¹ The complete works of John Lyly, ed. R. W. Bond, Oxford 1902, ii. 205; The writings and speeches of Oliver Cromwell, ed. W. C. Abbott, M. R. Gleason and C. D. Crane, Cambridge, Ma 1937–47, iv. 389; Complete prose works of John Milton, ed. D. M. Wolfe and others, New Haven, Ct 1953–82, ii. 552.

² A clear statement to this effect is to be found in Kohn, H., ‘The genesis and character of English nationalism’, Journal of the History of Ideas i (1940), 69–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³ Wormald, P., ‘The Venerable Bede and the “Church of the English”’, in Rowell, G. (ed.), The English religious tradition and the genius of Anglicanism, Oxford 1992, 13–32Google Scholar, esp. pp. 23–8, and ‘Engla lond: the making of an allegiance’, Journal of Historical Sociology vii (1994), 1–24, esp. pp. 14–18.

⁴ Howe, N., Migration and mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England, New Haven, Ct 1989Google Scholar.

⁵ Thacker, A., ‘Monks, preaching and pastoral care in early Anglo-Saxon England’, in Blair, J. and , R.Sharpe, (eds), Pastoral care before the parish, Leicester 1992, 137–70Google Scholar at p. 169; Foot, S., ‘The making of Angelcynn: English identity before the Norman Conquest’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6th ser. vi (1996), 25–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar at p. 32; O'Brien, B., ‘Authority and community’, in Crick, J. and van Houts, E. (eds), A social history of England, 900–1200, Cambridge 2011, 76–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar at p. 82. Examples could be multiplied.

⁶ Hastings, A., The construction of nationhood: ethnicity, religion and nationalism, Cambridge 1997, 35–43Google Scholar, 51, 59; Clark, J. C. D., ‘Protestantism, nationalism, and national identity, 1660–1832’, HJ xliii (2000), 249–76Google Scholar at pp. 266–7; Smith, A. D., Chosen peoples: sacred sources of national identity, Oxford 2003, 115–18Google Scholar, 144–5.

⁷ Williams, R., ‘Chosen people’, Times Literary Supplement, 6 July 2012, 13–15Google Scholar.

⁸ D. MacCulloch, ‘How God made the English: a chosen people?’, BBC2, 17 Mar. 2012.

⁹ 1 Peter ii.9–10; cf. Exodus xix.6. Quotations are from the Vulgate.

¹⁰ Galatians iii.29.

¹¹ Bedae Venerabilis homeliarvm evangelii libri II, ed. D. Hurst, CCSL cxxii, 1955, 124.

¹² Ælfric's catholic homilies: the second series: text, ed. M. Godden (EETS s.s. v, 1979), 301.

¹³ Bedae Venerabilis opera, pars II: opera exegetica 2A, ed. D. Hurst, CCSL cxixA, 1969, 262; Ælfric's catholic homilies: the first series: text, ed. P. Clemoes (EETS s.s. xvii, 1997), 192. For further references see L. Grundy, Books and grace: Ælfric's theology, London 1991, 150–75, and Molyneaux, G., ‘The Old English Bede: English ideology or Christian instruction?’, EHR cxxiv (2009), 1289–323Google Scholar at pp. 1318–19 and n. 162.

¹⁴ Akenson, D. H., God's peoples: covenant and land in South Africa, Israel, and Ulster, Ithaca, NY 1992Google Scholar; Hutchison, W. R. and Lehmann, H. (eds), Many are chosen: divine election and western nationalism, Minneapolis, Mn 1994Google Scholar; Garrison, M., ‘The Franks as the new Israel? Education for an identity from Pippin to Charlemagne’, in Hen, Y. and Innes, M. (eds), The uses of the past in the early Middle Ages, Cambridge 2000, 114–61Google Scholar, and ‘Divine election for nations: a difficult rhetoric for medieval scholars?’, in Mortensen, L. B. (ed.), The making of Christian myths in the periphery of Latin Christendom (c.1000–1300), Copenhagen 2006, 275–314Google Scholar. Wormald's theory that the English claimed to be God's elect may have been stimulated by his supervisor's contention that the Franks considered themselves ‘the New Israel’: Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., Early Germanic kingship in England and on the continent, Oxford 1971, 98–100Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Howe, Migration, 72–107.

¹⁶ Ibid. 8–71; Wormald, ‘Venerable Bede’, 24–5, and ‘Engla lond’, 14, 16. See also Howlett, D., ‘Early Insular Latin poetry’, Peritia xvii–xviii (2003–4), 61–109CrossRefGoogle Scholar at pp. 84–6.

