Understanding the concept of the English people in Bede’s work “Ecclesiastical history of the English people”

Abstract

The aim of the article is the explanation of the historical course that led to the fact that the ethnically diverse population of Britain had a common denominator. More precisely, the paper deals with the process of the emergence of this unity in the work ?Ecclestiastical History of the English People? authored by the medieval monk and erudite Bede Venerabilis. This, very important work, attracted the attention of the author of the article by the use of the coin ?English People? or ?gens Anglorum? which was used to name the entire Germanic population of Britain in the first decades of the 8th century. Hence, numerous questions arose, such as those concerning the criteria for making this unity as well as and the essential determination of that unity and the choice of the name Angles.