David Cressy - Englands Islands in a Sea of Troubles

Britons of the imperial era conceived their history as an island story and spoke confidently of their island race. H. E. Marshall, Our Island Story: A Childs History of England (1905), was reportedly formative reading of former British Prime Minister David Cameron. The title of Winston Churchills The Island Race (1964) echoes that of the Victorian versifier Henry Newbolt, The Island Race (1898). Patriots of that time attributed English national identity to their offshore location on a moated isle, a homeland fastness from which to range the seas. They belonged to a tradition that attributed Englands national character to her topographical and figurative insularity, and saw islands as places of robust distinction.

English monarchs exercised dominion over a scatter of lesser islands, mostly to the west and south, that were difficult to administer, and sometimes prone to neglect. Yet their strategic positions gave them value and importance that far outweighed their size. Principal among them were the Channel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark; the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea; the Isles of Scilly beyond Cornwall; and the Isle of Wight across the Solent. Other parts of the archipelagic perimeter included Anglesey off Wales, Lundy in the Bristol Channel, St Nicholas Island outside Plymouth, and Holy Island on the coast of Northumberland. Edward Chamberlayne, the seventeenth-century compiler of The Present State of England, waxed lyrical about these and other ocean islandsscattered in the British sea like so many pearls to adorn the imperial diadem. Successive governments treated Englands islands as troublesome outliers, or as manageable assets, but also as priceless jewels. Sharing some of the geology of Britains highland zone, they bestrode the edge of the English world.

Relationships between the islands and the rest of the kingdom reflected their legacies of history, constitutional arrangements, opportunities of commerce, considerations of security, distance, and remoteness of location. Their economies tied into maritime, metropolitan, and international networks of commerce and communication. Dependent to varying degrees on the mainland, the islands cherished their exceptions to legal and administrative norms. Though London saw the islands as appurtenances or dependencies of mother England, the islanders more often regarded their homes as privileged places with varying degrees of autonomy.

Each of the islands was fortified, and most had garrisons that served the state. Their harbours and roadsteads were places of strength, coveted by rivals and enemies. At times they were vulnerable to foreign incursion, and all faced threats from pirates or corsairs. They served as places of exile and havens of refuge, and sometimes housed political prisoners, especially in the central decades of the seventeenth century. In civil war they were divided and contested, fought over and occupied. Their civilian inhabitants engaged in lawful and profitable pursuits, such as agriculture, trade, and fishing, as well as less reputable privateering, smuggling, and the plundering of wrecks. Mostly they wanted to be left alone. In the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and parts of Anglesey and the Scillies, the common people did not even speak English. Londons agents might be baffled by Jrriais or Guernsiais French, Goidelic Manx, north Welsh, or west Cornish. Island religious culture, though primarily Protestant from the mid-sixteenth century, did not necessarily accord with the established Church of England. External authority was sometimes light of touch. Islanders often argued with each other and caused headaches for their officers and governors. Outsiders were puzzled by insular constitutional anomalies, peculiarities of law, and by claims made by islanders to unique rights and privileges.