A Presentment of Englishry

'Are you English?' is never a neutral question. In the 11th century a `Presentment of Englishry' was the offering of proof that a dead man was English and therefore unimportant. In the 12th century a priest living in Areley Regis, set out to `tell the noble deeds of the English - no one knows why he chose to write his poem in English.