0:00:02 > 0:00:05'There are four fighters up there and I don't know what...'
0:00:05 > 0:00:08On a summer's morning in 1940,
0:00:08 > 0:00:13hundreds of fighter planes took off from runways all over England.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23A decade before I was born, this country faced annihilation.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26In World War II, my mother and father were both army officers
0:00:26 > 0:00:30and all through my childhood they looked back
0:00:30 > 0:00:32to that most frightening summer.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37'Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation.'
0:00:37 > 0:00:41It was of course soon known as the Battle of Britain.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44But even though that was its name,
0:00:44 > 0:00:49it wasn't actually fought over the whole of the British Isles.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54It was the skies over England, Sussex, Kent, East Anglia,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57that saw most of the action.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00And the Battle of Britain wasn't just a one off.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03It fitted into a glorious series of victories,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Crecy, Agincourt, the Spanish Armada, Trafalgar.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11But most of those victories were not British but English.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14'And there's a spitfire just behind the first two.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16'He'll get them. Oh, yes.'
0:01:16 > 0:01:18GUNFIRE
0:01:18 > 0:01:20The odds of survival were low
0:01:20 > 0:01:26but those fighters had a confidence that the English have always had.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28And still do.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33It's given this corner of an island a belief in its own importance,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37way beyond its geographical size.
0:01:37 > 0:01:38But why?
0:01:38 > 0:01:42The answer lies somewhere you might not expect.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46The reason the English have always felt supremely self confident,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49is because for over a thousand years they've believed
0:01:49 > 0:01:52that they possessed the greatest asset you could hope for,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56God.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03Nowadays, such an idea might seem preposterous.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08But I hope to show you that is the evidence from history.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13In this series I'll be exploring English identity.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17To try and find out what it is and how it's changed through time.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20You can't imagine this happening in England, can you?
0:02:20 > 0:02:22I'll be challenging some stereotypes,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26that to be English is to be tolerant, or to be white,
0:02:26 > 0:02:28Anglo-Saxon.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31And I'll reveal that national identity
0:02:31 > 0:02:33has never been just one thing.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35It's evolved,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38not always in ways to be proud of.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42But there's been one constant,
0:02:42 > 0:02:44religion.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48A force that's shaped the English soul.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55And I'm starting with the idea that to be English is to be special.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58To be better than others.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00To have God on your side.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04I'm going to trace the origins of the idea
0:03:04 > 0:03:08from the Dark Ages to the present day.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11To show how this conviction has fuelled
0:03:11 > 0:03:13a passion for justice and duty.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16But has also made the English feel entitled
0:03:16 > 0:03:19to tell the rest of the globe what to do.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23And give them the self confidence
0:03:23 > 0:03:26to create one of the largest Empires in the world.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30This is the story of the English.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34And how God made them.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00We all know the cliches of what the English are like.
0:04:02 > 0:04:08Reserved, but eccentric, with a commitment to duty and fair play.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11And there's one characteristic in particular
0:04:11 > 0:04:15that marks the English out from the rest of the United Kingdom.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18What makes the English different
0:04:18 > 0:04:20from the Welsh the Scots or the Irish?
0:04:20 > 0:04:23I think it's summed up in a comic song from my youth,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26which Flanders and Swann used to sing. The opening lines are,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29# The English, the English, the English, they are best
0:04:29 > 0:04:32# I don't give tuppence for all the rest. #
0:04:32 > 0:04:36That's it, you see, the English think they are best.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39Because of that,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43they view themselves not as mere spectators of history,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47but as a people called upon to play a role in shaping it.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54And nowhere is more symbolic of effortless English superiority
0:04:54 > 0:04:56than the Houses of Parliament.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Their official name is the Palace of Westminster,
0:05:04 > 0:05:10and that's because from the 11th century it was the home of Kings.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13And English Kings not British kings.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Ever since, it's been the heart of England.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21I'm making for the centre of this building
0:05:21 > 0:05:24where you can begin to find clues as to why
0:05:24 > 0:05:27the English have always believed they're better than anyone else.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33You could try explaining it in all sorts of ways,
0:05:35 > 0:05:40the food, the weather, the fact they live on an island.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44But I believe it's got everything to do with God.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47This place is full of symbols
0:05:47 > 0:05:50and the most important symbols are religious.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58What we've got here is an eight-pointed-star,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00which is originally a Jewish symbol.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04But on it is a Latin inscription from the Bible, from the Psalms.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09And it reads, "Unless the Lord build the house,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13"they labour but in vain that build it."
0:06:13 > 0:06:19Which is saying, government and legislation need God behind it.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21And that's a bit of a surprise in what you might think is
0:06:21 > 0:06:24the centre of a secular democracy.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26And once you start looking,
0:06:26 > 0:06:30it's not the only religious inscription.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32The building is crawling with them.
0:06:34 > 0:06:40This one says, "The heart of the Queen is in the hand of the Lord."
0:06:40 > 0:06:42In other words,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44everything the monarch does is inspired by God.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47And further behind the scenes
0:06:47 > 0:06:51is a very grand chamber used by the Lords for committees.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54It's got an intriguing name.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57It's called the Moses Room,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01and on the end wall you can see an enormous fresco
0:07:01 > 0:07:05of Moses giving the Hebrews the ten commandments.
0:07:08 > 0:07:09Yet more religion.
0:07:16 > 0:07:17And what's fascinating, is that
0:07:17 > 0:07:20in their original context, the Jewish Bible,
0:07:20 > 0:07:24these images had nothing to do with the English at all.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30So much of this symbolism is about Israel.
