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The rights of Englishmen are the perceived traditional rights of British subjects. The notion refers to various constitutional documents that were created throughout various stages of English history, such as Magna Carta, the Declaration of Right (the text of which was recognised by Parliament in the Bill of Rights 1689), and others. Many Patriots in the Thirteen colonies argued that their rights as Englishmen were being violated, which subsequently became one of the original primary justifications for the American Revolution and the resulting separation from the British Empire.^[1]

Development[link]

Blackstone called them "The absolute rights of every Englishman" , and explained how they had been established slowly over centuries of English history, in his book on Fundamental Laws of England, which was the first part of his influential Commentaries on the Laws of England.^[2]

They were certain basic rights that all subjects of the English monarch were understood to be entitled.^[2][3]

Some scholars believe that the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution had its roots in these rights as well. These include Joyce Lee Malcolm,^[4][5] and Thomas McAfee.^[6]

History[link]

15th century[link]

The "Rights of Englishmen" have been attested since at least the 15th century. Catherine of Valois entered into a relationship with Owen Tudor of Wales (born c. 1400), who was most likely appointed keeper of the Queen's household or wardrobe, when Catherine lived at Windsor Castle, and she became pregnant with their first child there. At some point, she stopped living in the King's household and in May 1432 Parliament granted Owen the rights of an Englishman. This was important because of Henry IV's laws limiting the rights of Welshmen.

17th century[link]

In Calvin's Case, [1572] Eng.R. 64, (1572–1616) 7 Co.Rep. 1a, 77 E.R. 377, the Law Lords decided in 1608 that a Scotsman born after King James I united Scotland and England (the postnati) had all the rights of Englishmen.

Calvin's Case contributed to the concept of the Rights of Englishmen.^{[7][8] [9]} Some scholars believed that the case did not fit America's situation, and thus reasoned that the 18th century colonists could "claim all the rights and protections of English citizenship."^[10] In fact, the legal apologists for the American Revolution claimed they had "improved on the rights of Englishmen" by creating additional, purely American rights.^[10]

Owing to its inclusion in the standard legal treatises of the nineteenth century (compiled by Edward Coke, William Blackstone, and James Kent), Calvin's Case was well known in the early judicial history of the United States.^[8] Consideration of the case by the United States Supreme Court and by state courts transformed it into a rule regarding American citizenship and solidified the concept of jus soli as the primary determining factor controlling the acquisition of citizenship by birth.^[11]

Polish immigrants in the first permanent English settlement of Virginia provided the community with manufactured pitch necessary to prevent the sinking of ships, and glass works among other industries. When the House of Burgesses met in 1619, the rights extended only to Englishmen. The Poles, in turn, launched the first recorded strike in the New World, in order to gain those same rights.^[12] Being somewhat in need of their skills and industries, the Poles received the "rights of Englishmen," and established the first bilingual schools with subjects taught in English and Polish.^[12]

The 17th century intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment opposed the absolute rule of the monarchs of their day, and instead emphasized the equality of all individuals and the idea that governments derived their existence from the consent of the governed. Enlightenment thinkers believed reason held the key to creating an ideal society. In 1690 the Englishman John Locke wrote that people have certain natural rights like "life, liberty and property" and that governments were created in order to protect these rights. If they did not, according to Locke, the people had a right to overthrow their government.

18th and 19th centuries[link]

At least since the late 19th century, it has been considered the consensus of both scholars and popular writers that the "Rights of Englishmen" was a theoretical basis of the American revolution,^[13] or what one teacher education writer called the "substantial organizing idea."^[14]

In the famous Slaughter-House Cases, Justice Bradley dissented with a rationale based on his assumption that the "rights of Englishmen" were a foundation of American law:

In this free country, the people of which inherited certain traditionary rights and privileges from their ancestors, citizenship means something. It has certain privileges and immunities attached to it which the government, whether restricted by express or implied limitations, cannot take away or impair ... and these privileges and immunities attach as well to citizenship of the United States as to citizenship of the States.

The people of this country brought with them to its shores the rights of Englishmen, the rights which had been wrested from English sovereigns at various periods of the nation's history. One of these fundamental rights was expressed in these words, found in Magna Carta:

"No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him or condemn him but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land."

English constitutional writers expound this article as rendering life, liberty, and property inviolable except by due process of law. This is the very right which the plaintiffs in error claim in this case. Another of these rights was that of habeas corpus, or the right of having any invasion of personal liberty judicially examined into, at once, by a competent judicial magistrate. Blackstone classifies these fundamental rights under three heads, as the absolute rights of individuals, to-wit: the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right of private property....

The privileges and immunities of Englishmen were established and secured by long usage and by various acts of Parliament.... England has no written constitution, it is true, but it has an unwritten one, resting in the acknowledged, and frequently declared, privileges of Parliament and the people, to violate which in any material respect would produce a revolution in an hour. A violation of one of the fundamental principles of that constitution in the Colonies, namely, the principle that recognizes the property of the people as their own, and which, therefore, regards all taxes for the support of government as gifts of the people through their representatives, and regards taxation without representation as subversive of free government, was the origin of our own revolution.

This, it is true, was the violation of a political right, but personal rights were deemed equally sacred, and were claimed by the very first Congress of the Colonies, assembled in 1774, as the undoubted inheritance of the people of this country ....

—Justice Bradley, dissenting in Slaughterhouse Cases, 83 U.S. 36, 114–115 (1873). (Italics added to show the quote from the Magna Charta (sic).)

In the long run, Bradley's dissent became United States law; Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe and Yale law professor Akhil Amar have criticized the majority opinion and supported Bradley's reading of the Fourteenth Amendment.^[15]

Modern viewpoints[link]

According to one major current textbook, "The American revolution was mainly about Rights."^[16] The American colonists' position depended "not on natural law, but on traditional notions of the rights of Englishmen, the royal charters of the separate colonies and especially on 'long standing constitutional custom'."^[16] The only historical controversy is not if rights were important to the Revolutionaries, but what rights were significant.^[16]

The consensus has been that this thesis changed as the ratification of the Declaration of Independence approached:^[14]

The great strength of the revolutionary movement up to 1775 was the conviction of Americans that they were engaged in a struggle to attain the rights of Englishmen. "We claim nothing but the liberty and privileges of Englishmen, said George Mason, "in the same degree, as if we had continued among our brethren in Great Britain." ... As long as the rights of Englishmen remained the goal, most Americans warmly supported the patriot leaders; when the rights of Americans and independence Great Britain were put forward, the colonists began to divide into hostile camps.

