Our session addresses how particular identities were constructed and redefined in medieval and early modern England. All three papers examine how war in England and Europe forced groups to think about their identity in conjunction with and opposition to other factions. Colleen C. Ho’s paper concentrates on how the medieval English historian Matthew Paris used the terrifying and puzzling Mongols to criticize and shame various people, such as the pope and greedy mendicants. For Paris, contemporary Latin Christians who squabbled amongst themselves instead of moving against foreign threats were more condemnable than the heathen Mongols. Patrick Ludolph’s paper centers on the philosophical foundation and growth of the Diggers, who enclosed common land and turned it toward food production in seventeenth century England. It is notable that this practice is being resurrected in various urban locations in the United States today. Tim Daniels’ paper looks at how the people of Cornwall, struggling against pressure to assimilate in early modern England, regained their distinct identity through success in tin mining. Cornish skill in the tin industry also played a vital role in the late-Stuart English economy and advances in mining. This panel will demonstrate how people in medieval and early modern England used both native and foreign groups and ideas to understand their own identity. We will also show that the uneasy struggle to create a satisfactory and meaningful identity – whether based on religion, ethnicity, profession, philosophy, or other category – continues in Europe today.