¹⁷ Gildas: the Ruin of Britain and other works, ed. M. Winterbottom, Chichester 1978. T. M. Charles-Edwards tentatively dates the text to 530×45: Wales and the Britons, 350–1064, Oxford 2013, 202–19. On the process by which Angli, rather than Saxones, became the standard collective term for the Germanic inhabitants of Britain see Wormald, P., ‘Bede, the bretwaldas and the origins of the gens Anglorum’, in Wormald, P., Bullough, D. and Collins, R. (eds), Ideal and reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon society: studies presented to J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, Oxford 1983, 99–129Google Scholar, esp. pp. 120–9; Richter, M., ‘Bede's Angli: Angles or English?’, Peritia iii (1984), 99–114Google Scholar; Wormald, ‘Venerable Bede’, 18–23; and Foot, ‘Making of Angelcynn’, esp. pp. 38–45.

¹⁸ Gildas: the Ruin of Britain, passim. The reference to mons Badonicus (an unidentified location) is at pp. 98–9.

¹⁹ Ibid. 88.

²⁰ Ibid. 98.

²¹ Howlett, D., Cambro-Latin compositions: their competence and craftsmanship, Dublin 1998, 49–54Google Scholar; Lapidge, M., The Anglo-Saxon library, Oxford 2006, 176Google Scholar, 181, 208–9, 304. There appears to have been a significant decline in scholarship during the ninth century: Lapidge, M., Anglo-Latin literature, 600–899, London 1996, 409–54Google Scholar.

²² Gneuss, H., Handlist of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts: a list of manuscripts and manuscript fragments written or owned in England up to 1100, Tempe, Az 2001Google Scholar, no. 396; Mann, G., ‘The development of Wulfstan's Alcuin manuscript’, in Townend, M. (ed.), Wulfstan, archbishop of York, Turnhout 2004, 235–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. pp. 245–6. It is possible, but far from certain, that the Ruin of Britain was known to Asser (d. 909), a Welshman who entered King Alfred's service. Even if Asser was acquainted with the text, he could have encountered it in Wales (where it was known in the ninth century) rather than England: Howlett, Cambro-Latin compositions, 69–73, and Charles-Edwards, Wales, 464–5.

²³ EH. On the text's dissemination see D. Whitelock, After Bede, Jarrow 1960, and Davis, R. H. C., ‘Bede after Bede’, in Harper–Bill, C., Holdsworth, C. J. and Nelson, J. L. (eds), Studies in medieval history presented to R. Allen Brown, Woodbridge 1989, 103–16Google Scholar.

²⁴ Howe, Migration, 49–71; Wormald, ‘Venerable Bede’, 23–7, and ‘Engla lond’, 14; Molyneaux, ‘Old English Bede’, esp. pp. 1299–302.

²⁵ EH, 14–16. Patrick Wormald explicitly called Bede's Britain a ‘Promised Land’: ‘BL, Cotton ms. Otho B. xi: a supplementary note’, in Hill, D. and Rumble, A. R. (eds), The defence of Wessex: the Burghal Hidage and Anglo-Saxon fortifications, Manchester 1996, 59–68Google Scholar at p. 62.

²⁶ EH, 48, 52, 68, 134–42, 204, 300, 316, 514, 554, 560.

²⁷ Ibid. 68. Bede also quoted a papal letter that mentions God wanting the English to be chosen (‘eligi uoluit’), but this could simply mean ‘chosen to be Christians’: ibid. 108.

²⁸ Romans xi.2. W. T. Foley and N. J. Higham suggest that plebs sua refers to the Britons rather than the English: ‘Bede on the Britons’, Early Medieval Europe xvii (2009), 154–85 at pp. 169–71. I am unconvinced, but this interpretation would only reinforce my argument.

²⁹ EH, 294–308, 474–86, 504–6, 532–54.

³⁰ Venerabilis Baedae opera historica, ed. C. Plummer, Oxford 1896, i. 405–23.

³¹ On Bede's didactic aims see Campbell, J., Essays in Anglo-Saxon history, London 1986, 10–27Google Scholar.

³² Ibid. 38.

³³ Ibid. 10–27; Molyneaux, ‘Old English Bede’, 1301. Bede came closest to a comparison between the English and the Israelites when he likened the Northumbrian king Æthelfrith to Saul, ‘sometime king of the Israelite people’, but the analogy is of individuals, not peoples. The comparison focuses specifically on the two men's military successes, and Bede notes that, unlike Saul, Æthelfrith was ignorant of divine religion: EH, 116.

³⁴ EH, 18–20. Contrast Wormald, ‘Engla lond’, 14, where Bede's Britain is characterised as ‘effectively another land of Milk and Honey’.