—John Chester Miller, Origins of the American Revolution, p. 168 ^[3]

At least one scholar states that how the colonists discussed these rights was what was new:

It is true that the colonists had insisted that they were seeking "the rights of Englishmen", but insisting upon this in the face of rulers who declare that colonists do not have such rights is revolutionary, though the rights themselves might not be new.

—Herbert Aptheker ^[17]

Criticism of concept[link]

Critics of the notion regard it as a nebulous concept of various common law traditions that, as much as it can be defined, is not especially unique to England or Britain, or that the British of the 18th century had no legal rights, or such rights could not be defined with any clarity, or that it is merely an ideology used to further propaganda.^{[citation needed]}

English author and polemicist Christopher Hitchens argues that in fact British subjects technically don't have any rights, as there is no Bill of Rights enshrined constitutionally: "Britain being a country that doesn't have any rights, only traditions."^[18]

One writer has said that "The paradox of the American revolution" is that the first colonists came over in the 1630s, but "not until the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 could the rights of Englishmen be defined with much confidence."^[19] In other words, these so-called rights were an anachronism and the "Patriots" of 1775 had no basis to make this claim.^[19]

Some scholars have attempted to rehabilitate The Slaughter-House Cases, in contradiction of the "rights" that people have had.^[20] In that view, rights have nothing to do with the "narrow definition of national citizenship...."^[20]

In popular culture and politics[link]

Whatever its criticisms, the so-called "Rights of Englishmen" have appeared in popular culture for almost 200 years, and that people believe they exist are well-documented.

"The notion of English liberties was personified in the fictitious character John Bull, created by John Arbuthnot in his pamphlet Law is a Bottomless Pit (1912)."^[21] John Bull became "an heroic archetype of the freeborn Englishman."^[21]

The Artful Dodger, a character in the Charles Dickens 1838 novel Oliver Twist is a skilled and cunning pickpocket, who becomes the leader of the gang of child criminals, and Oliver's closest friend. Ultimately the Dodger is caught with a stolen silver snuff box and presumably sent to a penal colony in Australia (only alluded to in the novel). The Dodger chooses to consider himself a "victim of society," roaring in the courtroom "I am an Englishman; where are my rights?" The judge has little patience with the Dodger's posturing, and orders him out of the courtroom immediately after the jury convicts him of the theft.

See also[link]

• Petition of Right
• Bill of Rights
• Declaration of Rights
• Fundamental Laws of England
• Civil and political rights
• Natural and legal rights

References[link]

Sources[link]

• We The People: The Citizen and the Constitution, 27 (1997).
• Magna Carta, 1215

External links[link]

• The Bill of Rights and the Founders: PHILOSOPHICAL & HISTORICAL BACKGROUND; LESSON 1: ORIGINS OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS

English people

1st row: Alfred the Great • Oliver Cromwell • William Shakespeare • Michael Palin • Georgiana Cavendish • Walter Raleigh • Sting 2nd row: Elizabeth I of England • Bobby Moore • Margaret Thatcher • David Beckham • Harold Godwinson • Kate Winslet • Charles Dickens 3rd row: Pope Adrian IV • Daniel Craig • Isaac Newton • George Harrison • Jane Austen • Damon Albarn • George Stephenson
Total population
90 million worldwide
Regions with significant populations
United Kingdom 45,265,093[1]
United States 27,516,394 a [2]  Canada 6,570,015 b [3]  Australia 6,358,880 c [4]  New Zealand 44,202 – 281,895 [5]
Languages
English
Religion
Traditionally Anglicanism, but also non-conformists (see History of the Church of England) and also Roman Catholics (see Catholic Emancipation). Agnostics, atheism, as well as other religions. (see Religion in England).
Footnotes
a English American, b English Canadian, c English Australian

The English (from Old English: Englisc) are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, a Germanic people originally from Northern Germany who migrated to Britain.^[6]

Historically, the English population is descended from several genetically similar peoples—the earlier Britons (or Brythons), the Germanic tribes that settled in the area, including Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, who founded what was to become England (from the Old English Englaland), and the later Danes, Normans and other groups. Following the Act of Union in 1707, in which the Kingdom of England became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain,^[7] English customs and identity became closely aligned with British customs and identity.

Today, some English people have recent forbears from other parts of the United Kingdom, while some are also descended from more recent immigrants from other European countries and from the Commonwealth. Through their position at the centre of the former British Empire, the English are the source of the English language, the parliamentary system, common law systems of many countries and a variety of the globe's most popular sports.

English nationality[link]

Although England is no longer an independent nation state, but rather a constituent country within the United Kingdom, the English may still be regarded as a "nation" according to the Oxford English Dictionary's definition: a group united by factors that include "language, culture, history, or occupation of the same territory".^[8]

The concept of an "English nation" is far older than that of the "British nation", and the 1990s witnessed a revival in English self-consciousness.^[9] This is linked to the expressions of national self-awareness of the other British nations of Wales and Scotland  – which take their most solid form in the new devolved political arrangements within the United Kingdom  – and the waning of a shared British national identity with the growing distance between the end of the British Empire and the present.^[10][11][12]

While prescriptions of English national identity can involve beliefs in common descent, most political English nationalists do not consider Englishness to be dependent upon kinship.^[13][14]

Many recent migrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or hyphenated identities.^[15][16] Use of the word "English" to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office of National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their perceived national identity. They found that while 58% of white people described their nationality as "English", the vast majority of non-white people called themselves "British".^[17]

Relationship to Britishness[link]

It is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. In the 2001 UK census, respondents were invited to state their ethnicity, but while there were tick boxes for 'Irish' and for 'Scottish', there were none for 'English', or 'Welsh', who were subsumed into the general heading 'White British'.^[18] Following complaints about this, the 2011 census will "allow respondents to record their English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, Irish or other identity."^[19] Another complication in defining the English is a common tendency for the words "English" and "British" to be used interchangeably, especially overseas. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say "English, I mean British". He notes that this slip is normally made only by the English themselves and by foreigners: "Non-English members of the United Kingdom rarely say 'British' when they mean 'English'". Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of England's dominant position with the UK, it is also "problematic for the English [...] when it comes to conceiving of their national identity. It tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles".^[20]

