This is an extraordinarily interesting question，since they are a mixture of many different race，and all these races invaded Britain before the
Romans came during the first century B C，but there had been at least three invasions before that。The first of these was by a dark-haired Mediterranean race call the Iberians。The other two were by Celtic tribes：first the Gaels，whose descendants are the modern Scots and Irish，some of whom still speak the Gaelic language；and secondly the Britons，who gave their name to the whole island of Britain。These were the people whom the Romans conquered。The Romans gave the Britons a good deal of their civilization，but they never settled in Britain in very large numbers，so the British race survived until the overthrow of the Roman Empire by the barbarians，i.e.the numberous Germanic tribes which overran the whole of Western Europe。
There were three great Germanic tribes which invaded Britain：the Angles， the Saxons and the Jutes；and together they form the basis of the modern English race。The Britons， as a race，disappeared except in Wales and Cornwall，Many Welsh people still speak their ‘British’，i.e.Celtic，tongue， which is called Welsh 。In Cornwall the language has died out，though it can still be recognized in some proper names，e.g.that of the author of this book。The Angles were so numerous that the country was called Angle-land，i.e. England，and the Anglo-Saxon language was Old English， in other words，modern English has descended directly from it。
So far then，we have noted the Iberians，two kinds of Celts the Romans，and the Germanic peoples， which we shall call collectively the Saxons；but the story is by no means ended。A few hundred years later a further invasion took place from the North-East，that of the Danes，and the whole North-Eastern half of England became for a long time Danish territory。Finally，and even more important，there came the great Normam invasion。The Normams were‘North-mem’，and like the Danes had come originally from Scandinavia in the North-East；but they had settled in part of Northern France，still known as Normandy，and adopted the French language。In the year 1066，Duke William of Normandy claimed the English throne，and after defeating and killing the Saxon king Rarold at the Battle of Hastings，he went on to conquer the whole country，and to merit the name of William the Conqueror。He was crowned William Ⅰof England，and our present Queen is one of his descendants。The Saxons became a subject people，and all the most important noblemen were Normans。English was the language of the common people and Norman French was the language of the aristocracy，including the King and court。Even today， many French expressions occur in traditional ceremonial language，and a few English people feel proud if they can prove that their ancestors were Normans。Eventually，however， the speech of the common people had already absorbed some of it， and many everyday expressions
in English have a French origin。
There has never been another invasion of Britain in the 900 years since William the Conqueror， so that all the various elements have had time to settle down and form one people
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