0:07:30 > 0:07:35The land the Jews believed God had given to them.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38They were his people, chosen by him
0:07:38 > 0:07:41and the land was the symbol of their favoured status.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45So why are Jewish symbols
0:07:45 > 0:07:48and quotations from their holy scripture
0:07:48 > 0:07:50all over the palace of English kings?
0:07:53 > 0:07:57I think that this Biblical sense of being a people chosen by God,
0:07:57 > 0:08:02is the key to understanding why the English have always felt special.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07And to discover what it means to be a Chosen People,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10I'm going to witness an ancient Jewish ritual.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24I've been invited to attend a ceremony
0:08:24 > 0:08:27which is one of the most important moments in any Jewish boy's life.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30His initiation into the faith, his circumcision.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38The idea of being a chosen nation
0:08:38 > 0:08:41is one that begins with the Jewish people.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47The Holy Scriptures claim that God chose a man called Abraham
0:08:47 > 0:08:49to be the father of a great nation.
0:08:51 > 0:08:52The Jews.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57They made a covenant, an agreement,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59the Jews would be faithful to God
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and in return he would reward them with a land.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08The mark of this unique relationship, was circumcision.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18The Jews believe that in this ceremony,
0:09:18 > 0:09:20their identity as God's Chosen People
0:09:20 > 0:09:22is literally carved into the flesh.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28But claiming you're a nation picked out by God,
0:09:28 > 0:09:33might sound like you think you're better than everyone else.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35I wondered what the rabbi would say about that.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37Thank you for inviting us.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40One thing people might say about the idea of the Chosen People
0:09:40 > 0:09:44is that it's an arrogant idea. What's the comeback on that one?
0:09:44 > 0:09:47It wasn't so much that the Jewish people were chosen,
0:09:47 > 0:09:49to exclude anybody else.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51It's not based on race or genetics,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54because any person who would like to can join this mission.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58And the concept of being chosen is more one of a person's obligation,
0:09:58 > 0:09:59so to speak, for service.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03That seems to be the point, being a Chosen People involves duties,
0:10:03 > 0:10:04it involves service,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07it's not actually luxuriating in the idea of being a Chosen People.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10Exactly, it's completely and wholly about duties.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13As an example, in Judaism, there's an obligation to give to charity,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17it's not a luxury, you have to give ten percent of your earnings.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21The object is to represent the concepts
0:10:21 > 0:10:23that God hands down to the world.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25THEY SING
0:10:28 > 0:10:33I'm leaving this celebration with a big question.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36How on earth did this ancient Jewish belief
0:10:36 > 0:10:40of being singled out by God as a special people,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43come to be applied to the English?
0:10:45 > 0:10:51Well, there was one community who knew these ideas inside out,
0:10:51 > 0:10:52monks.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57And it was a monk who first applied this concept
0:10:57 > 0:11:01of a nation chosen by God, to the English.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Before the English as a people even existed!
0:11:19 > 0:11:24It's here in what was the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Northumbria
0:11:24 > 0:11:28that the idea of England as God's chosen nation really began.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34With the work of a monk who was the greatest historian of his age
0:11:34 > 0:11:37in all Europe, God's spin doctor.
0:11:39 > 0:11:40At the end of the 7th century,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43a 7-year-old boy was brought here by his parents.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45This was a monastery.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47And the boy they left here
0:11:47 > 0:11:49was devoted to a life of prayer and learning.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54His name was Bede and in the course of his life as a monk
0:11:54 > 0:11:56he wrote books that, more than anything else,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00shaped the soul of the English.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05The monastery's biggest treasure was its library.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Which, of course, housed the Bible
0:12:09 > 0:12:12and the stories of God's Chosen People, the Jews.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19Well, the library's long gone, but I'm standing where it once stood.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23And these paving stones mark out the lines of its walls.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27Now Bede hardly left the confines of this monastery for half a century
0:12:27 > 0:12:31but all the time he was making journeys of the mind,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33right across the known world,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37simply through the manuscripts in this room.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42What Bede wrote here did nothing less than invent the English.
0:12:52 > 0:12:57Bede's masterpiece was a brilliant and engaging book called
0:12:57 > 0:13:01The Ecclesiastical History Of The Gens Anglorum.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04That's Latin for The English people.
0:13:04 > 0:13:10It tells the story of how Roman Christianity arrived on these shores
0:13:10 > 0:13:13and how the conversion of the people to Catholicism
0:13:13 > 0:13:17changed English society.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22One of the earliest copies of it dates back to the 9th century,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25and I'm excited about getting my hands on it.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Thank you.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Well, historians like me, even if we read Bede in Latin,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37generally do it from a modern text
0:13:37 > 0:13:42but this book is only 100 years younger than Bede himself.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Now Bede's story starts in Rome where Pope Gregory I,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49on his own initiative, decided to send a mission
0:13:49 > 0:13:51to this northern island.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55He sent out a party of monks led by a monk called Augustine.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58And in 597 they arrived in the kingdom of Kent.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03From there, Roman Christianity spread through the land.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07This was this was the very first time
0:14:07 > 0:14:10that a Pope had ever sent a mission anywhere.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15And for Bede this sense of being singled out for special treatment,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19chosen, was hugely significant.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21He paints a picture of the English
0:14:21 > 0:14:25as a people who adored the memory of Pope Gregory,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28who were absolutely committed to this Roman Christianity.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31And united by it.
0:14:31 > 0:14:38For Bede, to be English is to be one people with one Christian God.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46But what's intriguing about this history,
0:14:46 > 0:14:48is that Bede was describing something
0:14:48 > 0:14:52which didn't actually exist.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56The story of the mission from Rome was true.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59But the people they came to convert were far from united.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06The Anglo-Saxon world wasn't a single nation, England,
0:15:06 > 0:15:11but a collection of Kingdoms, ruled by warlords.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15Repeatedly at each other's throats.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Until Bede wrote this history,
0:15:17 > 0:15:21there was no such thing as the English.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Even less, a people united by God.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29So why was this unity so important to Bede?
