this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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Britain is the land mass that includes England, Wales, and Scotland.
William the Conquerer was the first Norman king of England and never had power over Wales and he was mostly successful in gaining homage from King Malcolm III, but never king over the lands.
Edward I about two hundred years later almost pulls it off, but doesn't quite get a firm grip on Scotland. James I in the early 17th century holds the crown for each of the lands. In 1707 they formalize the relationship with a treaty.
So... No the French did not found Britain.
The Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes were all tribes from what we'd call Germany. The Romans paved the first roads of London, and taught the Pagans about Jesus. And Rome was cosmopolitan, so it was a lot more than Italians in that army. England has also suffered under Danish/Scandinavian conquests small and large. The King Cnut was not a misspelling. His nephew, William is a Scandinavian settled in France.
So... as far as "blood and soil" goes, Britain, and her people, were always more of a group project.
Also Normans were descendants of viking settlers. So French didn't technically fund England either (yes, I'm being pedantic for the sake of the joke).
You could, however, accurately say that a French family founded the modern British monarchy. That much is still true. The UK royal family can still trace its lineage directly to William the Conqueror.
The Normans were Vikings - the then Frankish King, Charles, gave them land in north France if they agreed to shut the fuck up and stop murdering everyone in sight. They become known as 'Northmen' which contracted to 'Norsemen' which contracted to 'Norman'.
It's not just the royal family, other descendants of the french conquerors are also on average wealthier than the descendants of those that had been conquered.
One pretty striking statistic: "Furthermore, Norman descendants also enjoy other privileges, including attendance at the best universities. In a recent study that examined the enrollment at Cambridge and Oxford over the last thousand years, it was revealed that at certain times, Norman names were 800% more common at Oxford than in the general population, and more recently, were at least twice as likely to found in that institution’s enrollment."
https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/10/last-1000-years-families-owned-england/