There is a tendency amongst some Southerners to downplay the Englishness of Dixie’s culture while emphasizing the influence of other ethic groups like the African or the French. Considering the Yankee preoccupation with presenting themselves as pure-blooded Anglo-Saxons, this is understandable. But at the same time there is also a great error mixed in with this that needs to be addressed.
General James Johnston Pettigrew gives a typical example of the anti-English mindset of some in the South. For him the ‘Anglo-Saxonism’ of the Yankees is synonymous with an overbearing pride, ‘an unjustified assumption of superiority by the English-speaking peoples, the criteria for superiority resting upon the “disposition . . . to place a money value upon everything” ’ (Clyde Wilson, Carolina Cavalier: The Life and Mind of James Johnston Pettigrew, Rockford, Ill., Chronicles Press, 2002, p. 215).
But this is just where the error comes in. For the pride here attributed to the English is not native to them as a people; it actually has another source: mainly the Frankish blood of the Norman invaders who conquered England in 10661. Author James Kelley writes (bolding added),
This Orthodox view of politics sees society as the coming together of the people of God in an ascetic, communal “work of the people” (leitourgeia) which accepts no final authority save that based in communion with God. Needless to say, the divine-human communion of the Eastern Roman society is opposed to that of the supposedly divine princes of the West, who have become deified through their anointing with uncreated Holy Oil and/or through the simple fact that they have blue Frankish blood in their veins.30 Rather, the Orthodox society places all hope in theosis, the union with the energies of the Holy Trinity achieved by prophets, apostles and saints, some of whom have been emperors, farmers, soldiers, and Patriarchs.
In her older, Orthodox, pre-Norman days, the English exhibited much humility2. This is seen especially in the abdication of many kings, princesses, and other high nobility to become simple monks and nuns in monasteries. An especially vivid example of this humility is captured by St Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, in an encounter between King Oswin of Northumbria and Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne. St Oswin had become angry because St Aidan had given the fine horse given to him by St Oswin to a poor beggar. St Bede picks up the story from there:
Upon this they went in to dinner, and the bishop sat in his place; but the king, who was come from hunting, stood warming himself, with his attendants, at the fire. Then, on a sudden, whilst he was warming himself, calling to mind what the bishop had said to him, he ungirt his sword, and gave it to a servant, and in a hasty manner fell down at the bishop's feet, beseeching him to forgive him; "For from this time forward," said he, "I will never speak any more of this, nor will I judge of what, or how much of our money you shall give to the sons of God." The bishop was much moved at this sight, and starting up, raised him, saying, "He was entirely reconciled to him, if he would sit down to his meat, and lay aside all sorrow." The king, at the bishop's command and request, beginning to be merry, the bishop, on the other hand, grew so melancholy as to shed tears. His priest then asking him, in the language of his country, which the king and his servants did not understand, why he wept, "I know," said he, "that the king will not live long; for I never before saw so humble a king; whence I conclude that he will soon be snatched out of this life, because this nation is not worthy of such a ruler." Not long after, the bishop's prediction was fulfilled by the king's death, as has been said above.
--Book III, Chapter XIV, © Paul Halsall, Feb. 1999
An interesting point of contact between the humility of the Old English and the South is the attitude toward seeking offices of prominence. The Southern attitude is stated by Dr Wilson in Carolina Cavalier in reference to Gen Pettigrew: . . .
. . .
The rest is at https://www.geopolitica.ru/en/article/appreciating-english-inheritance-south .
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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