0:15:29 > 0:15:31A unity which didn't in fact exist.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35Well, the answer lies in another of book of Bede's
0:15:35 > 0:15:37and we have a copy here.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42It's quite a surprising subject for a medieval best seller.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45Because what it is, is a Biblical commentary.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49A detailed description of only four chapters of the Bible.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52But the chapters describe something very particular.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58The house of the Lord which King Solomon built in Jerusalem.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04In other words, the temple in Jerusalem,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07the centre of the identity of Israel.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11For the Jews, the place where God lived.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15And the description in the Bible is elaborate enough,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19but Bede just dwells on it, he can't leave it alone.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25He saw in the temple, meaning for his own land.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30It had been built after once-warring-tribes
0:16:30 > 0:16:32were united into one holy nation.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34Chosen by God.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39Israel.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43And from this unity followed wealth and God's protection.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Now all that resonated with Bede.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48And now he applied it to his own people, the Angli,
0:16:48 > 0:16:50the Gens Anglorum.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55The Pope had chosen them above all others.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59And if the warring tribes of the Angli could unite,
0:16:59 > 0:17:04under this Catholic Christianity, they could be a new Israel.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07That would make them a great people
0:17:07 > 0:17:11and they would be a beacon for all Europe in their Christianity.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15So Bede gave the Angli, the English,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19the idea that they would be a Chosen People.
0:17:23 > 0:17:28It was a vision rich with possibilities.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31But a vision is all it was.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36It just needed someone to take it out of the dusty library
0:17:36 > 0:17:38and make it real.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43And one of England's greatest medieval leaders did just that.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46Alfred the Great.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59150 years after Bede's death,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02the Anglo Saxons kingdoms found themselves under attack.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06From the Vikings.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12The people here have not forgotten the Vikings.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14Every year they gather at nightfall,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18in a festival to commemorate Viking invasion.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24The marauding Scandinavians were a fearsome enemy.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29And as they moved south, one Anglo Saxon King, Alfred,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33had to defend his kingdom, Wessex, against them.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36But he failed
0:18:36 > 0:18:39and was forced into hiding.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44Alfred believed he understood the reason for his defeat.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47He knew the writings of Bede,
0:18:47 > 0:18:50in fact, he'd had it translated from Latin into Anglo Saxon,
0:18:50 > 0:18:52the language of his people.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54And it was Bede that inspired him to find an answer
0:18:54 > 0:18:57to this terrifying threat.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11Alfred fled here.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13To the Somerset levels.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16They were a huge swamp then,
0:19:16 > 0:19:20and even now often the best way of getting around is by boat.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27Here Alfred brooded on his downfall.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31Bede had convinced him that this land was chosen by God.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33And under God's protection.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38So why then had the Vikings been so successful?
0:19:39 > 0:19:42For Alfred, the answer was in the Bible.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46Being a Chosen People had strings attached.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51The prophets said that the rich must look after the poor.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54That the oppressed must be relieved and if you didn't do this,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56God would do some serious smiting.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04Alfred decided that his people were at fault.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07They'd failed to show enough devotion to God and his church,
0:20:07 > 0:20:11so God had sent the Vikings as a punishment.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16Understanding that was the key to defeating the invaders.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22Alfred was convinced that there would be no victory without God.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24OK, you couldn't bribe the Almighty,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27but surely he would look with much more favour on his nation
0:20:27 > 0:20:31if it knew his laws and obeyed them.
0:20:32 > 0:20:39Alfred's solution was to draw up a law code based on the Old Testament.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51I've come to meet Anglo Saxon Historian Simon Keynes,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54who's going to show me one of the oldest copies of it,
0:20:54 > 0:20:55from the 10th century.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00It's the earliest surviving manuscript of the chronicle.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03He believes these laws weren't just everyday bits of administration,
0:21:03 > 0:21:06they trumpeted biblical symbolism.
0:21:06 > 0:21:12Here the law code starts with a list of chapter headings,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16which, as you can see, are organised in 120 chapters,
0:21:16 > 0:21:19which of course is a highly symbolic number,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22it's the age of which Moses died.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24So yes, we've got Moses the law giver,
0:21:24 > 0:21:26and now we've got Alfred the law giver?
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Yes. He sees himself as standing in this distinguished tradition
0:21:31 > 0:21:36and he sees his law code as very much an English manifestation
0:21:36 > 0:21:40of the kind of legislation that he would have seen in the Old Testament.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43And the Old Testament theme goes on?
0:21:43 > 0:21:47Yes, you turn the page, and it's no surprise to find
0:21:47 > 0:21:50that it in fact begins with the Ten Commandments.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52So you think Alfred really believed that,
0:21:52 > 0:21:57if people obeyed God's laws, that would avert God's anger?
0:21:57 > 0:22:02Yes. Alfred is trying to ensure that his people are seen to be doing
0:22:02 > 0:22:04what is pleasing in the sight of God.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08And the hoped for outcome would be that this would help them
0:22:08 > 0:22:12to earn God's support in their struggle against the Vikings.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Alfred's genius was to pick up Bede's big idea and run with it.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23He saw Bede's point.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26The Anglo Saxons were the Israelites of the Old Testament.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Draw the moral from their story. It fitted his kingdom.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33Keep God's laws and God will defend you against his enemies.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36In this cold northern island,
0:22:36 > 0:22:40a new Biblical identity was beginning to set firm.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45Alfred defeated the Vikings
0:22:45 > 0:22:50and he began to see himself, not just as a king of one petty region,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55amid a confusion of peoples, but as leading a whole chosen nation,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58bound by God's laws.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02And only a quarter of a century after Alfred's death,
0:23:02 > 0:23:08it fell to his grandson Athelstan finally to make Bede proud.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12He transformed Bede's vision of a united English people
0:23:12 > 0:23:16from fantasy into reality.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19Athelstan was crowned with a new title,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22King of England.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29So it was an idea which created England, a Biblical idea.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Call these the Dark Ages?
