Interesting. My studies into late medieval/early modern England show a very different story in which England was vaguely recognised by global powers as part of an obscure island off France & had to go through France for permission to trade with Africa & Asia. https://twitter.com/florencehrs/status/1384079508442025990

The idea that Britain has always been influential in trade and culture seems to have been applied retrospectively. Isabella of Spain referred to it as “that pugnacious little island” & English was not considered a civilised tongue by most of Europe or English nobility post 1066.

Richard the Lionheart, for example, does not seem to have spoken English and when people were described as illiterate in the middle to late medieval period, this often meant they could only read & write in English which didn’t really count as a proper language to write in.

The Ottoman Empire didn't really recognise England as a nation in its own right & records of trade seem to understand it as an adjunct to France & refer to it as "Angleterre." Permits to travel & trade within the Empire had to be granted via France during various sultans reigns.

I am sceptical of the claim that earlier in the medieval period England was a diverse multicultural hub of trade & culture connected with established trade routes to Asia & Africa although I admit that I did study mostly religious writing in the 14th-17th century.

Interestingly, the rewriting of medieval English history in which England was powerful, technologically advanced & culturally sophisticated on the world stage seems to come from both right-wing nationalists & left-wing postcolonial & critical race scholars.

The former don't like to admit that for much of medieval history, England was regarded as a primitive backwater by most of Europe & the Muslim world (when the latter actually recognised it to exist at all) as it hurts their national pride.

The latter don't like to admit that power balances have been different in the past & that the whole of English or European history cannot be understood as white people oppressing black & brown people.

I only took one class specifically in international relations in the late medieval & early modern period at postgrad level but the insignificance of England on the world stage was hard to miss generally just by studying social history.

I was interested in powerful female figures so I know that records survive of Elizabeth I writing that she'd become aware that there were about 10 black people in England & that they should leave & being quite starstruck by the power, culture & knowledge of the Ottoman Empire.

I took it with Jerry Brotton who wrote this. This is a good example of the state of affairs during the reign of Elizabeth I. http://www.historiamag.com/sultana-isabel/ 

So this is a very different perspective to the one given by the person I first quote tweeted although she was talking about early medieval England when she described a diverse society, populated by immigrants, connected via trade routes with Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

I suspect she gives England waaaaay too much power & influence, however. Remember, it was mostly an agricultural country & the people who lived in the next town over were regarded with suspicion as foreigners with their funny ways & accents & fashions.

Often when medievalists influenced by Critical Social Justice theories speak about England, they are referring to the nobility and focusing on London too which doesn't really help to understand culture & attitudes to difference.