Agreed, Richard - one shouldn't deny the effect of the class war in the making of Englishness (and not just the working classes, either); equally, to give it undue prominence over other important factors would be like single-issue politics. It has its - very important - place, but it isn't an umbrella to cover all.

I am not sure if that is what the phantom poster was getting at, this is just my own view.

So, what other such factors are there? Oh, dozens; just off the top of my head: The age of exploration and discovery; the social impact of the industrial revolution and the advancement of science; climate; the Empire and its wars; the movement of people in- and out of the country at different times; the fact that it was never occupied; the fact that it has at times been an occupier; religion and related conflicts; the control of education by the Church in the 15-17th centuries, and by the general Establishment thereafter. The list is long.