0:23:31 > 0:23:32Well, they were bright enough for the English
0:23:32 > 0:23:37to borrow an entire new identity from God's Chosen People, the Jews.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41And it was so successful, it lasted a thousand years.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48Up until the 16th century, what it meant to be English
0:23:48 > 0:23:52was defined by Catholic Christianity.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55This was a people singled out by God,
0:23:55 > 0:24:00and dedicated to the Pope.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05But English identity is always evolving
0:24:05 > 0:24:08and an English king was to break with Rome.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12A split which threatened to cut down Bede's vision
0:24:12 > 0:24:16of this nation as God's people in its prime.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30These walls are all that's left of one of the greatest
0:24:30 > 0:24:34medieval monasteries of Catholic England.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39It bears witness to a period of destruction
0:24:39 > 0:24:42which changed the soul of England.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48In September 1539, three royal commissioners rode into this Abbey
0:24:48 > 0:24:51on the orders of Henry VIII.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57Henry's men weren't interested in the holy reputation
0:24:57 > 0:24:58of this ancient monastery.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02What they were after was evidence against its Abbott, Richard Whiting.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06And despite the fact they couldn't find anything incriminating at all
0:25:06 > 0:25:08he was imprisoned and put on trial.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16The real reason they were after him was that he'd defied the King.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21The row had all started because the Pope had refused
0:25:21 > 0:25:24to declare Henry's first marriage null and void,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27to let him marry Anne Boleyn.
0:25:29 > 0:25:30In his fury,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34the King declared himself the Head of the Church in England.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40Those who dared oppose him, suffered terrible consequences.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49Up there on the hill, the Abbott and two of his monks were hanged,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52disembowelled, beheaded and quartered.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56The Abbot's head was put on a spike above his own gateway
0:25:56 > 0:26:01for all Glastonbury to see, and his quarters, were boiled in pitch,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05and displayed in Wells, Bath, Ilchester and Bridgwater.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The monastery buildings were torn down.
0:26:12 > 0:26:18In an act of absolute contempt for Papal authority, within four years,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23Henry had closed all 800 Catholic religious houses in the land.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27This was extraordinary.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31English identity had been invented by a monk, Bede.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35Now a King of England was destroying all the monasteries.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38The last people who'd destroyed monasteries were the Vikings
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and they were the enemies of God and you'd expect that.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43But a divinely anointed monarch
0:26:43 > 0:26:47supposed to safeguard God's Chosen People?
0:26:47 > 0:26:49In the time of King Alfred,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52just neglecting the Church had led to Viking invasion.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56When a monarch defied the Pope and closed all the monasteries
0:26:56 > 0:26:59surely divine vengeance was going to be much worse?
0:27:02 > 0:27:06But Henry and his advisors had very good reasons for believing
0:27:06 > 0:27:11that England's status as his chosen nation wasn't in jeopardy.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16They believed they could prove Christianity in England
0:27:16 > 0:27:19owed nothing to the Pope.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26But it involved a radical rewriting of history.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40This is one of Glastonbury's most famous landmarks.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42And the site of an ancient legend
0:27:42 > 0:27:45about a visitor from the Middle East.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51It was a story which gave Henry ammunition
0:27:51 > 0:27:53to justify his break with Rome.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57It's a bit battered don't you think? Someone's had a go at it.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00I went to talk it through with the author Clifford Longley.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Now this is a truly extraordinary tree which comes from Israel,
0:28:04 > 0:28:06according to the legend.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10It was planted here originally by Joseph of Arimathea
0:28:10 > 0:28:13who appears in the Bible as the man who lent his tomb to Jesus.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16He drove his staff into the ground and as a result,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19miraculously a thorn bush appeared,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22and its descendent is here in front of us.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26It's a link therefore demonstrating that Joseph of Arimathea
0:28:26 > 0:28:29planted the first Christian church in this country.
0:28:29 > 0:28:35I suppose what's attractive to Henry VIII in this story,
0:28:35 > 0:28:40is that here is a direct link from the heart of Christianity
0:28:40 > 0:28:44here to England without any visit to Rome in the process?
0:28:44 > 0:28:48Well, it provides him with a very interesting narrative
0:28:48 > 0:28:51about how he's right to get rid of the power of the Pope
0:28:51 > 0:28:53in this country.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Because what he is really saying is
0:28:55 > 0:28:57that English Christianity did not derive from Rome
0:28:57 > 0:28:59and was never really Roman Catholic.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02It was, as it were, more primitive than that.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04It goes right back to the first century in Israel
0:29:04 > 0:29:07and derives directly from those sources.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10So Augustine of Canterbury's mission to England,
0:29:10 > 0:29:14back in the 6th century, suddenly becomes irrelevant?
0:29:14 > 0:29:17Worse than that, it becomes a kind of Papal aggression.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21That normative English Christianity is disturbed by this
0:29:21 > 0:29:25foreign invasion of the monks who are accompanying Augustine,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28and, if you like, an assertion therefore of foreign power,
0:29:28 > 0:29:30which is what Henry was wrestling with.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33And this, if you like, symbolises that England
0:29:33 > 0:29:36had a purer form of Christianity right from the start,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39and did not depend therefore on any foreign interference.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42There can't be many trees which are responsible
0:29:42 > 0:29:45for an established church I think.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47No, it's looking a bit sorry for itself.
