British Israelites

British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a doctrine holding that the people of "England (Great Britain)" are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel. The movement includes the claim that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David. With roots in the 16th century, British Israelism was inspired by several 19th-century English writings, notably John Wilson's 1840 "Lectures on our Israelitish Origin". The movement never had a head organisation or a centralized structure. Various British Israelite organisations were set up throughout the British Empire and in America from the 1870s; a number of such organisations are still active today. In America, its ideas gave rise to the Christian Identity movements.

The central tenets of British Israelism have been refuted by evidence from modern archaeological,ethnological,genetic, and linguistic research.

According to Brackney (2012) and Fine (2015), the French Hugenot magistrate M. le Loyer's The Ten Lost Tribes, published in 1590, provided the first expression that "Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, Germanic, and associated cultures" were direct descendants of the ancient Israelites. Anglo-Israelism has also been attributed to Sir Francis Drake and King James I, who believed he was the King of Israel.Adriaan van Schrieck (1560-1621), who influenced Henry Spelman (1562-1641) and John Sadler (1615-1674), wrote in the early 17th century about his ideas on the origins of the Celtic and Saxon peoples. In 1649, Sadler published The Rights of the Kingdom, "which argues for an 'Israelite genealogy for the British people'".

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