The True-Born Englishman is a satirical poem published in 1701 by English writer Daniel Defoe defending King William III, who was Dutch-born, against xenophobic attacks by his political enemies in England.
Defoe's argument was that the English nation as it already existed in his time was a product of various emigrating European ethnic groups, from the Ancient Britons to Anglo-Saxons, Normans and beyond.
[2] Thus from a Mixture of all Kinds began, That Het'rogeneous Thing, An Englishman: In eager Rapes, and furious Lust begot, Betwixt a Painted Britain and a Scot.
Whose gend'ring Off-spring quickly learn'd to Bow, And yoke their Heifers to the Roman Plough: From whence a Mongrel half-Bred Race there came, With neither Name, nor Nation, Speech or Fame.
[3] This extract was used by historian and political scientist Benedict Anderson as an epigram for his 1983 book Imagined Communities discussing the origins of nationalism.