0:29:47 > 0:29:48Do you think that's a metaphor?
0:29:48 > 0:29:50THEY LAUGH
0:29:54 > 0:29:57It was a masterstroke.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02Henry had redefined why the English were God's Chosen People.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Not because of the nation's unique loyalty to Rome,
0:30:06 > 0:30:10but because Jesus' immediate followers had come here.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22In a bold move, Henry had rewritten English history.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27But he was turning his back on nearly 1,000 years
0:30:27 > 0:30:29of Papal authority,
0:30:29 > 0:30:33so you might expect him to have some sleepless nights.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36'This train is for Hampton Court.'
0:30:36 > 0:30:40But a happy event convinced him that God was still on his side.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52This was one of Henry's favourite Royal Palaces.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59It was here that in October 1537, Henry's then wife,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02Jane Seymour, gave birth to a son, Edward.
0:31:04 > 0:31:09After nearly 30 frustrating years of praying for a male heir,
0:31:09 > 0:31:11he finally got what he wanted.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14But for Henry this wasn't just about happy families,
0:31:14 > 0:31:17it had profound religious significance.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19He saw the break with Rome and the arrival of Edward
0:31:19 > 0:31:21as inseparably linked.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24He'd prayed to God for this greatest of blessings
0:31:24 > 0:31:27and the fact that God had answered his prayers,
0:31:27 > 0:31:29after he'd expelled the Pope,
0:31:29 > 0:31:32was absolute proof that he'd done the right thing.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37To mark Edward's birth
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Henry commissioned an extraordinary artwork.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48It celebrated the arrival of his son,
0:31:48 > 0:31:52but it was also a very public statement
0:31:52 > 0:31:55about the legitimacy of his new role,
0:31:55 > 0:31:59Leader of God's reinvented Chosen People.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03This Great Hall of Hampton Court
0:32:03 > 0:32:06was the stage set for Henry VIII's greatness.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08The place he presented himself to his people,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11to his nobility, to foreign diplomats.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15And an essential part of that stage set are these tapestries.
0:32:15 > 0:32:20Ten of them. And the statistics of them make you gasp.
0:32:20 > 0:32:2288 yards long.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25Took two years for a team of craftsmen in Brussels
0:32:25 > 0:32:28to make them out of gold and silver thread.
0:32:29 > 0:32:35These were the single most expensive item that Henry VIII owned.
0:32:39 > 0:32:44And it's what these scenes depict that's so revealing.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47In effect, this is a deluxe strip cartoon
0:32:47 > 0:32:51of the life of the Biblical figure, Abraham.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55Father of the original Chosen People, the Jews.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57And just like Henry VIII,
0:32:57 > 0:33:01late in life, he'd made an agreement with God.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04And his reward was to be father in a different sense,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07to have a legitimate son, Isaac.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Henry could not resist this symbolism.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14He was the new Abraham, father of his people. Father of Edward.
0:33:17 > 0:33:22And there's one panel that really hammers the message home.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26I was frustrated to find it in storage for conservation.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29But I had a plan B.
0:33:34 > 0:33:39Here, tucked away behind Westminster Abbey, are the Dean's lodgings.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41And in an ancient and private room,
0:33:41 > 0:33:45aptly known as the Jerusalem Chamber
0:33:45 > 0:33:50there happens to be a 16th century copy of just what I wanted to see.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52Well, I have been in this room before
0:33:52 > 0:33:55but I've never really understood the significance
0:33:55 > 0:33:57of this particular object.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02Viewers of a nervous disposition may wish to turn away now
0:34:02 > 0:34:06because what we're seeing here is Abraham circumcising Isaac,
0:34:06 > 0:34:11in other words, physically introducing into the Chosen People.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14So what Henry VIII is doing with this tapestry,
0:34:14 > 0:34:18is saying that Abraham was leader of the old Chosen People, Israel.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21I am the leader of the new Chosen People, England.
0:34:21 > 0:34:26Accept no substitutes for me, particularly not the Pope.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34From now on, the chosen nation
0:34:34 > 0:34:37was the enemy of the Pope and Catholicism.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40To be English was to hate Rome.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47King Henry's rewriting of history changed England forever.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50And in a weird and very English contradiction,
0:34:50 > 0:34:52everything had changed and nothing had changed.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54Nothing had changed
0:34:54 > 0:34:57because the English still knew they were special.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59But before Henry VIII, being special had meant
0:34:59 > 0:35:03showing all Catholic Europe how best to be loyal to the Pope.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Now, being special meant showing all Protestant Europe
0:35:07 > 0:35:09how best to fight the Pope.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11That was God's new plan.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14And the English were well pleased with it.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22So despite this Protestant Reformation,
0:35:22 > 0:35:24God was still shaping the English.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30And Henry's cheeky piece of national rebranding
0:35:30 > 0:35:34created a self confidence that once again shifted thinking
0:35:34 > 0:35:36about being the chosen nation.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44By the 18th century to be English was more than just to be special.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49It was to be better than anyone else.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55It was a sense of superiority that became the basis
0:35:55 > 0:36:00for one of the most implausible Empires in world history.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Everybody must move behind the chains please!
