity and common culture of Scottish people and is shared by a considerable majority of the people of Scotland....