In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote,

"When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago, "England" was still an all-embracing word. It meant indiscriminately England and Wales; Great Britain; the United Kingdom; and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so. Bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as "Prime Minister of England" [...] Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of "England" except for a geographic area brings protests, especially from the Scotch."^[21]

However, although Taylor believed this blurring effect was dying out, in his book The Isles (1999), Norman Davies lists numerous examples in history books of "British" still being used to mean "English" and vice versa.^[22]

In December 2010, Matthew Parris of The Spectator, analysing the use of “English” over “British”, argued that English identity, rather than growing, had existed all along but has recently been unmasked from behind a veneer of Britishness.^[23]

English ethnicity[link]

The conventional view of English origins is that the English are primarily descended from the Anglo-Saxons, Germanic tribes that migrated to Great Britain following the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, with assimilation of later migrants such as the Vikings and Normans. This version of history is considered by some historians^[who?] and geneticists as simplistic or even incorrect. Recently, historians have questioned the assumption that the English are primarily descended from Anglo-Saxons. Based on a re-estimation of the number of settlers, there is a view that it is highly unlikely that the existing British Celtic-speaking population was substantially displaced by the Anglo-Saxons, and the latter were merely a ruling elite who imposed their culture on the local populations.^[24][25] However, many historians, while making allowance for British survival, still hold to the view that there was significant displacement of the indigenous population.^[26][27]

In any event, the Celtic-speaking populations, particularly in their use of Brythonic languages such as Cornish, Cumbric, and Welsh, held on for several centuries in parts of England such as Cornwall, Devon, Cumbria and a part of Lancashire.^[28][29] However, the notion of the Anglo-Saxon English has traditionally been important in defining English identity and distinguishing the English from their Celtic neighbours, such as the Scots, Welsh, Cornish and Irish. Historian Catherine Hills describes what she calls the "national origin myth" of the English:

The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons ... is still perceived as an important and interesting event because it is believed to have been a key factor in the identity of the present inhabitants of the British Isles, involving migration on such a scale as to permanently change the population of south-east Britain, and making the English a distinct and different people from the Celtic Irish, Welsh and Scots ....this is an example of a national origin myth ... and shows why there are seldom simple answers to questions about origins.^[30]

A popular interest in English identity is evident in the recent reporting of scientific and sociological investigations of the English, in which complex results are heavily simplified. In 2002, the BBC used the headline "English and Welsh are races apart" to report a genetic survey of test subjects from market towns in England and Wales,^[31] while in September 2006, The Sunday Times reported that a survey of first names and surnames in the UK had identified Ripley in Derbyshire as "the 'most English' place in England with 88.58% of residents having an English ethnic background".^[32] The Daily Mail printed an article with the headline "We're all Germans! (and we have been for 1,600 years)".^[33] In all these cases, the language of race is employed by the journalists.^[34]

In addition, several recent books by Stephen Oppenheimer and Bryan Sykes, have argued that the recent genetic studies in fact do not show a clear dividing line between the English and their 'Celtic' neighbours, but that there is a gradual clinal change from west coast Britain to east coast Britain. They suggest that the majority of the ancestors of British peoples were the original palaeolithic settlers of Great Britain, and that the differences that exist between the east and west coasts of Great Britain though not large, are deep in prehistory, mostly originating in the upper palaeolithic and Mesolithic (15,000–7,000 years ago). Furthermore, Oppenheimer stated that genetic testing has proven that "75% of British and Irish ancestors arrive[d] between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago" (that is, long before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, and even before that of the Celts).^[35] There is support to say that these ancestors came from the Iberian peninsula and southwestern France, but not from Central Europe, where the Proto-Celts once lived.

History of English people[link]

Early Middle Ages[link]

The first people to be called 'English' were the Anglo-Saxons, a group of closely related Germanic tribes that began migrating to eastern and southern Great Britain, from southern Denmark and northern Germany, in the 5th century AD, after the Romans had withdrawn from Britain. The Anglo-Saxons gave their name to England (Engla land, meaning "Land of the Angles") and to the English.

A reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon burial chamber at Sutton Hoo, East Anglia.

The Anglo-Saxons arrived in a land that was already populated by people commonly referred to as the 'Romano-British'—the descendants of the native Brythonic-speaking population that lived in the area of Britain under Roman rule during the 1st–5th centuries AD. The multi-ethnic nature of the Roman Empire meant that small numbers of other peoples may have also been present in England before the Anglo-Saxons arrived. There is archaeological evidence, for example, of an early North African presence in a Roman garrison at Aballava, now Burgh-by-Sands, in Cumbria; a fourth-century inscription says that the Roman military unit Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum ("unit of Aurelian Moors") from Muretania (Morocco) was stationed there.^[36]

The exact nature of the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and their relationship with the Romano-British is a matter of debate. Traditionally, it was believed that a mass invasion by various Anglo-Saxon tribes largely displaced the indigenous British population in southern and eastern Great Britain (modern day England with the exception of Cornwall). This was supported by the writings of Gildas, the only contemporary historical account of the period, describing slaughter and starvation of native Britons by invading tribes (aduentus Saxonum).^[37]

Added to this was the fact that the English language contains no more than a handful of words borrowed from Brythonic sources (although the names of some towns, cities, rivers etc. do have Brythonic or pre-Brythonic origins, becoming more frequent towards the west of Britain).^[38] However, this view has been re-evaluated by some archaeologists and historians since the 1960s, and more recently supported by genetic studies,^[39] who see only minimal evidence for mass displacement. Archaeologist Francis Pryor has stated that he "can't see any evidence for bona fide mass migrations after the Neolithic."^[40]

While the historian Malcolm Todd writes "It is much more likely that a large proportion of the British population remained in place and was progressively dominated by a Germanic aristocracy, in some cases marrying into it and leaving Celtic names in the, admittedly very dubious, early lists of Anglo-Saxon dynasties. But how we identify the surviving Britons in areas of predominantly Anglo-Saxon settlement, either archaeologically or linguistically, is still one of the deepest problems of early English history."^[41]

In a survey of the genes of British and Irish men, even those British regions that were most genetically similar to (Germanic speaking) continental regions were still more genetically British than continental: "When included in the PC analysis, the Frisians were more 'Continental' than any of the British samples, although they were somewhat closer to the British ones than the North German/Denmark sample. For example, the part of mainland Britain that has the most Continental input is Central England, but even here the AMH+1 frequency, not below 44% (Southwell), is higher than the 35% observed in the Frisians. These results demonstrate that even with the choice of Frisians as a source for the Anglo-Saxons, there is a clear indication of a continuing indigenous component in the English paternal genetic makeup."^[42]

Vikings and the Danelaw[link]

From about AD 800 waves of Danish Viking assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of Danish settlers in England. At first, the Vikings were very much considered a separate people from the English. This separation was enshrined when Alfred the Great signed the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum to establish the Danelaw, a division of England between English and Danish rule, with the Danes occupying northern and eastern England.^[43]

However, Alfred's successors subsequently won military victories against the Danes, incorporating much of the Danelaw into the nascent kingdom of England. Danish invasions continued into the 11th century, and there were both English and Danish kings in the period following the unification of England (for example, Æthelred II (978–1013 and 1014–1016) was English but Cnut (1016–1035) was Danish).

