It is often asserted that England / Great Britain / the United Kingdom hasn’t been occupied by any foreign power since 1066.
However, this assertion needs to be qualified. Whilst it’s 100% true that this country hasn’t been successfully invaded, defeated, subdued and physically occupied by any foreign power militarily since 1066, we have lost our political sovereignty to a putative foreign country, the E.U. and been effectively controlled by this foreign power.
In other words, we’ve been politically occupied.
The reasons for our proud history of avoiding military occupation by any foreign power since the Norman invasion of the Eleventh Century (whilst our near neighbours on the Continent have suffered many such periods of occupation) are many and varied and need not be gone into here as they aren’t germane to the central point of this article, except for one.
Whilst England certainly had some very noteworthy episodes before the Union with Scotland in 1707, her military history had also been chequered to a certain degree.
The military forces of England in the early modern period (1485 – 1707 for these purposes) were very small and, whilst in no way unsuccessful per se, were somewhat limited in scope and so therefore in what they could achieve. The advent of the Union in 1707 changed this dramatically for the better.
The new British Army was augmented by the military prowess of the Scots regiments in several ways and they contributed vastly to Great Britain’s success as a military power just as the Welsh had after Union with England (remember how Welsh archers had played a significant role in helping win the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, as had the Irish Regiments, who similarly played a significant role in winning the Napoleonic / Peninsula War of the late Eighteenth / early Nineteenth Centuries).
Together, the British citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (Northern Ireland after partition in 1922) have been extremely successful in resisting foreign military domination of the U.K.
It is incorrect, however, to assert that we’ve never been successfully dominated in any way by any foreign power since 1066.
Between our accession to the E.E.C. in 1973 and leaving the bloc in 2021, the U.K. had gradually lost its political sovereignty to the bloc as it morphed into the European superstate, a country called the United States of Europe (the E.U.).
Aided by the collaboration of Europhiles in the U.K., E.U. federalists had, over a period of decades (so as to avoid detection), gradually extended the tentacles of their control over many aspects of the U.K.’s political system until over 60% of what happened in the U.K. was controlled by mandatory directives and regulations decided by E.U.
England / Great Britain / the United Kingdom has a long history of being a country that has successfully resisted foreign military occupation. To equate this with avoiding all control by any foreign influence that negates our sovereignty as an independent nation is not the case however.
We had been politically occupied for nearly fifty years before leaving the E.U. by a creeping programme of subjugation from the putative European superstate which had successfully robbed us of our national sovereignty and control over our own affairs.
Removing the E.U. and therefore its political control over us was the only way to genuinely reclaim our sovereignty and freedom.
For more from Stephen Bailey please visit: https://ukunionism.wordpress.com/blog-2/
© 2021 Stephen Bailey