³⁵ This paragraph draws on Tugène, G., ‘L'Histoire “ecclésiastique” du peuple anglais: réflexions sur le particularisme et l'universalisme chez Bède’, Recherches augustiniennes xvii (1982), 129–72Google Scholar; Merrills, A. H., History and geography in late antiquity, Cambridge 2005, 229–309Google Scholar, esp. pp. 235–9, 249–82; and O'Reilly, J., ‘Islands and idols at the ends of the earth: exegesis and conversion in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica’, in Lebecq, S., Perrin, M. and Szerwiniack, O. (eds), Bède le Vénérable entre tradition et postérité, Lille 2005, 119–45Google Scholar.

³⁶ Bedae Venerabilis opera, pars II: opera exegetica 2A, 217–18. For further references see Merrills, History and geography, 238 and n. 33.

³⁷ EH, 14–16, 158–60, 318–20. The remoteness of Britain and Ireland is also emphasised at EH, 198, 300, 306, 506.

³⁸ The Old English version of Bede's Ecclesiastical history of the English people, ed. T. Miller (EETS xcv–xcvi, cx–cxi, 1890–8). For this, and what follows, see Molyneaux, ‘Old English Bede’.

³⁹ Howe, Migration, 20–8; Wormald, ‘Venerable Bede’, 25, and ‘Engla lond’, 16.

⁴⁰ Epistolae Karolini aevi tomvs ii, ed. E. Dümmler, Berlin 1895, no. 17; Matthew v.13–15; 1 Pet. ii.9–10; Deuteronomy xxvi.15; Joel ii.17; James v.16; 1 Pet. iii.8 (with reference to prayer inserted); 1 Timothy ii.1–2. Epistolae, no. 129 has a comparable invocation of Gildas, but with less biblical citation. Alcuin complained in this letter of divisions among the English; his point appears to have been that they should live in amity, not that they needed a single ruler. Howe also cited Epistolae, nos 16, 122, in which Alcuin similarly expressed concern that the sinful English might lose their land.

⁴¹ Garrison, Contrast M., ‘The Bible and Alcuin's interpretation of current events’, Peritia xvi (2002), 68–84Google Scholar at pp. 74–6.

⁴² Alcuin: the bishops, kings, and saints of York, ed. P. Godman, Oxford 1982, lines 71–8.

⁴³ Howe, Migration, 26.

⁴⁴ For a few examples of Alcuin calling Charlemagne David see Epistolae, nos 118, 136, 229, 261. Beata gens: Epistolae, no. 229; Psalm xxxii.12; Garrison, ‘Franks’, 159–61; ‘Bible’, 82–3; and ‘Divine election’, 300–6. It is not necessary to conclude that Alcuin considered either the English or the Franks to be special successors to Israel, but one could postulate (and Garrison comes close to suggesting) that he initially thought this of the English, and then came to believe that the Franks had taken their place. If so, this would imply that his putative belief in privileged English status was far from firm.

⁴⁵ See in particular Poetry of the Carolingian renaissance, ed. P. Godman, London 1985, no. 10, esp. lines 85–6, 191–240, with Garrison, ‘Bible’, and Bullough, D. A., Alcuin: achievement and reputation, Leiden 2004, 410–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In arguing for a fundamental change in Alcuin's thinking in 796, Garrison arguably gives a strained reading of Epistolae, no. 16.

⁴⁶ On knowledge of the poem see Alcuin: the bishops, kings, and saints of York, pp. xliv–xlv, xci–xciii, cxiii–cxxix, and Lapidge, M., ‘Aediluulf and the school of York’, in Lehner, A. and Berschin, W. (eds), Lateinische Kultur im VIII. Jahrhundert: Traube-Gedenkschrift, St Ottilien 1989, 161–78Google Scholar. On the transmission and use of Alcuin's letters see Bullough, Alcuin, 43–102, and Mann, ‘Development’.

⁴⁷ Howe, Migration, 8–32; Wormald, ‘Venerable Bede’, 25; ‘Engla lond’, 16–17; and The making of English law: King Alfred to the twelfth century, I: Legislation and its limits, Oxford 1999, 462–3.

⁴⁸ The homilies of Wulfstan, ed. D. Bethurum, Oxford 1957, XX (E I), lines 176–89.

⁴⁹ On the intellectual background to the quoted passage see Cross, J. E. and Brown, A., ‘Literary impetus for Wulfstan's Sermo lupi’, Leeds Studies in English n.s. xx (1989), 271–91Google Scholar. For instances where Wulfstan drew on the Israelites' example see Godden, M., ‘Apocalypse and invasion in late Anglo–Saxon England’, in Godden, M., Gray, D. and Hoad, T. (eds), From Anglo-Saxon to early Middle English: studies presented to E. G. Stanley, Oxford 1994, 130–62Google Scholar at pp. 154–5.

