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November 5, 2021

When Britons Imagined Themselves to Be Descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes

“The British laws are based on those given by God to Israel.”

According one popular legend, dating back to the 9th century and persisting even into modern times, the British polity was founded by Brutus of Troy, a descendant of Aeneas—thus linking Albion’s history to that of both ancient Greece and Rome. But others have tried to connect their national history to the Bible, a case made by John Garnier in the 1890 book Israel in Britain: A Brief Statement of the Evidences in Proof of the Israelitish Origin of the British Race. Jeffrey Maynard writes:

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