Gradually, the Danes in England came to be seen as 'English'. They had a noticeable impact on the English language: many English words, such as anger, ball, egg, got, knife, take, and they, are of Old Norse origin,^[44] and place names that end in -thwaite and -by are Scandinavian in origin.^[45]

English unification[link]

Southern Great Britain in AD 600 after the Anglo-Saxon settlement, showing England's division into multiple petty kingdoms.

The English population was not politically unified until the 10th century. Before then, it consisted of a number of petty kingdoms which gradually coalesced into a Heptarchy of seven powerful states, the most powerful of which were Mercia and Wessex. The English nation state began to form when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms united against Danish Viking invasions, which began around 800 AD. Over the following century and a half England was for the most part a politically unified entity, and remained permanently so after 959.

The nation of England was formed in 937 by Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh,^[46][47] as Wessex grew from a relatively small kingdom in the South West to become the founder of the Kingdom of the English, incorporating all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Danelaw.^[48]

Norman and Angevin rule[link]

The Norman conquest of England during 1066 brought Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule of England to an end, as the new Norman elite almost universally replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and church leaders. After the conquest, "English" normally included all natives of England, whether they were of Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian or Celtic ancestry, to distinguish them from the Norman invaders, who were regarded as "Norman" even if born in England, for a generation or two after the Conquest.^[49] The Norman dynasty ruled England for 87 years until the death of King Stephen in 1154, when the succession passed to Henry II, House of Plantagenet (based in France), and England became part of the Angevin Empire until 1399.

Various contemporary sources suggest that within fifty years of the invasion most of the Normans outside the royal court had switched to English, with Anglo-Norman remaining the prestige language of government and law largely out of social inertia. For example, Orderic Vitalis, a historian born in 1075 and the son of a Norman knight, said that he learned French only as a second language. Anglo-Norman continued to be used by the Plantagenet kings until Edward I came to the throne.^[50] Over time the English language became more important even in the court, and the Normans were gradually assimilated, until, by the 14th century, both rulers and subjects regarded themselves as English and spoke the English language.^[51]

Despite the assimilation of the Normans, the distinction between 'English' and 'French' survived in official documents long after it had fallen out of common use, in particular in the legal phrase Presentment of Englishry (a rule by which a hundred had to prove an unidentified murdered body found on their soil to be that of an Englishman, rather than a Norman, if they wanted to avoid a fine). This law was abolished in 1340.^[52]

In the United Kingdom[link]

St George's Cross
(England)

St Andrew's Cross
(Scotland)

Great Britain

St Patrick's Cross
(Ireland)

United Kingdom

Since the 18th century, England has been one part of a wider political entity covering all or part of the British Isles, which today is called the United Kingdom. Wales was annexed by England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, which incorporated Wales into the English state.^[53] A new British identity was subsequently developed when James VI of Scotland became James I of England as well, and expressed the desire to be known as the monarch of Britain.^[54]

In 1707, England formed a union with Scotland by passing an Act of Union in March 1707 that ratified the Treaty of Union. The Parliament of Scotland had previously passed its own Act of Union, so the Kingdom of Great Britain was born on 1 May 1707. In 1801, another Act of Union formed a union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, about two thirds of the Irish population (those who lived in twenty-six of the thirty-two counties of Ireland), left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State. The remainder became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although this name was not introduced until 1927, after some years in which the term "United Kingdom" had been little used.

Throughout the history of the UK, the English have been dominant in population and in political weight. As a consequence, notions of 'Englishness' and 'Britishness' are often very similar. At the same time, after the Union of 1707, the English, along with the other peoples of the British Isles, have been encouraged to think of themselves as British rather than to identify themselves with the constituent nations.^[55]

Immigration and assimilation[link]

Although England has not been conquered since the Norman conquest nor extensively settled since, it has been the destination of varied numbers of migrants at different periods from the seventeenth century. While some members of these groups maintain a separate ethnic identity, others have assimilated and intermarried with the English. Since Oliver Cromwell's resettlement of the Jews in 1656, there have been waves of Jewish immigration from Russia in the nineteenth century and from Germany in the twentieth.^[56]

After the French king Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal in 1685 with the Edict of Fontainebleau, an estimated 50,000 Protestant Huguenots fled to England.^[57] Due to sustained and sometimes mass emigration from Ireland, current estimates indicate that around 6 million people in the UK have at least one grandparent born in Ireland.^[58]

There has been a black presence in England since at least the 16th century due to the slave trade and an Indian presence since the mid 19th century because of the British Raj.^[59] Black and Asian proportions have grown in England as immigration from the British Empire and the subsequent Commonwealth of Nations was encouraged due to labour shortages during post-war rebuilding.^[60] However, these groups are often still considered to be ethnic minorities and research has shown that black and Asian people in the UK are more likely to identify as British rather than with one of the state's four constituent nations, including England.^[61]

Current national and political identity[link]

The 1990s witnessed a resurgence of English national identity.^[62] Survey data shows a rise in the number of people in England describing their national identity as English and a fall in the number describing themselves as British.^[63] Scholars and journalists have noted a rise in English self-consciousness, with increased use of the English flag, particularly at football matches where the Union flag was previously more commonly flown by fans.^[64][65]

