Well I don't consider the Norman invaders of Britain and Ireland either British or English (or Irish!). That necessarily comes later. It took 300 years for the

Well I don't consider the Norman invaders of Britain and Ireland either British or English (or Irish!). That necessarily comes later. It took 300 years for the ruling class to even share the same language, sticking to Norman French.... English were the subjugated who were tending the field and cow for producing the ruler's french beef (bœuf). They still thought themselves French until the wars of succession. Danish adventures don't really count either, even with the Danelaw in parts of Britain. So we have to get to the time of the early English adventures around the 1600s for it to make a lot of sense, though it certainly does before British being a concept with the Scottish Act of Union uniting Britain. TL;DR it's complicated. :)