0:36:21 > 0:36:22Every year at Gun Wharf
0:36:22 > 0:36:26the crowds gather to watch a rather noisy ceremony
0:36:26 > 0:36:31marking the anniversary of the Queen's coronation in 1953.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40This is the Honourable Artillery Company
0:36:40 > 0:36:42doing what soldiers do best.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49Firing 62 rounds on three guns.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05A century ago this sound would've roared
0:37:05 > 0:37:07throughout the British Empire.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11Well, here I am back in our Imperial Glory Days,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14when we were the people who ruled the world.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24But the Empire wasn't just an English enterprise.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29It was a joint enterprise with the Protestant Scots.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31A deal was done between the two nations
0:37:31 > 0:37:36and in 1707 there was a full-scale partnership,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39uniting the two Parliaments in London.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43The union christened itself Great Britain.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46And it marked a new phase in the development of the chosen nation.
0:37:48 > 0:37:53The English kindly lent their superiority complex
0:37:53 > 0:37:55on the newly invented British.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58They never bothered to sort out the differences
0:37:58 > 0:38:02between the two identities. And why should they?
0:38:04 > 0:38:07Because after all the English knew they were the Chosen People.
0:38:07 > 0:38:08Just like ancient Israelites,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12only better because they were Protestants.
0:38:12 > 0:38:17That's what motivated them to go out and conquer the world.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21And woe betide anyone else who stood in the way of God's plan.
0:38:26 > 0:38:31By the 20th century, more than 450 million people across the globe
0:38:31 > 0:38:33had come under British rule.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41Once the chosen nation had been Catholic England,
0:38:41 > 0:38:44then Protestant England.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Now it became Protestant Britain.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51The Empire was born from the conviction
0:38:51 > 0:38:53that God was on Britain's side.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05The wealth of Imperial Britain was amassed
0:39:05 > 0:39:07through trade at ports like this.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13In the 19th century, ships came and went daily,
0:39:13 > 0:39:18carrying cotton from the Americas, silks and tea from the Far East.
0:39:19 > 0:39:24The prosperity of the country only served to reinforce the idea
0:39:24 > 0:39:28that all this was the reward for having special status
0:39:28 > 0:39:30in the eyes of God.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33But the Imperial expansion,
0:39:33 > 0:39:36saw a new twist to the chosen nation mythology.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40And not an attractive one.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45It's obvious there are real dangers in thinking
0:39:45 > 0:39:47you're God's Chosen People.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49There can be good results,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53so Bede persuaded the Anglo-Saxons that they were one single nation.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57King Alfred instituted the rule of law to please God.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00But combine power and military success
0:40:00 > 0:40:03and then add in an Empire across the world,
0:40:03 > 0:40:08and it's fatally easy to forget the difference between yourself and God.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11Arrogance can have dark consequences.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17And it was this growing arrogance that led the British to believe
0:40:17 > 0:40:21they had something more to export than just linen and cutlery.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26They had their faith and their morals.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31And at the forefront of this venture was a new breed of Christian,
0:40:31 > 0:40:33the Protestant Evangelical.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38Evangelicals saw the Empire as God's gift,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40but it was a gift with strings attached.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44God wanted conversions. That's what the Empire was for.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48It was a moral crusade and a chosen people had every right
0:40:48 > 0:40:52to tell people what to believe and how to behave.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58But there was a problem.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01The chosen nation was hardly in a position
0:41:01 > 0:41:04to take the moral high ground.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08It was itself engaged in an activity
0:41:08 > 0:41:13that was degrading and corrupt, slave trading.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18And one Evangelical in particular sought to remedy the contradiction.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22By fighting to abolish the trade.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25His name was William Wilberforce.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28And the idea he drew on
0:41:28 > 0:41:32was the nation's special status in the eyes of God.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34Wilberforce's argument amounted to saying that
0:41:34 > 0:41:38the Chosen People would not treat slaves so inhumanly.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41Our unique status forced a duty on us
0:41:41 > 0:41:44to behave better than other people. To set an example to the world.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54And so, Britain led the way in abolishing the slave trade.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58But this moral imperative
0:41:58 > 0:42:02led to a rather ambiguous new global role for the Chosen People.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07As God's policeman.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13Imperial Britain believed that its special status in the eyes of God
0:42:13 > 0:42:17gave it a right to correct bad behaviour everywhere.
0:42:19 > 0:42:24And its first job was to enforce its anti-slavery policy
0:42:24 > 0:42:26on a reluctant world.
0:42:28 > 0:42:34Of course, Britain had this unprecedented mixture of naval, commercial...
0:42:34 > 0:42:37I'm meeting historian Richard Drayton, on the HMS Trincomalee,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40a 19th century naval ship.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44After the slave trade is abolished in 1807,
0:42:44 > 0:42:48vessels such as this are involved
0:42:48 > 0:42:51in preventing slaves from being loaded or carried
0:42:51 > 0:42:54off the coasts of west and east Africa.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56And this particular vessel
0:42:56 > 0:42:59was involved in policing the waters off of Cuba.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02So this is the start of Britain's role as the world's policeman,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04fighting for freedom globally?
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Absolutely, but the thing about a policeman is,
0:43:07 > 0:43:09a policeman, at least nominally,
0:43:09 > 0:43:13is supposed to be acting in response to a particular set of laws,
0:43:13 > 0:43:16which the community which the policeman is part of, agrees to.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19Now one of the things which the Royal Navy is doing
0:43:19 > 0:43:23in the early 19th century is breaking international law in many cases.
0:43:23 > 0:43:30Simply by taking upon itself the arbitrary right to board vessels
0:43:30 > 0:43:34and to confiscate cargo prior to an exiting treaty framework.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37So this is genuinely God's policeman,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41people who are acting in ways which are, as they understand them,
0:43:41 > 0:43:43to be significant for the national interest.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47The Empire has gone but are we still doing this?
0:43:47 > 0:43:50Are we still thinking of ourselves as a moral force in the world?