This perceived rise in English self-consciousness has generally been attributed to the devolution in the late 1990s of some powers to the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales.^[62][66] In policy areas for which the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have responsibility, the UK Parliament votes on laws that consequently only apply to England. Because the Westminster Parliament is composed of MPs from throughout the UK, this has given rise to the "West Lothian question", a reference to the situation in which MPs representing constituencies outside England can vote on matters affecting only England, but MPs cannot vote on the same matters in relation to the other parts of the UK.^[67] Consequently, groups such as the Campaign for an English Parliament have called for the creation of a devolved English Parliament, claiming that there is now a discriminatory democratic deficit against the English. The establishment of an English parliament has also been backed by a number of Scottish and Welsh nationalists.^[68][69] Writer Paul Johnson has suggested that like most dominant groups, the English have only demonstrated interest in their ethnic self-definition when they were feeling oppressed.^[70]

John Curtice argues that "In the early years of devolution...there was little sign" of an English backlash against devolution for Scotland and Wales, but that more recently survey data shows tentative signs of "a form of English nationalism...beginning to emerge among the general public".^[71] Michael Kenny, Richard English and Richard Hayton, meanwhile, argue that the resurgence in English nationalism predates devolution, being observable in the early 1990s, but that this resurgence does not necessarily have negative implications for the perception of the UK as a political union.^[72] Others question whether devolution has led to a rise in English national identity at all, arguing that survey data fails to portray the complex nature of national identities, with many people considering themselves both English and British.^[73]

Recent surveys of public opinion on the establishment of an English parliament have given widely varying conclusions. In the first five years of devolution for Scotland and Wales, support in England for the establishment of an English parliament was low at between 16 and 19 per cent, according to successive British Social Attitudes Surveys.^[74] A report, also based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, published in December 2010 suggests that only 29 per cent of people in England support the establishment of an English parliament, though this figure had risen from 17 per cent in 2007.^[75] One 2007 poll carried out for BBC Newsnight, however, found that 61 per cent would support such a parliament being established.^[76] Krishan Kumar notes that support for measures to ensure that only English MPs can vote on legislation that applies only to England is generally higher than that for the establishment of an English parliament, although support for both varies depending on the timing of the opinion poll and the wording of the question.^[77] Electoral support for English nationalist parties is also low, even though there is public support for many of the policies they espouse.^[78] The English Democrats gained just 64,826 votes in the 2010 UK general election, accounting for 0.3 per cent of all votes cast in England.^[79] Kumar argued in 2010 that "despite devolution and occasional bursts of English nationalism – more an expression of exasperation with the Scots or Northern Irish – the English remain on the whole satisfied with current constitutional arrangements".^[80]

English diaspora[link]

George Washington 1st President of the United States had English ancestors.^[81] Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin, 1st and 2nd Prime Minister of Australia both had English parents.

From the earliest times English people have left England to settle in other parts of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but it is not possible to identify their numbers, as British censuses have historically not invited respondents to identify themselves as English.^[82] However, the census does record place of birth, revealing that 8.08% of Scotland's population,^[83] 3.66% of the population of Northern Ireland^[84] and 20% of the Welsh population were born in England.^[85] Similarly, the census of the Republic of Ireland does not collect information on ethnicity, but it does record that there are over 200,000 people living in Ireland who were born in England and Wales.^[86]

English emigrant and ethnic descent communities are found across the world, and in some places, settled in significant numbers. Substantial populations descended from English colonists and immigrants exist in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

United States[link]

According to the American Community Survey in 2009 data, Americans reporting English ancestry made up an estimated 9.0% of the total U.S. population, and form the third largest European ancestry group after German Americans and Irish Americans.^[2] However, demographers regard this as an undercount, as the index of inconsistency is high, and many, if not most, people from English stock have a tendency to identify simply as Americans^{[87][88][89][90]} or, if of mixed European ancestry, nominate a more recent and differentiated ethnic group.^[91]

Throughout the nineteenth century, England was the largest investor in American land development, railroads, mining, cattle ranching, and heavy industry. Perhaps because English settlers gained easy acceptance, they founded few organizations dedicated to preserving the traditions of their homeland. In the 2000 United States Census, 24,509,692 Americans described their ancestry as wholly or partly English. In addition, 1,035,133 recorded British ancestry.^[92]

In the 1980 United States Census, over 49 million (49,598,035) Americans claimed English ancestry, at the time around 26.34% of the total population and largest reported group which, even today, would make them the largest ethnic group in the United States.^[93][94]

Canada[link]

In the 2006 Canadian Census, 'English' was the most common ethnic origin (ethnic origin refers to the ethnic or cultural group(s) to which the respondent's ancestors belong^[95]) recorded by respondents; 6,570,015 people described themselves as wholly or partly English, 16% of the population.^[96] On the other hand people identifying as Canadian but not English may have previously identified as English before the option of identifying as Canadian was available.^[97]

Australia[link]

In Australia, the 2006 Australian Census recorded 6,298,945 people who described their ancestry, but not ethnicity, as 'English'. 1,425,559 of these people recorded that both their parents were born overseas.

Other communities[link]

Significant numbers of people with at least some English ancestry also live in Scotland and Wales, as well as in Ireland, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Since the 1980s there have been increasingly large numbers of English people, estimated at over 3 million, permanently or semi-permanently living in Spain and France, drawn there by the climate and cheaper house prices.^[98]

Culture[link]

This section requires expansion.

The culture of England is sometimes difficult to separate clearly from the culture of the United Kingdom,^[99] so influential has English culture been on the cultures of the British Isles and, on the other hand, given the extent to which other cultures have influenced life in England.

See also[link]

Language:

• Anglicisation
• Anglosphere
• English language
• Old English language
• Cumbric language

Diaspora:

• Anglo-Scot
• Anglo-Irish
• English American
• English Australian
• Anglo Argentines
• English Chilean
• English Canadian
• List of Anglo-Indians
• English Brazilian
• New Zealand European
• Anglo-Indian
• Anglo-Burmese
• Anglo-African
• Metis people

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Expert Links: English Family History and Genealogy Great for tracking down historical inhabitants of England.
• Condor, Susan; Gibson, Stephen; Abell, Jackie (2006). "English identity and ethnic diversity in the context of UK constitutional change". Ethnicities 6 (2): 123–158. DOI:10.1177/1468796806063748. http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/uploads/SusanCondor20080120T164935.pdf. 
• Kate Fox (2004). Watching the English. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-81886-7. 
• Kumar, Krishan (2003). The Making of English National Identity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-77736-4. 
• Kumar, Krishan (2010). "Negotiating English identity: Englishness, Britishness and the future of the United Kingdom". Nations and Nationalism 16 (3): 469–487. DOI:10.1111/j.1469-8129.2010.00442.x. 
• Paxman, Jeremy (1999). The English. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-14-026723-9. 