⁵⁰ Godden, ‘Apocalypse’, 142–56. J. T. Lionarons emphasises that Wulfstan's thought did not progress neatly from one paradigm to the other: The homiletic writings of Archbishop Wulfstan, Woodbridge 2010, 43–74, 147–63. The inconsistency may not have troubled him, since the same behavioural improvements were needed, whether to avert temporal punishment or to prepare for the last judgement. The idea that Scandinavian attacks were a scourge that might be overcome through moral reform is expressed in legislation that Wulfstan drafted for Æthelred, especially V Atr 26; VI Atr 30, 40.1; VII Atr 7.1; VIIa Atr prol, 8. Legal texts are cited from Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, ed. F. Liebermann, Halle 1903–16, using the system of reference detailed at vol. i, p. xi. Wulfstan's contemporary Ælfric variously characterised the Scandinavian onslaught as a punishment, a portent of the apocalypse, and a diabolic test of faith: Godden, ‘Apocalypse’, 132–42.

⁵¹ Godden, ‘Apocalypse’, 143–6; Keynes, S., ‘An abbot, an archbishop, and the Viking raids of 1006–7 and 1009–12’, Anglo–Saxon England xxxvi (2007), 151–220CrossRefGoogle Scholar at pp. 203–13; Lionarons, Homiletic writings, 147–63.

⁵² King Alfred's West-Saxon version of Gregory's Pastoral care, ed. H. Sweet (EETS xlv, l, 1871–2), 2–9. The reference to ‘happy times’ evokes Bede's description of Theodore's archiepiscopate (668–90): EH, 334. On the authorship of the Old English Pastoral care and other texts traditionally ascribed to Alfred see Godden, M., ‘Did King Alfred write anything?’, Medium Ævum lxxvi (2007), 1–23Google Scholar.

⁵³ Wormald, ‘Venerable Bede’, 25, and ‘Engla lond’, 15.

⁵⁴ Alfred and Solomon are explicitly compared in Asser's Life of King Alfred together with the Annals of Saint Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser, ed. W. H. Stevenson, Oxford 1904, 60–1. See also Nelson, J. L., ‘Wealth and wisdom: the politics of Alfred the Great’, in Rosenthal, J. T. (ed.), Kings and kingship, Binghampton, NY 1986, 31–52Google Scholar, and Pratt, D., The political thought of King Alfred the Great, Cambridge 2007, 151–66Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ King Alfred's West-Saxon version of Gregory's Pastoral care, 4–7.

⁵⁶ Af El pro.–48; Wormald, ‘Venerable Bede’, 25; ‘Engla lond’, 15; and Making, 416–29, esp. pp. 426–7. On the text's adaptation of Mosaic Law see Treschow, M., ‘The prologue to Alfred's law code: instruction in the spirit of mercy’, Florilegium xiii (1994), 79–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar at pp. 90–102. Treschow does not subscribe to the ‘Chosen People’ interpretation.

⁵⁷ Af El 49–49.6; Matthew v.17, and Acts xv.23–9.

⁵⁸ Af El 49.7–49.8.

⁵⁹ Af El 49.9–49.10.

⁶⁰ Ó Corráin, D., Breatnach, L. and Breen, A., ‘The laws of the Irish’, Peritia iii (1984), 382–438Google Scholar, esp. pp. 394–417.

⁶¹ Asser's Life of King Alfred, 60, 89; The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: a collaborative edition, III: MS A, ed. J. M. Bately, Cambridge 1986, s.a. 891; Wormald, Making, 419, 421; Pratt, Political thought, 230, and also pp. 248–50.

⁶² Wormald, Making, 423–6. What follows is stimulated by Pratt, Political thought, 223–8.

⁶³ Councils and synods with other documents relating to the English Church, I: A. D. 871–1204, ed. D. Whitelock, M. Brett and C. N. L. Brooke, Oxford 1981, no. 4.

⁶⁴ Wormald, ‘Bede, the bretwaldas and the origins of the gens Anglorum’; Howe, Migration. A third foundation, perhaps the most important, was a common language: Charles-Edwards, T. M., ‘The making of nations in Britain and Ireland in the early Middle Ages’, in Evans, R. (ed.), Lordship and learning: studies in memory of Trevor Aston, Woodbridge 2004, 11–37Google Scholar at pp. 12–24.

⁶⁵ Even in the sixteenth century the idea was less widely articulated than has sometimes been claimed: Bauckham, R., Tudor apocalypse, Appleford 1978, 12–13Google Scholar, 71–3, 86–7, 235; Firth, K. R., The apocalyptic tradition in Reformation Britain, 1540–1645, Oxford 1979, 106–10Google Scholar, 252.

⁶⁶ Lapidge, M., The cult of St Swithun, Oxford 2003, 258Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Such thinking is implied by Howe's assertion that ‘fine writers rarely announce the central myth of their culture’: Migration, p. ix.