0:43:50 > 0:43:55Well, the suppression of the slave trade figures very prominently
0:43:55 > 0:43:57in the identity of the Royal Navy.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00The Royal Navy of course is involved in anti-piracy actions
0:44:00 > 0:44:02in several parts of the world.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05In the suppression of human trafficking
0:44:05 > 0:44:09and these are linked in very deliberate ways
0:44:09 > 0:44:13with of course this 19th century heroic story.
0:44:19 > 0:44:21At the dawn of the 20th century,
0:44:21 > 0:44:27once again English identity had both changed and remained the same.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34Bede's vision of a Chosen People was still in rude health.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37But power always corrupts.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41And the power of the world's greatest empire did just that.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47It was an easy step to move from the ideal of a united people,
0:44:47 > 0:44:49protected by God,
0:44:49 > 0:44:54to becoming a nation that believed itself invincible.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00God's influence on the nation's character was at its peak.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05But all of that was challenged by a cataclysmic event...
0:45:08 > 0:45:10The Great War.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17The 1st of July 1916.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25The day which saw one of the worst disasters
0:45:25 > 0:45:28in British military history.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37And a moment when an ideology the English had nurtured
0:45:37 > 0:45:41for over 1,000 years began to disintegrate.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51Here in the fields of Northern France,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54thousands of troops gathered
0:45:54 > 0:45:58for the largest offensive of the First World War.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01I'm in one of the front line trenches on the Somme,
0:46:01 > 0:46:04and, as a soldier, I would be able to see individual Germans
0:46:04 > 0:46:06on the other side of the field there, they're that close.
0:46:06 > 0:46:08And what the generals are ordering me to do,
0:46:08 > 0:46:09along with hundreds of other young men,
0:46:09 > 0:46:13is to climb out of the comparative safety of this trench,
0:46:13 > 0:46:17over here into a hail of machine gun fire.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19And I don't stand a chance.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28At 7.30am British soldiers clambered out of these trenches
0:46:28 > 0:46:31and surged across No Man's Land.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38Line after line of men fell.
0:46:40 > 0:46:46In a single day the British Army suffered nearly 60,000 casualties.
0:46:48 > 0:46:5119,000 deaths.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03Back home, the Church of England was perfectly clear
0:47:03 > 0:47:05about the purpose of the trenches.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08The Bishop of London, called this a Holy War,
0:47:08 > 0:47:15and the Dean of Durham said in 1916, a new link between church and nation
0:47:15 > 0:47:18will have been forged in the furnace of affliction.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26They were ideas put into practice in a divine recruitment drive.
0:47:29 > 0:47:30Anglican clergy across the land
0:47:30 > 0:47:34preached that the nation was drunk and promiscuous
0:47:34 > 0:47:39and that they must repent for God to be on their side.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44And a practical way of showing repentance was to join up,
0:47:44 > 0:47:48an act that was the beginning of a submission to God's will.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53The mission's aim was to kick start a religious revival
0:47:53 > 0:47:57in the face of a war which was not going well.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14This vast, lonely structure
0:48:14 > 0:48:17bears witness to the dead of the Great War.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23Over a million British and Imperial soldiers
0:48:23 > 0:48:26sacrificed their lives in the conflict.
0:48:29 > 0:48:34These names are those of the 72,000 whose bodies were never even found.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43It was these heavy casualties that called Anglican piety into question.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52If God's chosen nation had gone to fight in a war
0:48:52 > 0:48:55they hadn't even started, in obedience to His purpose,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58then it had kept its side of the agreement.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05God's role in return, was to see that his people came through.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13But where was the God of the English at the Battle of the Somme?
0:49:16 > 0:49:19He seemed to have forgotten his side of the bargain.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27For 200 years the English had lent the British Empire
0:49:27 > 0:49:30the idea of being a Chosen People.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32Now this most destructive of wars
0:49:32 > 0:49:36mocked both chosen Empire and chosen nation.
0:49:39 > 0:49:44The onslaught was certainly enough to dent the self confidence
0:49:44 > 0:49:46of the British Empire.
0:49:46 > 0:49:52But while the First World War damaged the chosen nation myth,
0:49:52 > 0:49:53it didn't kill it.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56The idea was so deeply carved into England's history
0:49:56 > 0:50:00and collective memory that it couldn't be erased.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04Echoes of it can still be heard.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08And nowhere do they more clearly reverberate down the centuries
0:50:08 > 0:50:15than here, in a building that best encapsulates the relationship
0:50:15 > 0:50:18between church and state.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23And in the national rituals that take place here.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31'And here comes the sovereign's escort of the Household Cavalry.'
0:50:31 > 0:50:35Nearly 40 years after the Somme,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38the myth was recalled at an event watched by the world.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth
0:50:44 > 0:50:47was a moment designed to unite the nation.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53For the first time in history this ancient ceremony was televised.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58'Her Majesty wearing the crimson parliament robes and upon her head,
0:50:58 > 0:51:00'a jewelled diadem.'
0:51:00 > 0:51:02Me and my parents were invited round to the one of the very few people
0:51:02 > 0:51:04in the neighbourhood who had a television.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07Actually the first time I saw a TV.
0:51:07 > 0:51:08I don't actually remember too much about it
0:51:08 > 0:51:11because I was less than two at the time,
0:51:11 > 0:51:15but looking back at the film now what strikes me is not just church
0:51:15 > 0:51:19and state working together, it's the sheer Englishness of the event.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23This was the Chosen People who Henry VIII would've recognised.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39The millions who saw it were witnessing the culmination
0:51:39 > 0:51:42of over a thousand years of English history.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49The service had first been designed back in the 10th century.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51And what's fascinating is
0:51:51 > 0:51:56that this isn't just the handover of earthly power,
0:51:56 > 0:52:02it's a ritual which charts the key moments in the evolution of an idea.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07Madam, is your Majesty willing to take the Oath?