Further reading[link]

• Robert J.C. Young (2008). The Idea of English Ethnicity. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 1-4051-0129-6. 
• BBC Nations Articles on England and the English
• The British Isles Information on England
• Mercator's Atlas Map of England ("Anglia") circa 1564.
• Viking blood still flowing; BBC; 3 December 2001.
• UK 2001 Census showing 49,138,831 people from all ethnic groups living in England.
• Tory MP leads English protest over census; The Telegraph; 23 April 2001.
• On St. George's Day, What's Become Of England?; CNSNews.com; 23 April 2001.
• Watching the English – an anthropologist's look at the hidden rules of English behaviour.
• The True-Born Englishman, by Daniel Defoe.
• The Effect of 1066 on the English Language Geoff Boxell
• BBC "English and Welsh are races apart"
• New York Times, When English Eyes Are Smiling Article on the common English and Irish ethnicity
• Y Chromosome Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration
• Origins of Britons – Bryan Sykes

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Danny Kaye
Born	David Daniel Kaminski (1913-01-18)January 18, 1913 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	March 3, 1987(1987-03-03) (aged 74) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, singer, comedian
Years active	1935–1986
Spouse	Sylvia Fine (1940-1987) (his death) 1 child

Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminski; January 18, 1913 – March 3, 1987)^[1] was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian. His best known performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire nonsense songs.

Kaye starred in 17 movies, notably The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), and — perhaps his most accomplished performance — The Court Jester (1956). His films were extremely popular, especially his bravura performances of patter songs and children's favorites such as The Inch Worm and The Ugly Duckling. He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honor in 1986 for his many years of work with the organization.^[2]

Early years[link]

David Daniel Kaminski was born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn. Jacob and Clara Nemerovsky Kaminski and their two sons, Larry and Mac, left Ekaterinoslav two years before his birth; he was the only one of their sons born in the United States.^[3] He spent his early youth attending Public School 149 in East New York, Brooklyn, where he began entertaining his young classmates with songs and jokes,^[4] before moving to Thomas Jefferson High School, but he never graduated.^[5] His mother died when he was in his early teens. Clara enjoyed the impressions and humor of her youngest son and always had words of encouragement for them; her death was a great loss for young Danny.

Not long after his mother's death, Danny and his best friend ran away to Florida. Danny sang while his friend Louis played the guitar; the pair eked out a living like this for a while. When Danny did return to New York, his father did not pressure him to return to school or to get a job, giving his son the chance to mature and discover his own abilities.^[6] Danny said he had wanted to become a surgeon as a young boy, but there was no chance of the family being able to afford a medical school education for him.^[3][7] He held a succession of jobs after leaving school: a soda jerk, insurance investigator, office clerk. Most of them ended with him being fired. He lost the insurance job when he made an error that cost the insurance company $40,000. The dentist who had hired him to look after his office during his lunch hour did the same when he found Danny using his drill to create designs in the office woodwork.^[3][8] He learned his trade in his teenage years in the Catskills as a tummler in the Borscht Belt.^[4]

Kaminski's first break came in 1933 when he was asked to become one of the "Three Terpsichoreans", a vaudeville dance act. He opened with them in Utica, New York using the name Danny Kaye for the first time.^[4] The act toured the United States, then signed on to perform in the Orient with the show La Vie Paree.^[9] The troupe left for six months in the Far East on February 8, 1934. While the group was in Osaka, Japan, a typhoon hit the city. The hotel Kaye and his colleagues stayed in suffered heavy damage; a piece of the hotel's cornice was hurled into Kaye's room by the strong wind, nearly killing him. By performance time that evening, the city was still in the grip of the storm. There was no power and the audience had become understandably restless and nervous. To keep everyone calm, Kaye went on stage, his face lit by a flashlight, and sang every song he could recall as loudly as he was able.^[3] The experience of trying to entertain audiences who did not speak English is what brought him to the pantomimes, gestures, songs and facial expressions which eventually made him famous.^[4][8] Sometimes it was necessary just to try to get a meal. Kaye's daughter, Dena, tells a story her father related about being at a restaurant in China and trying to order chicken. Kaye flapped his arms and clucked, giving the waiter his best imitation of a chicken. The waiter nodded his understanding, bringing Kaye two eggs. His interest in cooking began on the tour.^[4][9]

When he returned to the United States, jobs were in short supply; Kaye struggled for bookings. One of the jobs was working in a burlesque revue with fan dancer Sally Rand. After the dancer dropped one of her fans while trying to chase away a fly, Kaye was hired to be in charge of the fans so they were always held in front of her.^[4][8]

Career[link]

Promotional flyer for The Straw Hat Revue, 1939. Kaye met his wife, Sylvia Fine, while working in it.

Danny Kaye made his film debut in a 1935 comedy short "Moon Over Manhattan". In 1937 he signed with New York–based Educational Pictures for a series of two-reel comedies. Kaye usually played a manic, dark-haired, fast-talking Russian in these low-budget shorts, opposite young hopefuls June Allyson or Imogene Coca. The Kaye series ended abruptly when the studio shut down permanently in 1938. He was still working in the Catskills at times in 1937, using the name Danny Kolbin.^[10][11] Kaye's next venture was a short-lived Broadway show, where Sylvia Fine was the pianist, lyricist and composer. The Straw Hat Revue opened on September 29, 1939 and closed after ten weeks, but it was long enough for critics to take notice of Danny Kaye's work in it.^[3][12] The glowing reviews brought an offer for both Kaye and his new bride, Sylvia, to work at La Martinique, an upscale New York City nightclub. Kaye performed with Sylvia as his accompanist. At La Martinique, playwright Moss Hart saw Danny perform, which led to Hart casting him in Hart's hit Broadway comedy Lady in the Dark.^[3][8]

Kaye scored a personal triumph in 1941 in Lady in the Dark. His show-stopping number was "Tchaikovsky", by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin, in which he sang the names of a whole string of Russian composers at breakneck speed, seemingly without taking a breath.^[13][14] By the next Broadway season, he was the star of his own show about a young man who is drafted called Let's Face It!.^[15]

His feature film debut was in producer Samuel Goldwyn's Technicolor 1944 comedy Up in Arms,^[16] a remake of Goldwyn's Eddie Cantor comedy Whoopee! (1930).^[17] Kaye's rubber face and fast patter were an instant hit,^{[citation needed]} and rival producer Robert M. Savini cashed in almost immediately by compiling three of Kaye's old Educational Pictures shorts into a makeshift feature, The Birth of a Star (1945).^[18]

Kaye starred in a radio program of his own, The Danny Kaye Show, on CBS in 1945–1946.^[19] Its cast included Eve Arden, Lionel Stander, and Big Band leader Harry James, and it was scripted by radio notable Goodman Ace and respected playwright-director Abe Burrows.

The radio program's popularity rose quickly. Before Kaye had been on the air a year, he tied with Jimmy Durante for fifth place in the Radio Daily popularity poll.^[8] Kaye was asked to participate in a USO tour following the end of World War II. It meant he would be absent from his radio show for close to two months at the beginning of the season. Kaye's friends filled in for him, with a different guest host each week.^[20] Kaye was the first American actor to visit postwar Tokyo; it was his first time there after touring there some ten years before with the vaudeville troupe.^[21][22] When Kaye asked to be released from his radio contract in mid 1946, he agreed not to accept another regular radio show for one year and also to limit his guest appearances on the radio programs of others.^[20][23] Many of the show's episodes survive today, and are notable for Kaye's opening "signature" patter.^[8]

"Git gat gittle, giddle-di-ap, giddle-de-tommy, riddle de biddle de roop, da-reep, fa-san, skeedle de woo-da, fiddle de wada, reep!"

Danny Kaye on USO tour at Sasebo, Japan, October 25, 1945. Kaye and his friend, Dodgers manager Leo Durocher, made the trip.^[21]

Kaye was sufficiently popular that he inspired imitations:

• The 1946 Warner Bros. cartoon Book Revue had a lengthy sequence with Daffy Duck impersonating Kaye singing "Carolina in the Morning" with the Russian accent that Kaye would affect from time to time.
• Satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer's 1953 song "Lobachevsky" was based on a number that Kaye had done, about the Russian director Constantin Stanislavski, again with the affected Russian accent. Lehrer mentioned Kaye in the opening monologue, citing him as an "idol since childbirth."
• Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster also fashioned a short-lived superhero title, Funnyman, taking inspiration from Kaye's public persona.

Kaye starred in several movies with actress Virginia Mayo in the 1940s, and is well known for his roles in films such as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), On the Riviera (1951) co-starring Gene Tierney, Knock on Wood (1954), White Christmas (1954, in a role originally intended for Fred Astaire, then Donald O'Connor),The Court Jester (1956), and Merry Andrew (1958). Kaye starred in two pictures based on biographies, Hans Christian Andersen (1952) about the Danish story-teller, and The Five Pennies (1959) about jazz pioneer Red Nichols. His wife, writer/lyricist Sylvia Fine, wrote many of the witty, tongue-twisting songs Danny Kaye became famous for.^[7][24] She was also an associate producer.^[25] Some of Kaye's films included the theme of doubles, two people who look identical (both played by Danny Kaye) being mistaken for each other, to comic effect.

White Christmas trailer

Kaye teamed with the very popular Andrews Sisters (Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne) on Decca Records in 1947, producing the number-three Billboard smash hit "Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)". The success of the pairing prompted both acts to record repeatedly through 1950, producing such rhythmically comical fare as "The Woody Woodpecker Song" (based on the frisky bird from the Walter Lantz cartoons, and another Billboard hit for the quartet), "Put 'em in a Box, Tie 'em with a Ribbon (And Throw 'em in the Deep Blue Sea)," "The Big Brass Band from Brazil," "It's a Quiet Town (In Crossbone County)," "Amelia Cordelia McHugh (Mc Who?)," "Ching-a-ra-sa-sa", and a duet by Danny and Patty of "Orange Colored Sky". The acts also teamed for two yuletide favorites: a frantic, melodious, harmonic rendition of "A Merry Christmas at Grandmother's House (Over the River and Through the Woods)", and another duet by Danny & Patty, "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth."^[26]

While his wife wrote Kaye's material, there was much of it that was unwritten, springing from the mind of Danny Kaye, often while he was performing. Kaye had one character he never shared with the public; Kaplan, the owner of an Akron, Ohio rubber company, came to life only for family and friends. His wife, Sylvia, described the Kaplan character:^[27]

He doesn't have any first name. Even his wife calls him just Kaplan. He's an illiterate pompous character who advertises his philanthropies. Jack Benny or Dore Schary might say, "Kaplan, why do you hate unions so?" If Danny feels like doing Kaplan that night, he might be off on Kaplan for two hours.

When he appeared at the London Palladium music hall in 1948, he "roused the Royal family to shrieks of laughter and was the first of many performers who have turned English variety into an American preserve." Life magazine described his reception as "worshipful hysteria" and noted that the royal family, for the first time in history, left the royal box to see the show from the front row of the orchestra.^[28][29][30] He later related that he had no idea of the familial connections when the Marquess of Milford Haven introduced himself after one of the shows and said he would like his cousins to see Kaye perform.^[14] Kaye also later stated that he never returned to the venue because there was no way to re-create the magic of that time.^[31] Kaye had an invitation to return to London for a Royal Variety Performance in November of the same year.^[32] When the invitation arrived, Kaye was busy at work on The Inspector General (which had a working title of Happy Times for a while). Warners stopped work on the film to allow their star to attend.^[33] When his Decca co-workers The Andrews Sisters began their engagement at the London Palladium directly on the heels of Kaye's incredibly successful 1948 appearance there, the trio was so well received that David Lewin of the Daily Express declared, "The audience gave The Andrews Sisters the Danny Kaye roar!"^[34]

He hosted the 24th Academy Awards in 1952. The program was broadcast only on radio. Telecasts of the Oscar ceremony would come later. During the 1950s, Kaye visited Australia, where he played "Buttons" in a production of Cinderella in Sydney. In 1953, Kaye started his own production company, Dena Pictures, named for his daughter. Knock on Wood was the first film produced by his firm. The firm expanded into television in 1960 under the name Belmont Television.^[35][36]

Kaye in 1955

Kaye entered the world of television in 1956 through the CBS show See It Now with Edward R. Murrow.^[37] The Secret Life of Danny Kaye combined his 50,000 mile, ten country tour as UNICEF ambassador with music and humor.^[38][39] His first solo effort was in 1960 with an hour-long special produced by Sylvia and sponsored by General Motors; there were similar specials in 1961 and 1962.^[3] He hosted his own variety hour on CBS television, The Danny Kaye Show, from 1963 to 1967, which won four Emmy awards and a Peabody award.^[40][41] During this period, beginning in 1964, he acted as television host to the annual CBS telecasts of MGM's The Wizard of Oz. Kaye also did a stint as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday night CBS-TV quiz program. Kaye later served as a guest panelist on that show. He also appeared on the NBC interview program Here's Hollywood.

In the 1970s Kaye tore a ligament in his leg during the run of the Richard Rodgers musical Two by Two, but went on with the show, appearing with his leg in a cast and cavorting on stage from a wheelchair.^[40][42] He had done much the same on his television show in 1964 when his right leg and foot were seriously burned from an at-home cooking accident. The camera shots were planned so television viewers did not see Kaye in his wheelchair.^[43] In 1971, he was the voice of Seymour S. Sassafrass in the memorable Rankin/Bass production Here Comes Peter Cottontail. The year later he was the character Marmaduke in another Rankin/Bass movie titled The enchanted waorld of Danny Kaye: The Emporer's New Clothes. In 1976, he played the role of Mister Geppetto in a television musical adaptation of Pinocchio with Sandy Duncan in the title role. Kaye also portrayed Captain Hook opposite Mia Farrow in a musical version of Peter Pan featuring songs written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. It was shown on NBC-TV in December 1976 as part of The Hallmark Hall Of Fame series. He guest-starred much later in his career in episodes of The Muppet Show, The Cosby Show^[44] and in the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone.

In many of his movies, as well as on stage, Kaye proved to be a very able actor, singer, dancer and comedian. He showed quite a different and serious side as Ambassador for UNICEF and in his dramatic role in the memorable TV movie Skokie, in which he played a Holocaust survivor.^[40] Before his death in 1987, Kaye demonstrated his ability to conduct an orchestra during a comical, but technically sound, series of concerts organized for UNICEF fundraising. Kaye received two Academy Awards: an Academy Honorary Award in 1955 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1982.^[13] Also that year he received the Screen Actors Guild Annual Award.^[13]

Kaye was enamored of music. While he often claimed an inability to read music, he was quite the conductor and was said to have perfect pitch. Kaye's ability with an orchestra was brought up by Dimitri Mitropoulos, who was then the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. After Kaye's guest appearance, Mitropoulos remarked, "Here is a man who is not musically trained, who cannot even read music, and he gets more out of my orchestra than I ever have."^[5] Kaye was often invited to conduct symphonies as charity fundraisers^[7][13] and was the conductor of the all-city marching band at the season opener of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1984. Over the course of his career he raised over US$5,000,000 in support of musicians pension funds.^[45]

In 1980, Kaye hosted and sang in the 25th Anniversary of Disneyland celebration, and hosted the opening celebration for Epcot in 1982 (EPCOT Center at the time), both of which were aired on prime-time American television.

Other projects[link]

Cooking[link]

In his later years he took to entertaining at home as chef – he had a special stove installed in his patio – and specialized in Chinese and Italian cooking.^[13] The specialized stove Kaye used for his Chinese dishes was fitted with special metal rings for the burners to allow the heat from them to be highly concentrated. Kaye needed to install a trough with circulating ice water so he could use the burners.^[46] Kaye also taught Chinese cooking classes at a San Francisco Chinese restaurant in the 1970s.^[47] The theater and demonstration kitchen underneath the library at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York is named for him.^[48]

Danny referred to his kitchen as "Ying's Thing". While filming The Madwoman of Chaillot in France, he phoned home to ask his family if they would like to eat at "Ying's Thing" that evening; Kaye then flew home for dinner.^[9] Not all of his efforts in the kitchen turned out well. After flying to San Francisco for a recipe for sourdough bread, he came home and spent hours preparing loaves. When his daughter asked about the bread, Kaye tried showing her by hitting the bread on the kitchen table. His bread was hard enough to chip it.^[9] Kaye approached his kitchen work with enthusiasm, making his own sausages and other items needed for his cuisine.^[46][49] His work as a chef earned him the "Les Meilleurs Ouvriers de France" cuilinary award; Kaye was the only non-professional to achieve this honor.^[5]

Flying[link]

Like many in the film business, Danny was an aviation enthusiast. He became seriously interested in learning how to fly in 1959. An enthusiastic and accomplished golfer, Kaye gave up golf in favor of flying.^[50] When Kaye went for his first written pilot's exam, he brought a liverwurst sandwich in case he was there for hours. The first plane Kaye owned was a Piper Aztec.^[51][52] Kaye got his first license as a private pilot of multi-engine aircraft, not getting certified for operating a single engine plane until six years later.^[51] He was an accomplished pilot, rated for airplanes ranging from single engine light aircraft to multi-engine jets.^[13] Kaye held a commercial pilot's license and had flown every type of aircraft except military planes.^[5][51][53] A vice-president of Learjet, Kaye owned and operated a Learjet 24.^[51] He supported many flying projects. In 1968, he was Honorary Chairman of the Las Vegas International Exposition of Flight, a major show that utilized most facets of the city’s entertainment industry while presenting a major air show. The operational show chairman was well-known aviation figure, Lynn Garrison. Kaye flew his own plane to 65 cities in five days on a mission designed to help UNICEF.^[5]

Danny Kaye was very fond of the legendary arranger Vic Schoen. Schoen had arranged for him on White Christmas, The Court Jester, and albums and concerts with the Andrews Sisters. In the 1960s Vic Schoen was working on a show in Las Vegas with Shirley Temple. He was injured in a car accident. When Danny Kaye heard about the accident, he immediately flew his own plane to McCarran Airport to pick up Schoen and bring him back to Los Angeles to guarantee the best medical attention.

Baseball[link]

Kaye was part-owner of baseball's Seattle Mariners along with his partner Lester Smith from 1977 to 1981.^[13][54] Prior to that, the lifelong fan of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers recorded a song called "The D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song (Oh really? No, O'Malley!)", describing a fictitious encounter with the San Francisco Giants, which was a hit during the real-life pennant chase of 1962. That song is included on Baseball's Greatest Hits compact discs. A good friend of Leo Durocher, he would often travel with the team.^[8] In addition to being an owner, Kaye had an encyclopedic knowledge of the game.^[13]

Medicine[link]