0:52:07 > 0:52:09I am willing.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12Bede's notion of a nation committed to God is there,
0:52:12 > 0:52:17alongside Alfred's that the law was the means to win divine favour.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God
0:52:23 > 0:52:26and the true profession of the Gospel..
0:52:26 > 0:52:27There's the Reformation
0:52:27 > 0:52:32and the recasting of the chosen nation in a Protestant mould.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35Will you maintain and preserve inviolably
0:52:35 > 0:52:38the settlement of the Church of England
0:52:38 > 0:52:43and the doctrine, worship, discipline and government thereof,
0:52:43 > 0:52:47as by law established in England?
0:52:47 > 0:52:50All this I promise to do.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55And at the heart of the ceremony, the anointing of the monarch,
0:52:55 > 0:52:58is the unmistakeable comparison of England
0:52:58 > 0:53:01to God's original Chosen People, Israel.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07It was a moment so sacred it wasn't even allowed to be televised.
0:53:07 > 0:53:13Be thy head anointed with holy oil,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17as kings and priest and prophets were anointed.
0:53:19 > 0:53:24And as Solomon was anointed king by Zadok the priest
0:53:24 > 0:53:29and Nathan the prophet, so be thou anointed, blessed,
0:53:29 > 0:53:34and consecrated Queen over the peoples,
0:53:34 > 0:53:39whom the Lord thy God hath given thee to rule and govern.
0:53:40 > 0:53:46London in 1953 melted into Jerusalem 3,000 years before.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50And just as Hebrew prophets and priests had anointed a Hebrew King
0:53:50 > 0:53:55so now God gave his Anglican seal of approval on this new reign.
0:53:55 > 0:54:00MUSIC: "Zadok the Priest" composed by Handel.
0:54:25 > 0:54:30It reminds us that even now, the sovereign rules as God's anointed.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41The coronation shows that the idea of the English as God's Chosen People,
0:54:41 > 0:54:45is still woven into the political fabric of the nation.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50It's a concept that can't be extricated
0:54:50 > 0:54:52from a thousand-year-old ritual.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57But that doesn't mean that it lives on undiminished.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01Long after the Battle of the Somme was over,
0:55:01 > 0:55:03it claimed another casualty.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06It wasn't apparent at the time
0:55:06 > 0:55:10but nonetheless changed the myth once more.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16A casualty that even during this moment of celebration
0:55:16 > 0:55:19was taking its last breaths.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25The national expression of belief in God.
0:55:26 > 0:55:33Today, in private, most people still claim to believe in God,
0:55:33 > 0:55:35but in public he's barely mentioned.
0:55:35 > 0:55:40You might think that the idea of a people chosen by God
0:55:40 > 0:55:43would suffer a similar fate, well no.
0:55:50 > 0:55:57In the last 75 years we've intervened in more than 22 conflicts.
0:55:58 > 0:56:00'War in the Gulf has begun.'
0:56:00 > 0:56:03And it's evident from the words of the leaders who've started them,
0:56:03 > 0:56:06that the motivation isn't only economic,
0:56:06 > 0:56:08or to do with national security.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12Tonight British forces are in action over Libya.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15They still assume this nation has a duty
0:56:15 > 0:56:18to intervene in the affairs of others.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21CAMERON: It is right because I believe we should not stand aside
0:56:21 > 0:56:25while this dictator murders his own people.
0:56:25 > 0:56:31BLAIR: We are doing what is right for a world that must know that
0:56:31 > 0:56:33barbarity cannot be allowed to defeat justice.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38This is simply the right thing to do.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42There's still a sense that the country should set a moral standard
0:56:42 > 0:56:45for the rest of the world.
0:56:45 > 0:56:47As we have done throughout history.
0:56:49 > 0:56:55Centuries ago, when Kings, Emperors and warlords reigned over
0:56:55 > 0:56:58much of the world it was the English who first spelled out
0:56:58 > 0:57:00the rights and liberties of man.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03That we are still a Chosen People.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07This country is a blessed nation.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10The world knows it.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13In our innermost thoughts, we know it.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17This is the greatest nation on earth.
0:57:17 > 0:57:22But since the First World War there's been something missing.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24A key element.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27God's no longer doing the choosing.
0:57:28 > 0:57:33After one battle, it was easier for the English to feel
0:57:33 > 0:57:36that God had abandoned them.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40And a century later, in public at least,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43the English have largely abandoned God.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48The English still have the sense of being a people so special
0:57:48 > 0:57:52that they feel duty bound to set an example to the world.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55But God seems to have left the building.
0:57:58 > 0:58:03I'm astonished at how enduring this myth has been.
0:58:03 > 0:58:08The English aren't the only nation to have believed they're chosen by God,
0:58:08 > 0:58:12but they believed it the longest and with the most passion.
0:58:13 > 0:58:18It's an idea that outlasted the Somme, the end of the Empire,
0:58:18 > 0:58:21the emptying of the pews.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25It remains to be seen whether it will survive what many predict
0:58:25 > 0:58:31is the next big challenge, the fragmentation of Great Britain.
0:58:32 > 0:58:36Never underestimate the power of a myth.
0:58:37 > 0:58:42Over 1,000 years after an Anglo Saxon monk first conceived of it
0:58:42 > 0:58:44in a small Northumbrian monastery,
0:58:44 > 0:58:48this myth of the Chosen People lives on.
0:58:51 > 0:58:56Next time, I'll be looking at England's reputation for tolerance
0:58:56 > 0:58:59and revealing it's not always been what it seems.
0:58:59 > 0:59:05The English once did persecution in a way which would make any modern dictator proud.
0:59:13 > 0:59:15Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd